UK POLITICAL SYSTEM
IV. Read and translate the text.
II. Pay attention to the following words.
The Cabinet – Кабинет Министров;
The House of Commons – Палата Общин;
The House of Lords – Палата Лордов;
The Crown – корона, престол, королевская власть;
Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces – Главнокомандующий вооруженных сил;
The Supreme Governor of the Church – Верховный глава церкви;
The chief executive – Глава исполнительной власти;
MPs (members of Parliament) – Члены парламента;
The Ministry of Defense – Министерство Обороны;
The Crown Court – Королевский суд;
The magistrate court – суд магистрата, мировой суд;
EU (The European Union) – Европейский союз;
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) – Североатлантический союз;
WEU (Western European Union) – Западноевропейский союз;
The Commonwealth – Содружество (наций);
The Council of Europe – Совет Европы;
The Court of appeal – Апелляционный суд;
Magna Carta – Великая хартия вольностей;
temporal lords – светские лорды;
spiritual lords – епископы лорды;
law lords – судебные лорды, лорды-судьи;
common law – общее право;
a High Court (of Justice) – высокий суд правосудия.
III. Read the following words and try to guess their meaning. Monarchy [′mÉnәkı], decade [′dekeıd], real [rıəl], leader [′li:dә], theoretical [θıə′retıkl], party [′pa:tı], financial [faı′næn∫l], document [′dÉkjumәnt], political [pə lıtıkəl], commander [kә΄ma:ndә], universal [ju:nı′və:sl], department [dı΄pa:tmәnt], formal [′fÉ:ml], associated [ə′səυ∫ıeıtıd], Catholic [′kæθlık], Parliament [′pa:lımənt], predominant [prı′dÉmınənt], official [ə fı∫l], Gaelic [ geılık], Celtic [ keltık].
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy (or parliamentary monarchy). Queen Elizabeth II, the head of state, is a monarch with limited powers.
English is the official language of the United Kingdom and is the first language of the vast majority of its citizens. Scots speak Scottish Gaelic, a type of Celtic language. English is the predominant language in Northern Ireland, although at least some of the Roman Catholic minority speak Irish, another Gaelic dialect, as a second language.
As the official head of state, the monarch formally summons and dismisses Parliament and the ministers of the Cabinet. The monarch also serves as head of the judiciary, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and Supreme Governor of the Church of England and the Church of Scotland. In reality, the government carries out the duties associated with these functions. The real work of the monarch consists largely of signing papers.
The royal family performs such ceremonial functions as cutting ribbons, opening businesses, launching ships. Many members of the royal family are involved in charity work and maintain a public presence by visiting shelters, hospitals and clinics. Because foreigners are attracted to the pageantry of royalty, tourism related to the royal family brings a substantial amount of money into the country.
Parliament is the chief lawmaking body. It comprises three parts: the Crown, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. It is elected every five years and is dissolved by the Crown on the advice of the prime minister, who then calls a general election.
The House of Lords comprises the lords temporal, the lords spiritual, and the law lords. The House of Lords has the power to introduce bills, although bills dealing with financial matters can only originate in the House of Commons. The Lords can also offer amendments to bills passed by the House of Commons, and Commons is obligated to consider these amendments before passing a bill into law. The Lords have the right to delay legislation, and may delay bills for up to about a year. Financial bills, however, may only be delayed for a month, and they become law in 30 days whether or not the House of Lords approves of them. The House of Commons is the source of real political power in the United Kingdom. Its members are democratically elected by universal suffrage of citizens over the age of 18.
The government is composed of ministers in the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown has become the UK’s prime minister, succeeding Tony Blair in June 2007 after a decade in office. He became the 11th prime minister of the Queen’s reign. Mr. Brown is the leader of the Labour Party.
The chief executive of the government is the prime minister. He is the leader of the party that holds the most seats in the House of Commons. The monarch selects the prime minister who is head of the majority party. The prime minister presides over the Cabinet and selects the other Cabinet members. He exercises all of the theoretical powers of the Crown, including making appointments.
The Cabinet has about 20 members, or ministers, all of whom must be members of Parliament (MPs). Members of the Cabinet are leaders of the majority party in the House of Commons or, more rarely, members of the House of Lords. They are individually and collectively responsible to the Crown and the Parliament. The Cabinet proposes bills and arranges business of the Parliament. Cabinet ministers who head a particular government department, such as the Ministry of Defense, are known as secretaries of state.
Britain does not have a Supreme Court that reviews legislation to determine its constitutionality that responsibly falls to Parliament. The final court of appeal for both civil and criminal cases is the House of Lords where appeals are heard by the law lords. More serious offences, such as murder, rape, and robbery are sent to a Crown Court, where they are tried before a High Court or a circuit judge and a jury of local citizens. The Crown Court also hears appeals from the magistrate’s court.
Britain’s democratic government is based on a constitution composed of various historical documents, laws, and formal customs adopted over the years. The Constitution of the United Kingdom is not one document, as are the constitutions of many other countries. Much of it is not even in writing, and so the country is often said to have an unwritten constitution.
Some of the written parts of the country’s constitution are laws passed by Parliament. Some written parts come from such historic documents as Magna Carta, which dates from 1215. Other written parts come from common law based on people’s customs and beliefs and on ancient royal practice.
The two largest political parties in the United Kingdom are the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. The Conservative Party developed from the Tory Party, which began in the late 1600’s. It has always been one of the main parties in Britain. The Labour Party began in 1900. Much of its support comes from labor unions, called trade unions. For many years, another party, called the Liberal Party, was the Conservative Party’s chief opponent. It developed from the Whig Party, which emerged in the late 1600’s. But by the mid-1930’s, the Liberal Party had become much smaller than either the Conservative or the Labour party.
The United Kingdom is one of the members of the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Western European Union (WEU). It plays an important part in the European Union (EU). Britain also belongs to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and it is an original member of the Council of Europe. Perhaps the most historically significant international organization the United Kingdom belongs to is the Commonwealth.