Citizenship - What's it all about?

What are our identities and communities?

What rights should all children have?

How does local democracy work?

What is crime?

How can we make a difference in our communities?

How does the political system work in the UK?

How does the media affect us?

What is the law and how is it changed?

How can citizens bring about change?

Why was the struggle for the vote important today?

What can we do about global problems?

How is the UK governed?

Are people treated equally in UK society?

Why do people move around the world?

How can we manage money well?

Can digital democracy increase political participation?

How can young people play an active role in democracy?

Why do we need the right to protest in democracy?

Where does power reside in the UK?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the UK democratic system?

What is the nature of the British constitution ?

How do others govern?

Citizenship

Y8 Citizenship

Key Stage 3

Year 8

Politics, parliament and government 

THEME

UNIT

In this lesson, we will explore the differences between Government and Parliament and how they work to ensure the UK is governed. You will also explore different forms of government used around the world.

What is the difference between government and parliament?

﻿Hi, and welcome to lesson one on How Does the UK Political System Work? Today, we will be exploring the issue of what is the difference between government and parliament. So in this topic, we will explore six key questions. So today, we're going to look at the difference between government and parliament, and in the next lesson, we're going to look at elections. In the lesson after that, we're going to look at what do political parties do. Then we're going to cover what MPs do, then we're going to look at how the UK government is organised, and finally, we're going to look at how does devolved government work. So for today's lesson, you're going to need some paper, a pen, probably a different coloured pen as well, for when you self-assess your work, and somewhere quiet to complete the lesson. So if you need to grab any equipment or you need to move, please pause the video now, grab your stuff, move if you need to, and then start it again. Okay, so we're going to look at three key questions in today's lesson. We're going to look at what type of political system the UK is. We're going to look at what the difference is between government and parliament, and we're going to look at the different roles both government and parliament undertake. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to have a think about our key question for the whole unit, how does the political system work in the UK? And what I would like you to do is write down any words, phrases, or ideas that you can think of when you hear that question, so what comes to mind straightaway. You don't have to write many if you don't know many, or you can write a few if you know a lot. Just have a go at writing some ideas down, please. Please pause the video now to complete your task. Okay, well done for having a go at that. These are some of my ideas. You might have something similar, you might have something different, but that's okay, and if you want to add my ideas to your mind map, you can do. You might want to use your different coloured pen. So you might have included the word Prime Minister. I'm going to look at the Prime Minister's role in a minute. You might've included the word Westminster. You might have included the word running the country 'cause politics is all about how the country's run, and how it's governed to make sure things work effectively. You might have included the word power, 'cause politics and power often go together quite well. You might have included the word elections, because to get our government officials, we elect them. You might have included the House of Commons, and that links quite closely to Westminster. You might have included the word MP, so our Member of Parliament. You might have included the word democracy, 'cause that's the type of political system we have. Or you might have included the word law 'cause law and politics, again, go quite well together. So this is just an overview of the UK political system, and this was created by Mrs. White, who was another citizenship teacher, and it just highlights all the different elements of the UK's political system. So UK politics, it's split up. We've got national politics, which this unit is going to focus on most. We've got local government, so things like local councils. And there are other units within the citizenship curriculum that you can go on more about that. And then we've got regional as well. So particularly in London, we've got a lot of regional politics going on there. So this is the Palace of Westminster. This is the heart of the political system. This is where it all takes place. So we're going to look now at how can government and parliament be defined. What is the difference between them? The UK is a democratic political system and living in a democracy means that we elect, we vote our political leaders. The term democracy has its origins in the Greek language. It comes from the word demos, meaning people, and power and rule. When we put them together, it often means the rule of the people. And in a more specific way, the UK is a representative democracy, so this means that we elect people to represent our views on our behalf. We don't have a say in everything political. We represent people to do that for us, and these can be our members of parliament in our national government, or it could be a local council in local government. Yeah, so we elect people to represent us on our behalf. So we're going to go over the question of how do government and parliament differ? So on the one hand, we've got the government, and the government are those people who have the authority to run the country, and these people get the authority through those who vote for them, so through the electorate. We elect those into power we believe are best to run the country, and this is because we live in a democracy. And in the UK, you have to be over 18, or 18, to elect the government during an election. And people who have the authority, so the government, can work locally or nationally. parliament, on the other hand, are those elected and appointed to hold the government to account. So parliament comprises of different groups who come together to make sure the government are doing what they say they're going to do. So parliament are those elected and appointed to hold the government to account. parliament is the body who meet in Westminster, London, to discuss and debate laws proposed by the government. So I would pause the video now, and make a note of the