1.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
2.
Liberal Democrats (UK)
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The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1988 as a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, at the 2015 general election, the party was reduced to eight MPs. Nick Clegg resigned as leader and Tim Farron won the subsequent leadership election, the party currently has nine MPs, following the Richmond Park by-election. The Alliance was led by David Steel and Roy Jenkins, Jenkins was replaced by David Owen, the two parties had their own policies and emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following disappointing results in the 1987 election, Steel proposed to merge the two parties, although opposed by Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of both parties, and they formally merged in March 1988, with Steel and Robert Maclennan as joint interim leaders. The new party was initially named Social and Liberal Democrats with the short form The Democrats being used from September 1988. The name was changed to Liberal Democrats in October 1989. The new party logo, the Bird of Liberty, was adopted in 1989, the party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and Liberal International. The then-serving Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown was elected leader in July 1988, at the 1989 European Elections, the party received only 6% of the vote, putting them in fourth place after the Green Party. They failed to gain a single Member of the European Parliament at this election, over the next three years, the party recovered under Ashdowns leadership. They performed better at the 1990 local elections and in by-elections—including at Eastbourne in 1990, Ribble Valley in 1991, the Lib Dems did not reach the share of national votes in the 1990s that the Alliance had achieved in the 1980s. At their first election in 1992, they won 17. 8% of the vote, in the 1994 European Elections, the party gained its first two Members of European Parliament. The election was, however, something of a point for the Liberal Democrats. Ashdown retired as leader in 1999 and the party elected Charles Kennedy as his replacement, the party improved on their 1997 results at the 2001 general election, increasing their number of seats to 52 and their share of the vote to 18. 3%. The party won seats from Labour in by-elections in Brent East in 2003 and Leicester South in 2004, under Kennedys leadership the majority of Pro-Euro Conservatives, a group of former members of the Conservatives, joined the Liberal Democrats on 10 December 2001. At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP–Liberal Alliance and won 62 seats. Many had anticipated that this election would be the Lib Dems breakthrough at Westminster, party activists hoped to better the 25% support of the 1983 election, or to reach 100 MPs. Much of the apparent lack of success resulted from the first-past-the-post electoral system, controversy became associated with the campaign when it became known that Michael Brown had donated £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrats
3.
Labour Party (UK)
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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Labour later served in the coalition from 1940 to 1945. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan. The Labour Party was last in government from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179. Having won 232 seats in the 2015 general election, the party is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the party also organises in Northern Ireland, but does not contest elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party, the first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the Southwark by-election of 1870. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party. In the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates, Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardies roots as a lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, the meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations—trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates. This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and it had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 Khaki election came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively, only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful, Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, the judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. In their first meeting after the election the groups Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name The Labour Party formally, the Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, the Peoples History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries. Also within the museum is the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, the governing Liberals were unwilling to repeal this judicial decision with primary legislation
4.
Gloucestershire
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Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the fertile valley of the River Severn. The county town is the city of Gloucester, and other towns include Cheltenham, Cirencester, Stroud. Gloucestershire is a historic county mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 10th century, though the areas of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire originally included Bristol, then a small town. The local rural community moved to the city, and Bristols population growth accelerated during the industrial revolution. Bristol became a county in its own right, separate from Gloucestershire and it later became part of the administrative County of Avon from 1974 to 1996. Upon the abolition of Avon in 1996, the north of Bristol became a unitary authority area of South Gloucestershire and is now part of the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire. The official former postal county abbreviation was Glos, rather than the frequently used but erroneous Gloucs. or Glouc. In July 2007, Gloucestershire suffered the worst flooding in recorded British history, the RAF conducted the largest peace time domestic operation in its history to rescue over 120 residents from flood affected areas. The damage was estimated at over £2 billion, the county recovered rapidly from the disaster, investing in attracting tourists to visit the many sites and diverse range of shops in the area. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Gloucestershire at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Gloucestershire has mainly comprehensive schools with seven schools, two are in Stroud, one in Cheltenham and four in Gloucester. There are 42 state secondary schools, not including sixth form colleges, all but about two schools in each district have a sixth form, but the Forest of Dean only has two schools with sixth forms. All schools in South Gloucestershire have sixth forms, each has campuses at multiple locations throughout the county. Most of the old market towns have parish churches, at Deerhurst near Tewkesbury, and Bishops Cleeve near Cheltenham, there are churches of special interest on account of the pre-Norman work they retain. These are, however, adjudged to be of English workmanship, other notable buildings include Calcot Barn in Calcot, a relic of Kingswood Abbey. Thornbury Castle is a Tudor country house, the pretensions of which evoked the jealousy of Cardinal Wolsey against its builder, Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, near Cheltenham is the 15th-century mansion of Southam de la Bere, of timber and stone. Memorials of the de la Bere family appear in the church at Cleeve, the mansion contains a tiled floor from Hailes Abbey
5.
