The Government of the UK. The Parliamentary Parties
Pre-listening
1. Answer the following questions.
1) What differences are there between Parliament and the Government?
2) Which of these people are not elected: a peer, an MP, a civil servant, the Prime Minister?
3) Do you think being a member of the Royal family is a ‘proper job’? What sort of work do they do?
2. Before listening to the text, make sure you know the following words and word combinations:
the Cabinet, majority party, parliamentary democracy, honorific, hereditary, appointive
3. Listen to the recording and be ready to answer the following questions:
1) What kind of political system is there in the UK?
2) Who is the permanent head of the state?
3) By whom is the executive power of the UK wielded?
4) Where is legislative power vested?
5) Which body is elected: the House of Lords or the House of Commons?
6) Which are the oldest parties in the UK?
7) When did the UK have its first Labour Government?
4. Listen to the recording again and match the beginnings of the sentences with the proper endings.
| 1.The United Kingdom is a constitutional Monarchy and | a. the Cabinet and the ministers |
| 2. Royal power are very | b. Labour Party |
| 3. Executive power is wielded | c. by the Prime Minister |
| 4.The Prime Minister is the leader of the | d. majority party in Parliament |
| 5. The Prime Minister appoints | e. a parliamentary democracy |
| 6. Legislative power is vested | f. the monarch, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. |
| 7. The Parliament consists of | g. in the Parliament. |
| 8. The House of Lords is | h. honorific and traditional. |
| 9. The House of Commons is | i. elections at any time. |
| 10. The House of Commons is elected to | j the Conservative and Liberal parties. |
| 11. The Prime Minister can call general | k. elected. |
| 12. The oldest parties in the United Kingdom are | l. hereditary and appointive. |
| 13. In 1945 Britain had its first | m. five-year terms |
5. Write down the English equivalents.
1. конституционная монархия
2. обладать властью
3. проводить выборы
4. законодательная власть
5. исполнительная власть
6. передаваемый по наследству
FOCUS ON FUNCTIONS
Working with economic information, analyzing trends of economic development economists are often faced with the task of presenting data in the form of tables. They must be skilful in interpreting table data, able to describe it and discuss with colleagues.
To refer to a table the following phrases may be used:
As can be seen from the table, …
According to Table 1, …
As (is) shown in Table 2, …
It can be seen from the table, that …
From Table 3 it may/can be seen that…
concluded
shown
estimated
calculated
inferred
1.Using the above phrases, describe the information about Gordon Brown? Former Prime Monister of the UK given in Table 1.
Table 1
 | |
| Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
| Assumed office27 June 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Tony Blair |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office2 May 1997 – 27 June 2007 | |
| Born | 20 February 1951 Govan, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Brown |
| Children | Jennifer Jane (Deceased) John Macaulay James Fraser |
| Residence | 10 Downing Street (Official) North Queensferry (Private) |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Religion | Church of Scotland |
| Signature |  |
2. Make up a similar table filling it in with data about current Prime Minister or other well-known people of the UK. Get prepared to describe it to the group.
3. Give a brief sketch of the UK’s major political parties making use of the following table.
Table 2
| Labour Party | |||
| Leader | |||
| Founded | |||
| Headquarters | 39 Victoria Street, London | ||
| Ideology | Democratic socialism, Social democracy, Third Way | ||
| Official colours | red | ||
| Conservative Party | |||
| Leader | David Cameron | ||
| Founded | Historical 1678, Modern 1912 | ||
| Headquarters | 30 Millbank, London | ||
| Ideology | Traditionalist conservatism, British unionism Liberal conservatism Thatcherism Euroscepticism | ||
| Official colours | Blue | ||
| Liberal Democrats | |||
| Leader | Nick Clegg | ||
| Founded | 3 March 1988 | ||
| Headquarters | 4 Cowley Street, London, | ||
| Ideology | Liberalism Social liberalism Social democracy Enviromentalism | ||
| Official colours | Gold, Turquoise | ||
4. Say it in English:
4/5, 2/3, 1/2, 3/7 тонны, 1/4 километра, 2/3 процента, 1 ½ часа, 1/2 доллара, 4 ½ евро, 2 ¾ процента, 2 2/3 дюйма, 0.105 метра, 2.18 фута, 17.562 тонны, 5 процентов, 23 процента, 0.36 процента, 2.5 процента, 2,674 миллиона рублей, тысячи людей, сотни автомобилей, 0.97 триллионов долларов, 3/8 процента, ½ процента, 0.5 процента.
5. Table 3 describes the economy of Great Britain in terms of main economic indicators. Look at the information and then get prepared to describe it drawing attention to the most significant items.
