The Conservative Party

The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly just the Conservative Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House of Commons with 306 seats. It governs in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, with party leader David Cameron as Prime Minister.

It developed from MPs known as the Tories in the early 19^th century and is still often known in - formally by that name. Originally, the party of church, aristocracy and landlords, it has always been supported by the rich. It stands for hierarchical authority and minimal government interference in' the economy. It likes to reduce income t;ax, gives high priority to national defence and internal law and order.

Its widely known leader Margaret Thatcher was Prime minister from 1979 till 1990.

The Thatcher Government returned many of thee nationalized industries, such as British Airways, British Gas and Britissh Telecom to the private sector, although other industries such as Britissh Rail, British Coal and the Post Office, are still publicly owned.

Parties in Office

	1945	Coalition Government
6 yrs	1945- 1951	Labour
13 yrs	1951 - 1964	Conservative
6 yrs	1964-1970	Labour
eyjis	1970-1974	Conservative
5 yrs	1974- 1979	Labour
18 yrs	1979-1997	Conservative
13 yrs	1997-2010	Labour (30 yrs)
	2010-	Conservative (38 yrs)

The South is the most strongly Conservative region, and it dominates the rest of the country because it is most densely populated. Labour dominates in the North of England, Scotland and Wales. Labour's strongholds have always been the great industrial cities. (Conservative - suburbs, smaller towns, commuter villages.) So Labour- Conservative divide is not only North-South but also city-country.

The Conservatives' concrete economic policy of recent years has been opposition to the European single currency. Anticipating the growing Euroscepticism within his party, John Major negotiated a British opt-out from the single currency in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, although eeveral members of Major's cabinet were personally supportive of European Monetary Union participation. Following Major's resignation after the 1997 defeat, each of the four subsequent Conservative leaders, including David Cameron, have positioned the party firmly against the adoption of the euro. This policy is broadly popular with the British electorate, although voters typically rank Europe as an issue of low Importance compared to education, healthcare, immigration and crime.

Liberal-Democratic Party

The third Largest Party is the Liberal-Democratic Party, formed in the late 1980s from a union of the Liberals (who developed from the Whigs of the early nineteenth century) and the Social Democrats (a breakaway group of Labour politicians).

Its policies: it is regarded as in the centre or slightly left of centre, the Liberal Democrats are the most pro-European Union of the three main parties in the UK. The party places more emphasis on the environment than other parties, it believes in giving greater powers to local government and in reform of the electoral system. (Liberal Party

was for the last time in office in 1905-1908.) The Literal Democrats support and promote social liberalism, constitutions and electoral reform, progressive taxation and civil liberties. They support multilateral foreign policy and opposed British participation in the War in Iraq.

At the 2010 general election, 57 Liberal Democrat MPs were elected, making them the third largest party in the House of Commons, behind the Conservatives with 307 seats and Labour with 258. The Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservatives, with Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister and other Liberal Democrats taking up government positions. /

Voters: from all classes, but more from the middle class. Money: private donations.