Stroud (UK Parliament constituency)
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Stroud is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Neil Carmichael, a Conservative. A previous parliamentary borough form of constituency of the name was created by the First Reform Act for the 1832 general election. This was abolished at the 1950 general election, partially replaced with a new Stroud and that was in turn abolished at the 1955 general election, when the present entity was created. Since this recreation the seat has had boundary changes, as such, the north-west boundary of the constituency is the River Severn, which meanders from Gloucester towards the Rivers estuary. Stroud lies south of Gloucester, between the two larger Gloucestershire rural constituencies of The Cotswolds and Forest of Dean, though partially situated in the Cotswold Hills, Stroud is both smaller in area and more industrialised than these neighbours. Much of the constituency is rural in character, through the sparsely populated bulk, is a belt across the middle of the constituency that has a group of small but more urbanised villages, including Caincross, Cam and Rodborough. The major market towns include Stroud itself, Dursley in the south of the constituency, and the smaller towns of Berkeley, Stonehouse and Nailsworth. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the average of 3. 8%. General Election 1939/40, Another general election was required to place before the end of 1940
6.
Stroud
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Stroud is a market town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the town in Stroud District. Situated below the escarpment of the Cotswold Hills at the meeting point of the Five Valleys. The Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty surrounds the town, and it lies 10 miles south of the city of Gloucester,14 miles south-southwest of Cheltenham,13 miles west-northwest of Cirencester and 32 miles north-northeast of the city of Bristol. London is 106 miles east-southeast of Stroud, although not formally part of the town, the parishes of Rodborough, Cainscross and Ebley are contiguous with Stroud and are often considered as official suburbs. Stroud is known for its involvement in the Industrial Revolution and it was a cloth town, woollen mills were powered by the small rivers which flow through the five valleys, and supplied from Cotswold sheep which grazed on the hills above. Particularly noteworthy was the production of uniforms in the colour Stroudwater Scarlet. Stroud was an industrial and trading location in the 19th century and it first had a canal network in the form of the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames & Severn Canal, both of which survived until the early 20th century. Restoration of these canals as a facility by a partnership of Stroud District Council. Stroud railway station was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the church was built by 1279, and it was assigned parochial rights by the rectors of Bisley in 1304, often cited as the date of Strouds foundation. Woodchester Mansion is a masterpiece of the Gothic Revival by local architect Benjamin Bucknall, from 1837 to 1841, Strouds MP was Lord John Russell of the Whig party, who later became Prime Minister. This Act, also known as the Second Reform Act, gave the vote to every male householder. This increased the electorate by 1.5 million voters, Lord John Russell is remembered in the town in the names of two streets, John Street and Russell Street, as well as the Lord John public house. At the 2001 UK census, Stroud civil parish had a population of 12,690. For every 100 females, there were 96.4 males, ethnically, the population is predominantly white. 20. 6% of the population were under the age of 16 and 8. 3% were aged 75 and over,92. 6% of residents described their health as fair or better, similar to the average of 92. 8% for the wider district. The average household size was 2.4, of those aged 16–74,24. 5% had no academic qualifications, lower than the national average of 28. 9%. Of those aged 16–74,2. 6% were unemployed and 28. 4% were economically inactive, Stroud has a significant artistic community that dates back to the early 20th century
7.
