Guillaume DIDIER – 2A

Unit 3 – Political parties and elections

Listening practice: ABC News, “The 2019 UK Election explained”
1. Make a list of all the political parties mentioned throughout the video.
2. How many general elections have there been lately in the U.K.?
3. What are the two reasons given by the narrator to account for the loss of Tory seats in
the period stretching from 2017 to 2019? Why did Boris Johnson call for a snap
election? (élection instantanée/anticipée)
4. Why did the Tories have to win seats in Wales and in the north of England?
5. How is the typical Workington man described by the journalist? Name three social
factors.
6. Name five other topics of importance for the 2019 elections.
7. What could have been the other outcomes to this election? Why would such a situation
have been difficult in practice?
***
The Guardian view on the 2019 election result: a new political landscape
Editorial - Fri 13 Dec 2019
Facts are sacred. So any response to the 2019 general election must start with the fact that
Boris Johnson’s Conservative party is its undisputed victor. With 365 seats, up 48 on the last
parliament, the Tories have a majority of 80. This allows Mr Johnson to govern for a full term
with a working majority, something the Conservatives have not achieved for 32 years. It is a
5 party triumph, because the Tories have recovered their claim to be Britain’s most enduring
governing force. It is also a personal triumph for Mr Johnson, who sensed the opportunity and
seized it with enormous effect.
Other facts also matter. The first-past-the-post electoral system means Mr Johnson polled
44% of the votes and took 56% of the seats. In a Brexit-dominated contest, parties that want
10 to leave the European Union polled only 47%, while parties supporting a second referendum
polled 51%. Britain is a very divided country. Mr Johnson would be wise to take account of
these facts too. He should remember the words of Edmund Burke: that magnanimity is often
the truest political wisdom.
Yet Mr Johnson now has a mandate to complete the business of the 2016 referendum and to
15 take Britain out of the EU. He has fought and won that battle. But he has not yet won the
battle on the terms under which the UK will trade with the EU. On this, he has neither defined
his goal nor negotiated a deal to reach it. It is hard to believe he will do so, as promised,
within 12 months. This is too important an issue to be imprisoned by a timetable. Mr Johnson
should accept a delay if necessary. He now has the authority to defy any objectors within his
20 party.
The biggest loser of 2019 is Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. The party’s 203 seats is its lowest total
since 1935. In 18 years, Labour has lost more than 50% of the seats it won in 2001. The
Tories swept through constituencies in the Midlands and the north of England that Labour
has rarely lost in its history: seats like Bishop Auckland, Great Grimsby and Workington. But
25 the losses were nationwide. In Wales, Wrexham now has its first Conservative MP since the
first world war. In Scotland, Labour lost six of its seven seats. In the south, it lost Ipswich and
 Stroud. After nine years of divisive and troubled Tory rule, Labour could manage only one
solitary gain anywhere in the UK.
This abject performance reflects mistrust in Mr Corbyn, lack of belief in some of Labour’s
30 manifesto pledges, and divisions over Brexit. But the election was not lost during the
campaign. At its roots lie what has become an increasingly unstable alliance of Labour’s left
and centre, its remain and leave electorates, and its middle-class and working-class bases. In
the 1980s, 80% of Labour voters were manual workers and their families. Today, that figure
is around 40%. Mr Corbyn has shown himself unwilling and incapable of unifying that
35 volatile coalition. He is right to go. Labour must face up to its failings and choose a different
sort of leader now.
This is all the more important because the Liberal Democrats will not lead an alternative. Jo
Swinson’s party had its chance and blew it. Its share of the vote went up more than the other
UK-wide parties. But Ms Swinson fought a flawed campaign and lost her seat. The question
40 facing all those to the left of the Tory party is whether they can or wish to find common
ground and cooperate. If they do not, and especially if Mr Johnson changes the voting rules
and boundaries, this 2019 result could be the shape of things to come.
After and because of Brexit, the biggest challenge facing Mr Johnson is in Scotland. The SNP
took 45% of the vote, up eight points. The Tories and Labour fell back. Nicola Sturgeon has
45 now demanded the right to call an independence referendum. Mr Johnson intends to refuse.
He would be foolish to let himself be cast as the hammer of the Scots. He needs to reach out
to Scotland too, with money and powers. If he does not, his era will be dominated by threats
to the union, especially as Northern Ireland has now elected more nationalists than unionists
for the first time.
50 The prime minister implied on Friday that he understands the transformed political landscape.
Reiterated commitments on NHS investment, on more teachers and police, and on carbon
emissions, may mean he grasps that the Tory electorate changed radically this week, and that
public spending is key to retaining it. The one-nation and healing rhetoric may herald a new
kind of Toryism. Yet such populism also opens the way for attacks on judges, human rights
55 and the BBC. Where migrants fit in the one nation of which Mr Johnson spoke remains to be
seen. Strikingly, the nation he invoked was one that stretched from Woking to Workington,
not from Woking to Wick or Warrenpoint. Mr Johnson has won a great victory. But his
problems are only just beginning.
Reading practice:
1. In groups, find synonyms or explain the meaning of the following words : “claim”
(l.5); “constituencies” (l.23); “failings” (l.35); “flawed” (l.39); and “reach out” (l.46).
2. Comment on Edmund Burke’s words: “magnanimity is often the truest political
wisdom” (l. 12-13). What does this mean when applied to the topic of the article?
3. How does the author account for the Tories’ victory? Name three different and
specific reasons for it.
4. What is the point made about Scotland and Ireland (l.43-49)? What has changed? How
could that be an issue to Johnson’s government (and the U.K.)?
5. What is the point made by the author about migrants (l. 55-57)?
6. How does this article reflect on the video you have just watched? (Listening practice)
 Political Parties: Some Facts
There are over 60 different parties. 17 have elected representatives in one of the assemblies;
25 others have at least one elected representative in local government.
Main Parliamentary Parties:
Party (/650 MPs) Description
Conservative and A party loosely divided into three categories: the Thatcherites,
Unionist Party who strongly support a free market and tend to be Eurosceptic; the
(364/650) economically moderate and socially liberal One Nation
Conservatives, and the socially conservative, deeply Eurosceptic
Cornerstone Group.
Labour Party A social democratic party with democratic socialist elements that
(202/650) has its roots in the trade union movement. The party in recent
years is seen to have several internal factions, which include:
Momentum, Open Labour, Progress, Blue Labour, and, the Labour
members who stand on a split ticket with the Co-operative Party.
Scottish National Scottish nationalist and social democratic party which supports
Party (48/650) Scottish Independence and membership of the European Union.
Liberal Democrats Liberal and social liberal. The party's main two branches are the
(11/650) social-liberals based around groups like the Social Liberal Forum,
and the 'Orange Book' grouping, which supports classical
economic liberalism. Strongly supports membership of the
European Union.
Democratic Unionist Unionist and national conservative party in Northern Ireland.
Party Socially conservative with close links to Protestantism.
Sinn Féin Irish republican and democratic socialist party that supports the
unification of the island of Ireland as a 32-county Irish republic.
Plaid Cymru Social-democratic, democratic socialist and Welsh nationalist
party in favour of Welsh independence.
Others include: Social and Democratic Labour Party, Ulster Unionist Party, Green Party of
60 E&W, Scottish Greens, UK Independence Party…