Smaller and regional parties Flashcards
Who are the smaller parties in UK Politics?
Scottish National Party (SNP), Green Party, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), British National Party (BNP), Sinn Fein, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), Plaid Cymru (PC)
What is the main political idea that dominates the agenda in smaller parties?
Nationalism
What is the main aim of these smaller parties?
Separate from the UK and seek self determination or independence.
Which parties tend to associate with cultural nationalism e.g committing to their own language and other national traditions?
Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein
Which parties tend to associate with political and economic nationalism e.g own currency and independence?
SNP and SDLP
Give some historical facts about the SNP?
1) A centre-left party founded in 1934 with its main aim to secure Scottish independence.
2) They gained a lot more strength in 1997 after Labour PM Tony Blair gave more devolved powers to the UK e.g Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.
3) Many Scottish people who voted Labour later turned to the SNP and eventually won a minority government under Alex Salmond in 2007.
4) Held an independence referendum in 2014 but lost 55-45%.
5) Scottish MP’s at Westminster used to be constrained by “English votes for English laws” (EVEL) from 2015-2021. This means they were restricted on voting on English affairs but it was abolished in July 2021.
What are the main views of the Green Party?
Enviromentalist, Pro-European, Liberal view on social and moral issues, Anti-war, Anti-fracking, anti-nuclear power and pro-nuclear disarmament, abolition of university tuition fees and a wealth tax to create new jobs
How many respective seats do the SNP and Greens have?
SNP - 45
Green - An amazing 1
What are the 2 ways that we can interpret ‘British nationalism’ with?
1) In moderate right wing parties like UKIP, this means separation from the European Union (EU) and self determination.
2) In extreme right wing parties like the BNP, this means ethnic and racial self determination, separation from the EU and an end to all immigration.
What party are on the extreme end of British nationalism?
National Front. They advocate white supremacy, repatriation of migrants and an end to all immigration.
Give some historical facts about UKIP?
1) Began as a fringe nationalist party by Nigel Farage in 1991.
2) They are based on radical, right wing and populist ideas as they owed a lot of their support growth to the growing sense of dissatisfaction with the 3 main parties.
3) Their best election result was winning 24 seats in the European parliament in 2014, although they have no seats at all in Westminster.
4) The fear of UKIP’s growth was one of the main reasons David Cameron held a UK referendum.
5) Lots of their support has come from older white voters with lower than average levels of education.
What are the main views of UKIP?
1) EU membership damages the UK’s interests by subjecting us to the rule of unaccountable European bureaucracy.
2) We should take back control of policies on trade, fisheries and other areas where national sovereignty is shared with the EU.
3) Points-based immigration system where there’s a cap on numbers of migrants entering the country.
4) Like the Conservatives, they support grammar schools and want to scrap the ‘green tax’ which raise our energy bills.
5) Increase spending on the NHS, but migrants must have private health insurance.
What are some of the views or policies of Plaid Cymru?
1) Pro-European and would support a second EU referendum.
2) Environmentalist in that they want a ‘green jobs revolution’.
3) Free social care as well as free healthcare.
4) Increased spending on education, low-income families, policing etc.
5) Anti-nuclear war.
6) Reform drug laws.
Who are the Northern Irish parties?
1) Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Right wing conservative unionist party.
2) Sinn Fein. Left wing republican nationalist party.
3) Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Centre left nationalist party.
4) Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Moderate centre right unionist party.
5) Alliance. Liberal centrist party.
6) Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV). Extreme right wing unionist party.
7) NI Greens. Just like Green party.
8) UKIP.
What are the different types of party systems, what do they mean and give examples of countries that have them?
1) One-party system. This is where one party has a huge majority of power and no other party can ever compete. The main example is Japan.
2) Two-party system. This is where two parties have held power at different periods of time and no other party has challenged them. The UK and USA have this where third parties are small and don’t have much influence.
3) Two and a half party system. This is where two parties are usually in government at different periods in time but they’re challenged by a third party. This is present in Australia where the Greens can consistently challenge the two main parties.
4) Multi-party system. This is where multiple (more than 3) parties have a realistic chance of getting into power and number of seats tend to be more even. This tends to occur in European countries like France, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.
