British Politics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

137 Pages·2003·1.38 MB·English

by  Anthony Wright

British Politics: A Very Short Introduction
Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating
and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have
been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics
in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next
few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short
Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to
conceptual art and cosmology.
Very Short Introductions available now:
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy
Julia Annas Simon Critchley
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY
ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM
ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins
Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
Atheism Julian Baggini Geraldine Pinch
Augustine Henry Chadwick EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
BARTHES Jonathan Culler BRITAIN Paul Langford
THE BIBLE John Riches THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball
BRITISH POLITICS EMOTION Dylan Evans
Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe
Buddha Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver
BUDDHISM Damien Keown Ethics Simon Blackburn
CAPITALISM James Fulcher The European Union
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe John Pinder
CHOICE THEORY EVOLUTION
Michael Allingham Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson FASCISM Kevin Passmore
CLASSICS Mary Beard and THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
John Henderson William Doyle
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Freud Anthony Storr
THE COLD WAR Galileo Stillman Drake
Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh
GLOBALIZATION PLATO Julia Annas
Manfred Steger POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
HEGEL Peter Singer POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood David Miller
HINDUISM Kim Knott POSTCOLONIALISM
HISTORY John H. Arnold Robert Young
HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTMODERNISM
HUME A. J. Ayer Christopher Butler
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Indian Philosophy Catherine Belsey
Sue Hamilton PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
Intelligence Ian J. Deary PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
ISLAM Malise Ruthven Catherine Osborne
JUDAISM Norman Solomon Psychology Gillian Butler and
Jung Anthony Stevens Freda McManus
KANT Roger Scruton QUANTUM THEORY
KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner John Polkinghorne
THE KORAN Michael Cook ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
LITERARY THEORY RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
Jonathan Culler RUSSIAN LITERATURE
LOCKE John Dunn Catriona Kelly
LOGIC Graham Priest THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner S. A. Smith
MARX Peter Singer SCHIZOPHRENIA
MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER
John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway
Ralph A. Griffiths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
Senia Pasˇeta ANTHROPOLOGY
MOLECULES Philip Ball John Monaghan and Peter Just
MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Socrates C. C. W. Taylor
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton
BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN John Morrill
H. C. G. Matthew TERRORISM Charles Townshend
NORTHERN IRELAND THEOLOGY David F. Ford
Marc Mulholland THE TUDORS John Guy
paul E. P. Sanders TWENTIETH-CENTURY
Philosophy Edward Craig BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling
Samir Okasha WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman
Available soon:
AFRICAN HISTORY HIEROGLYPHS
John Parker and Richard Rathbone Penelope Wilson
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea HUMAN EVOLUTION
BUDDHIST ETHICS Bernard Wood
Damien Keown INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CHAOS Leonard Smith Paul Wilkinson
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead JAZZ Brian Morton
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy MANDELA Tom Lodge
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE MEDICAL ETHICS
Robert Tavernor Tony Hope
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko THE MIND Martin Davies
CONTEMPORARY ART Myth Robert Segal
Julian Stallabrass NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
THE CRUSADES PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
Christopher Tyerman PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Derrida Simon Glendinning Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot
DESIGN John Heskett PHOTOGRAPHY
Dinosaurs David Norman Steve Edwards
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson THE RAJ Denis Judd
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE RENAISSANCE
THE END OF THE WORLD Jerry Brotton
Bill McGuire RENAISSANCE ART
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Geraldine Johnson
THE FIRST WORLD WAR SARTRE Christina Howells
Michael Howard THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
FREE WILL Thomas Pink Helen Graham
FUNDAMENTALISM TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
Malise Ruthven THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Habermas Gordon Finlayson Martin Conway
For more information visit our web site
www.oup.co.uk/vsi
Tony Wright
BRITISH POLITICS
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
OxfordNew York
AucklandBangkokBuenos Aires Cape TownChennai
Dar es SalaamDelhiHong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala LumpurMadridMelbourneMexico CityMumbai Nairobi
São PauloShanghai Taipei TokyoToronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Tony Wright 2003
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2003
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 13: 978–0–19–285459–9
ISBN 10: 0–19–285459–3
357910864
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Acknowledgement viii
List of illustrations ix
1
The Britishness of British politics 1
2
The political constitution 16
3
Arguing: the political conversation 31
4
Governing: the strong centre 48
5
Representing: party rules OK 64
6
Accounting: heckling the steamroller 79
7
The end of British politics? 97
Further reading 111
Index 115
Acknowledgement
All I have had to do is to write the words. The real work of
converting a messy script into a presentable text has been done (not
for the first time) by Pauline Ngan, to whom I offer grateful, but
inadequate, thanks.
List of illustrations
1 Winston Churchill 3 6 Clement Attlee and
Imperial War Museum Margaret Thatcher 41
(neg. no. MH26392) Hulton Archive/© Bettmann/
Corbis
2 Second World War
poster 8 7 European cartoon
Imperial War Museum (David Low, Manchester
Guardian, 10 October
3 18th-century engraving 1956) 46
of the ‘balanced’
© Evening Standard Centre for
constitution 20 the Study of Cartoons and
© Engraving, unknown artist. Caricature, University of Kent,
British Museum, c.1774 Canterbury
4 Constitutional reform 8 Queen dissolving
cartoon (Economist, 18 Parliament cartoon
April 1998) 29 (Richard Doyle, Punch,
© David Simonds/Centre for the August 1847) 52
Study of Cartoons & Caricature, Reproduced with permission
University of Kent, Canterbury of Punch Ltd
5 Spin doctor cartoon 9 Cabinet photograph, 21
(Chris Riddell, The June 2001; Cabinet
Observer, 17 January cartoon (Richard Willson,
1999) 34 The Times, 5 January
© Chris Riddell/Centre for the 1998) 55
Study of Cartoons & Caricature, Richard Willson/The Times,
University of Kent, Canterbury London, 1998/© PA/Sean
Dempsey