Table 3
| Economy of the United Kingdom | |
| Currency | Pound sterling (GBP) |
| Trade organisations | EU, BCN, OECD and WTO |
| Statistics | |
| GDP | $2,674 billion (2008 est. nom.) |
| GDP per capita | $43,785 (2008 est. nom.) (20th) |
| GDP by sector | agriculture (1%), industry (23%), services (76%) (2008 est.) |
| Inflation (CPI) | 1.8% (July 2009) |
| Population below poverty line | 14% with household income below 60% of UK median income (2006 est.) |
| Labour force | 31 million (includes unemployed) (2007 est.) |
| Labour force by occupation | Services (81%), industry (18%) and agriculture (1%) (excludes unemployed) (2007) |
| Unemployment | 7.5% |
| Main industries | machine tools, industrial equipment, scientific equipment, shipbuilding, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, electronic machinery, computers, processed metals, chemical products, coal mining, oil production, paper, food processing, textiles, clothing and other consumer goods. |
| External | |
| Exports | $442.2 billion (2007 est.) |
| Main export partners | USA 15%, Germany 11%, France 10%, Ireland 7%, Netherlands 6%, Belgium 6%, Spain 5%, Italy 4% (2007) |
| Imports | $621.4 billion (2007 est.) |
| Main import partners | Germany 14.2%, US 8.6%, China 7.3%, Netherlands 7.3%, France 6.9%, Belgium 4.7%, Norway 4.7%, Italy 4.2% (2007) |
| Public finances | |
| Public debt | $864 billion (2007) |
| Revenues | $0.97 trillion (2007) |
| Expenses | $1.04 trillion (2007) |
| Economic aid | $8 billion (donor) |
| Main data source: CIA World Fact Book All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars |
6. Draw up a similar table for your own country. Get prepared to describe it to the group.
SPEAKING
1.Read the following quotations about the economy and explain in your own words what you think the authors meant. Say whether you agree or disagree with them and give your arguments.
1) In the new economy, information, education, and motivation are everything (Bill Clinton).
2) If we only have great companies, we will merely have a prosperous society, not a great one. Economic growth and power are the means, not the definition, of a great nation (Jim Collins).
3) Education is both a tool of social justice as well as a fundamental driver of economic development (Kevin Rud).
4) Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it (Ronald Reagan).
5) In the end it may well be that Britain will be honoured by historians more for the way she disposed of an empire than for the way in which she acquired it (Lord Harlech).
WRITING
Write an essay of at least 500 words making a forecast of the nearest economic trends in the UK.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Text 1
The economic geography of the UK reflects not only its current position in the global economy, but its long history both as a trading nation and an imperial power.
The UK led the industrial revolution and its highly urban character is a legacy of this, with all its major cities being current or former centers of all forms of manufacturing. However, this in turn was built on its exploitation of natural resources, especially coal and iron ore.
The UK's primary industry was once dominated by the coal industry, heavily concentrated in the north, the Midlands and south Wales. This is all but gone and the major primary industry is North Sea oil. Its activity is concentrated on the UK Continental Shelf to the north-east of Scotland.
The UK's heavy manufacturing drove the industrial revolution. A map of the major UK cities gives a good picture of where this activity occurred, in particular Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham.
Today there is no heavy manufacturing industry in which UK-based firms can be considered world leaders. However, the Midlands in particular remains a strong manufacturing centre.
More recently, high technology firms have concentrated largely along the M4 motorway, partly because of access to Heathrow Airport, but also because of agglomeration economies.
Finance and services.Once, every large city had a stock exchange. Now, the UK financial industry is concentrated overwhelmingly in the City of London and Canary Wharf, with back office and administrative operations often dispersed around the south of England. London is one of the world's greatest financial centers and is usually referred to as a world city.
Regional disparity.The combined effect of changing economic fortune has created the so-called North-South divide, in which decaying industrial areas of the north of England contrast with the wealthy, finance and technology led southern economy. This has led successive governments to develop regional policy to try to rectify the imbalance.
Text 2
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party. Immediately before this he had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour government from 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair.
Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a television journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983. As Prime Minister, he also holds the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service.
Brown's time as Chancellor was marked by major reform of Britain's monetary and fiscal policy architecture, transferring interest rate setting powers to the Bank of England, by a wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to cover much domestic policy and by transferring responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority. Controversial moves included the abolition of Advance Corporation Tax (ACT) relief in his first budget, and the removal in his final budget of the 10 per cent "starting rate" of personal income tax which he had introduced in 1999.
After an initial rise in opinion polls, Brown's time as Prime Minister has seen his approval ratings fall and the Labour Party suffer its worst local election results in 40 years. Despite public and parliamentary pressure on his leadership, he remains leader of the Labour Party.
Text 3