UK Independence Party
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The UK Independence Party is a Eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Newton Abbot, Devon, and currently led by Paul Nuttall, at Westminster, UKIP has no Members of Parliament in the House of Commons and three representatives in the House of Lords. It has 20 Members of the European Parliament, making it jointly the largest UK party in that Parliament and it has five Assembly Members in the National Assembly for Wales and has 438 councillors in UK local government. Ideologically positioned on the wing of British politics, UKIP has been characterised as part of a broader European radical right by political scientists. It promotes a British unionist and British nationalist agenda, although its claim that the latter is a form of civic nationalism has been disputed. UKIPs primary emphasis has been on Euroscepticism, calling for the UKs exit from the European Union and it has also placed strong emphasis on lowering immigration, opposing multiculturalism, and encouraging a unitary British identity. On social issues like LGBT rights and education policy it favours traditional values, influenced by Thatcherism and classical liberalism, it describes itself as economically libertarian and promotes liberal economic policies. Having an ideological heritage stemming from the wing of the Conservative Party. UKIP originated as the Anti-Federalist League, a single-issue Eurosceptic party established by the historian Alan Sked in 1991 and it was renamed UKIP in 1993 but its growth remained slow, it was largely eclipsed by the Eurosceptic Referendum Party until the latters 1997 dissolution. Sked was then ousted by a led by Nigel Farage. Under Farages leadership, from 2009 the party adopted a policy platform and capitalised on concerns about rising immigration. This resulted in significant breakthroughs at the 2013 local elections,2014 European elections, the pressure UKIP exerted on the government is widely regarded as the main reason for the 2016 referendum which led to the decision to withdraw from the European Union. Governed by its leader and National Executive Committee, UKIP is divided into regional groups. UKIP began as the Anti-Federalist League, a Eurosceptic political party established in 1991 by the historian Alan Sked, the League opposed the recently signed Maastricht Treaty and sought to sway the governing Conservative Party toward removing the United Kingdom from the European Union. A former Liberal Party candidate, member of the Bruges Group, under the Anti-Federalist Leagues banner, Sked stood as a prospective Member of Parliament in Bath at the 1992 general election, gaining 0. 2% of the vote. UKIP contested the 1994 European Parliament election with little financing and much infighting, securing itself as the fifth largest party in that election with 1% of the vote. During this period, UKIP was viewed as a typical single-issue party by commentators, following the election, UKIP lost much support to the Referendum Party, founded by the multi-millionaire James Goldsmith in 1994, it shared UKIPs Eurosceptic approach but was far better funded. UKIP was beaten by the Referendum Party in 163 of the 165 seats in which stood against each other
8.
