How does politics work in England?
Politics in England (and indeed the whole of the United Kingdom) is based on the monarch (i.e. Queen Elizabeth) being head of state. However, in practice, the monarch has very little, if any, involvement in the running of the United Kingdom (UK). Instead, the monarch appoints a Prime Minister (David Cameron at the present time) to deal with governing the UK. Again, this appointment is a formality – the Prime Minister is in fact elected by the people of the UK during elections that are held every four or five years. There are three main political parties here in the UK. These are the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. In broad terms, the Labour Party holds left-wing views, the Conservative Party traditionally holds right-wing views, and the Liberals are in the centre. Each “region” of the UK (there are about 650 or so such regions) has its own Member of Parliament (MP), and during elections, votes are cast to elect an MP for each region. The party who gains
