The political system

The United Kingdom is divided into 650 parliamentary constituencies, each with an electorate of about 60,000 voters. Each British citizen over eighteen has the vote (except prisoners, lords and the mentally ill). Each constituency is represented by one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons.

Any number of candidates can stand for election in each constituency. The main political parties are usually represented, and sometimes candidates representing minority parties also stand. The winner is the candidate who gets more votes than any other single candidate, even if the difference is only one vote. This 'first past the post' system is clear, familiar and simple, but it means that the candidate who comes second gets nothing. In 1987 for example, the Liberal/SDP Alliance received 23.1 per cent of the total vote but won only 22 seats (3.5 per cent) in Parliament.

The leader of the party with most seats becomes Prime Minister and forms a Government, which can remain in power for up to five years unless the Prime Minister decides to hold an earlier election. The second biggest party becomes the official Opposition. Its leader forms a 'Shadow Cabinet'. Since 1945 the Conservatives and Labour have been either the Government or the Opposition.

Margaret Thatcher dominated British politics throughout the 1980s: she was Britain's first woman Prime Minister, leader of the ruling Conservative Party and the longest-serving Prime Minister this century. Under Thatcher, it was Conservative policy to return state-owned industries to private ownership, cut taxation and control inflation. In 1990 Thatcher was replaced as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party by John Major.