Green Party of England and Wales
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The Green Party of England and Wales is a green, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Headquartered in London, since 2 September 2016 its Co-Leaders are Caroline Lucas, the Green Party has one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, one representative in the House of Lords, and three Members of the European Parliament. It has various councillors in UK local government and two members of the London Assembly and it also takes a progressive approach to social policies such as civil liberties, animal rights, LGBT rights and drug policy reform. The party also believes strongly in nonviolence, basic income, a living wage, the party comprises various regional divisions, including the semi-autonomous Wales Green Party. Internationally, the party is affiliated to the Global Greens and the European Green Party, experiencing centralising reforms spearheaded by the Green 2000 group in the early 1990s, the party sought to emphasise growth in local governance, doing so throughout the 1990s. In 2010, the party gained its first MP in Caroline Lucas, the Green Party of England and Wales has its origins in the PEOPLE Party, which was founded in Coventry in 1973. PEOPLE was renamed The Ecology Party in 1975, and in 1985 changed again to the Green Party, the Green Party of England and Wales is registered with the Electoral Commission as simply the Green Party. In the 1989 European Parliament elections, the Green Party of England and Wales polled 15% of the vote with 2.3 million votes, the best ever performance of a Green party in a nationwide election. This success has been attributed to both the increased respectability of environmentalism and the effects of the development boom in southern England in the late 1980s. Many party members opposed the reforms, believing that they would undermine the internal party democracy, although Green 2000 proposals were defeated at the partys 1990 conference, they were overwhelmingly carried at their 1991 conference, resulting in an internal restructuring of the party. The party fielded more candidates than it had ever done before in the 1992 general election but was deemed to have performed poorly. In 1993, the party adopted its Basis for Renewal program in an attempt to bring together conflicting factions and thus save the party from bankruptcy, the party sought to escape their reputation as an environmentalist single-issue party by placing greater emphasis on social policies. In 1993, future party leader and MP Caroline Lucas gained a seat on Oxfordshire County Council, the Greens sought to build alliances with other parties in the hope of gaining representation at the parliamentary level. In Wales, the Greens endorsed Plaid Cymru candidate Cynog Dafis in the 1992 general election, in April 1995 the Green National Executive ruled that the party should withdraw from this alliance due to ideological differences. As the Labour Party shifted to the centre under the leadership of Tony Blair and his New Labour project. At the 2001 general election they polled 0. 63% of the vote, at the 2004 European Parliamentary elections the party returned 2 MEPS the same as in 1999, overall, the Party polled 1,033,093 votes. In the 2005 general election the party gained over 1% of the vote for the first time and this growth has been attributed to the increasing public visibility of the party as well as a general growth in support for smaller parties in the UK. In September 2008, the party elected its first leader, Caroline Lucas
9.
Unitary authority
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Typically unitary authorities cover towns or cities which are large enough to function independently of county or other regional administration. Sometimes they consist of national sub-divisions which are distinguished from others in the country by having no lower level of administration. In Canada, each province creates its own system of local government, in certain provinces there is only one level of local government in that province, so no special term is used to describe the situation. British Columbia has only one municipality, Northern Rockies Regional Municipality. In Ontario the term single-tier municipalities is used, for a similar concept and their character varies, and while most function as cities with no upper level of government, some function as counties or regional municipalities with no lower municipal subdivisions below them. They exist as individual divisions, as well as separated municipalities. In Germany, kreisfreie Stadt is the equivalent term for a city with the competences of both the Gemeinde and the Kreis administrative level, the directly elected chief executive officer of a kreisfreie Stadt is called Oberbürgermeister. The British counties have no directly corresponding counterpart in Germany and this German system corresponds to statutory cities in Austria and in the Czech Republic. Until 1 January 2007, the municipalities of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, in New Zealand, a unitary authority is a territorial authority that also performs the functions of a regional council. There are five unitary authorities, they are, Gisborne District Council, Nelson City Council, Tasman District Council, Marlborough District Council, and Auckland Council. The Chatham Islands, located east of the South Island, have a council with its own special legislation, constituted with powers similar to those of a regional authority. In Poland, a miasto na prawach powiatu, or shortly powiat grodzki is a, typically big, city which is responsible for district administrative level. In total,65 cities in Poland have this status, a single-tier system has existed in Northern Ireland since 1973. Northern Ireland is divided into 11 districts for local government purposes and their functions include waste and recycling services, leisure and community services, building control and local economic and cultural development. They are not planning authorities, but are consulted on some planning applications, the collection of rates is handled by the Land and Property Services agency. Category, Subdivisions of Northern Ireland Local authorities in Scotland are unitary in nature, Act 1994 created a single tier of local government throughout Scotland. On 1 April 1996,32 local government areas, each with a council, replaced the previous two-tier structure, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar uses the alternative Gaelic designation Comhairle. The phrase unitary authority is not used in Scottish legislation, although the term is encountered in publications, Local authorities in Wales are unitary in nature but are described by the Local Government Act 1994 as principal councils, and their areas as principal areas
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