British Political Parties Today

This textbook analyzes the major political parties in Britain - their ideals, organization, electoral records and prospects and the effect they have on British politics and society.

An up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to the development and organization of political parties in Britian and their role in British political life. For each of the three major British parties, Fisher provides details of the organization, internal elections, funding, ideology, groups and factions, details of the backgrounds of their Mps and candidates and an account of their recent history. Similar details are also provided for other parties in the British political system, no tably nationalist parties. These details are set in context with an overview of the development of the British party system and an analysis of the role parties play in contemporary British politics." Looks at the make-up of party membership and party electoral performance. An appendix details British and European election results. British PoliticsA Harvester Wheatsheaf Book.

The new edition of this successful book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview and account of the changing nature of party politics in Britain today. Webb and Bale draw on models of comparative politics in conducting a wealth of new empirical analysis to map and explain the ways in which the party system has evolved, and the parties have adapted to a changing political environment. Themes covered include the nature and extent of party competition, the internal life and organizational development of parties, the varieties of party system found across the UK, and the roles played by parties within the wider political system. The book also addresses the crisis of popular legitimacy confronting the parties, as well as assessing the scope for potential reform. While parties remain central to the functioning of Britain's democracy, public disaffection with them is as high as it has ever been; reform of the system of representation and party funding is warranted, but there are unlikely to be any panaceas.

Elections ask voters to choose between political parties. But voters across the UK are increasingly being presented with fundamentally different, and largely disconnected, sets of political choices. This book is about this hollowing out of a genuinely British democratic politics: how and why it has occurred, and why it matters. Electoral choices across Britain became increasingly differentiated along national lines over much of the last half-century. In 2017, for the second general election in a row, four different parties came first in the UK's four nations. UK voters are increasingly faced with general election campaigns that are largely disconnected from each other. At the same time, voters acquire much of their information about the election from news-media based in London that display little understanding of these national distinctions. The UK continues to elect representatives to a single parliament. But the shared debates and sets of choices that tie a political community together are increasingly absent. Separate national political arenas and agendas still have to interact but in some respects the House of Commons increasingly resembles the European Parliament – whose members are democratically chosen but from a disconnected series of separate national electoral contests. This is deeply problematic for the long-term unity and integrity of the UK.

British politics has been revolutionized in the past ten years by two major factors: the hegemony of Thatcherism for eighteen years; and the current dominance of what some say is variant-Blairism--forged in opposition and enthroned in government since May 1997. This volume addresses key political issues which occupy the government and opposition, including: Blair's style of government, the philosophy of the welfare state and the question of its reform, policy-making in the oppressed local government sector, law and order, reform of the voting system, the effect of EU membership on British politics, the much criticized monarchy, privatization, the environment, education, standards in public life, the politics of the health service, and the usefulness of the House of Lords.

The history of British political parties tells of change and continuity. But, how and why? This textbook continues to provide the best introduction currently available on the British political party system, explaining the history, structure, actors and policies of both the main political parties and the minor parties. Substantially revised and updated, this fourth edition contains new material on the: political party system in post-devolution Scotland and Wales media and political parties emergence of minor parties onto the British political landscape replacement of party ideology with political pragmatism. Stephen Ingle argues that in order to meet formidable national and international challenges the British party system is once more in need of fundamental change, to a less confrontational style of politics. The British Party System is the ideal book for students of British politics wanting a topical and accessible text on political parties in the UK.

`This is an excellent text which charts a safe path for students through the minefield that is contemporary British party politics in a wonderfully efficient yet engaging way.'---Colin Hay, University Of Sheffield --