大学英语专业课程英美概况上册Unit4Politics,ClassandRace.pptVIP

Unit 4 Politics, Class and Race Major Points General Elections The political Parties in the UK Recent political trends Class Race I. What is a General Election? The election of all Members of Parliament (MPs) for each constituency (local area) is called a General Election. II. How often do General Elections take place? A Parliament has a maximum duration of five years. At the end of the five year or before, a general election must take place so new members of parliament can be elected by the people. General elections have to take place at least every five years and are called by the Prime Minister (the leader of the Government). After the government has been in power for 5 years, it has to resign and hold a “general election”, in which all British people are given the chance to vote again for their constituency’s MP. III. When does an early election occur? When the government loses a “vote of no confidence” in the House of Commons, that is, an MP puts forward a statement for the MPs to vote on saying that “This house no longer has confidence in the government”. If the Prime Minister decides that the government is currently popular, he can call for an early election hoping to win another five years. IV. Who can stand for election as an MP? Anyone who is eligible to vote can stand as an MP (with a deposit of 500 pounds). Questions: why does a person who want to stand as an MP have to make a deposit of 500 pounds? When will he/she lose the money? In most cases, a candidate is usually one put forward by one of the main political parties. Why? because if an independent candidate were to win the seat he/she would be powerless in parliament against big parties’ representative. V. What happened in an election? Everyone on the “electoral register” will: The results come out. Electoral Campaign Advertisements in newspaper Door-to-door campaign Postal deliveries of leaflets Party electoral broadcasts (strictly limited) *In the campaigns, politician do not