General Elections which shape the domestic and foreign policy of the United kingdom

Here is a list of the parties participating in the general elections:

· Conservatives

· Green Party

· Labour

· Liberal Democrats

· Plaid Cymru

· SNP

· UKIP

HOW DOES THE UK SYSTEM WORK?

The UK is a constitutional monachy without the written constitution which uses a parliamentary system of governance consisting of an Upper House (the House of Lords) and a Lower House (the House of Commons). Only the Lower House is presently democratically elected with the members of the Upper House being appointed by the reigning monarch.

In recent years there have been some major changes to this system which include:

· the requirements for the members of the House of Lords to earn rather than inherit their seats;

· the establishment of the Supreme Court in 2009 (Previously it was the House of Lords which performed the functions of the new Supreme Court.);

· the introduction of fixed election dates from 2015.

ü Elections could be called at any time if the governing Prime Minister felt it was politically judicious to do so.

ü Other proposed restructuring such as the replacement of the current majoritarian system with a preferential voting system and a proposal for the total independence of Scotland failed by referendum in 2011 and 2014 respectively.

HOW DOES A GENERAL ELECTION WORK?

The UK is presently divided into 650 constituencies across 4 countries. It is a mass of political parties because there are so many including a few joke parties. Three of these comprise of 95 % of Parliament. During a General Election each of these 650 constituencies elect one representative to the Parliament from a list of local candidates.

Not every party is able to fill the candidates in each constituence. So, depending on where you live, some parties might not even appear on the ballot. The Scottish National Party, for example, doesn't have any candidates outside of Scotland. There is no actual rule preventing them from doing this. The Cristian People's Alliance really standing in 17 seats. Each elected representative from 650 constituencies then becomes 1 of the 650 Members of the Parliament.

WHO BECOMES THE PRIME MINISTER?

The reigning monarch appoints the Prime Minister who is usually, but not necessarily, the leader of the party with the majority of the elected candidates. This has 2 very important ramifications:

· FIRST: During a General Election voters are not directly electing the Prime Minister. The party leader must a member of the House of Commons thus being elected in their own right. It is even possible that the leader of the party which wins the General Election can lose their seat;

· SECOND: The Prime Minister can be changed at any time without another General Election either by resignation, party revolt or dismissal by the reigning monarch.