Government and Politics of England - Some information about England

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Government and Politics of England

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There has not been a Government of England since 1707, when the Acts of Union 1707, putting into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed the previous year, joined the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the united Kingdom of Great Britain. Prior to this, England was ruled by a monarch and the Parliament of England. However, following the establishment of devolved government for Scotland and Wales in 1999, England was left as the only country within the United Kingdom still governed in matters by the UK government and the UK parliament in London.

Since Westminster is the UK parliament but also legislates on matters that affect England alone, devolution of national matters to parliament/assemblies in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland has refocused attention on the anomaly called the West Lothian question. The "question" is why Scottish and Welsh MPs should continue to be able to vote on legislation relating only to England while English MPs have no equivalent right to legislate on devolved matters. This constitutional arrangement resulted in the Labour government only winning a 2004 vote to impose higher tuition fees on students in England due to the support of Scottish Labours MPs. This "question" is also exacerbated by the large number of Scottish MPs in the government, a group sometimes disparagingly called the Scottish mafia, and by having a Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who represents a Scottish constituency that is unaffected by the policy decisions he takes.

There are calls for a devolved English parliament, such as by former minister Frank Field MP, and there is opinion poll evidence of public support for the idea. Some minor English parties go further, calling for the dissolution of the Union. However, the approach favoured by the current Labour government was (on the basis that England is too large to be governed as a single sub-state entity) to propose the devolution of power to the Regions of England. Lord Falconer claimed a devolved English parliament would dwarf the rest of the United Kingdom. The Conservative Party, on the other hand, are considering proposals to ban Scottish MPs from voting on English only legislation in Westminster.

Today, therefore, England's affairs are managed by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament, and England-specific quangos such as English Heritage.

A total of 529 of the current 646 MPs in the House of Commons represent English constituencies, which will rise to 533 out of 650 at the next general election.

At the 2005 General Election, the Conservative Party won more votes than any other single party, with 35.7% of the vote. However, Labour won a majority of England's MPs, having 284 MPs elected, on the basis of just 35.4% of the popular vote with the Conservative Party winning just 194 MPs. The Liberal Democrats were the third party winning 47 MPs with 22.5% of the vote, and the only other MPs elected were one for Respect and a Kidderminster Hospital campaigner.

The upper-tier subdivisions of England are the nine Regions of England or European Union government office regions. A London referendum in 1998 on the question of having a directly elected assembly and directly elected mayor produced a large majority in favour and it was intended that other regions would also be given their own elected regional assemblies. However, a rejection by a referendum in 2004 of a proposed assembly in the North East region stopped this idea in its tracks. During the campaign, a common criticism of the proposals was that England did not need "another tier of bureaucracy".

Below the regional level, London consists of 32 London boroughs and the rest of England has either county councils and district councils or unitary authorities. At the lowest level, much of England is divided into parishes though parishes are prohibited from existing in Greater London.

Main cities and towns of England.

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