definitions of government and parliament. All you need to have are those bits in blue. Now, hopefully, this diagram will help. So because we live in a democracy, the people and the citizens are at the heart of our political system. So it's the people who elect the politicians, or the MPs, or the local counsellors, to represent them. And these politicians, they ensure the will of the people, so what the people want, are represented in our parliamentary system, because they're elected on the promises they make. And then because people elect politicians, parliament is based on the want and wishes of the people, so it's like a triangle, so they're all interrelated, and they all come together to represent people's views. Okay, so what type of political system is the UK, then? So who are the government? So a little bit more information on the government. So currently, we have a government which is run by the Conservative Party, and the Conservative Party are a political party, and we're going to look at political parties a bit later on in our unit. Well, in the last general election, the UK gave the Conservative Party the authority to run the country. And the Conservative Party is led by a man called Boris Johnson, and because he's leader of that party, he is also our Prime Minister, so he is the man who oversees the running of the country, and his work is supported by a government which is made up of different people, and especially what are called the Cabinet, and the picture of the table you can see on the screen is in the Cabinet room, where the Cabinet meet to make important decisions, so the Cabinet are the ministers in charge, in charge of the different government departments. So like education, for example, we have a Cabinet Minister in charge of education who decides all things about education. So the government are those who have authority to run the country. But parliament, however, is made up of three different components. We've got the Monarch, so currently, that's the Queen. We've got the House of Commons, and then we've got the House of Lords. So Commons is green benches, Lords are red benches. Now, I'm sure, in history, you've looked at the Monarch and the role of the Monarchy, perhaps, in history. But, they don't quite have the same power as they once used to. So the queen, Queen Elizabeth, and we have a constitutional monarchy, so this means that the Monarch doesn't directly control the country anymore, 'cause this is done by parliament and through the government, but she is really important. She's our Head of State, and by being our Head of State, the Monarchy do lots of different jobs. And some of the jobs they do is that every single law approved in the UK is given a sign-off by the Monarch, so she signs every single law. She'll come to parliament every year, and she will open it. After an election, she officially appoints the Prime Minister, so she officially gives the Prime Minister permission to run the country, but she's neutral when it comes to politics, so she doesn't get herself involved in politics. So although the Monarch is very important, they don't have any direct control about running the country. Parliament is also made up of the House of Commons. So the House of Commons is made up of MPs, and MPs are people elected during the general election. And the House of Commons is divided, so we've got one side of the House of Commons which is for the government, so those who have the authority to run the country, and they sit on that side, and then we have the other side, which is made up of the opposition. So the opposition are those who didn't get elected into government, but they're still important in our democratic system, 'cause they hold the government to account. They question the decisions and the actions of the government. And the House of Commons is where debates and votes takes place. I'm sure you've seen it on the news. Every week, the Prime Minister comes along, then the Prime Minister is questioned by both members of his government and of the opposition, so we have this scrutiny, this checking, of what work the government is doing. And finally, the last part of parliament is the House of Lords, and the House of Lords is made up by people called Lords or Peers. And there are different ways that you can become a member of the House of Lords. You can either inherit your title, you can be appointed because of your expertise, so a lot of the people in the House of Lords are experts in their field, and they're there for when the government is making a particular policy decision, or they want to do something in particular, these experts cast their expert eye over it. You've got people appointed by political parties, so you've got people who support the Conservative Party in there that will help them with passing legislation, and we've also got some bishops in there, so bishops are leaders of churches. And the Lords undertake a number of tasks. Three of the most important are they're part of the law making process, so they debate and they scrutinise new laws what are coming in to force, they use their expertise to question government policy as I've already said, and then they debate, they question each other on the decisions that they are making. Okay, so all that I've just said is really nicely summarised on a video.

Parliament is made up of three parts, the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Monarch. The House of Commons is the elected chamber of parliament. It debates big issues, proposes laws, amends existing ones, and challenges the government's work. There are 650 Members of Parliament, or MPs, who each represents a constituency in the UK. They belong to either a political party, or are independent, and they're elected by constituents of the area they want to represent. The leader of the party that has the most MPs elected after a general election becomes the Prime Minister, and heads up the government. They choose a Cabinet made up of 20 senior ministers who coordinate each government department's work. Parties not in power are called the opposition. MPs from the opposition and the government question the government on policy and proposed laws. The Speaker keeps the House in order by chairing these debates. The House of Lords is the second chamber, and shares the making and shaping of laws with the House of Commons. It has around 800 members, and it's made up mostly of life peers, and also includes hereditary peers and bishops. Lords are selected for their knowledge and experience, and hold government to account by using their expertise to look at laws and issues in detail. The Monarch's role is mainly ceremonial. They meet the Prime Minister once a week to hear what's going on in parliament, and formally agree to every new law . But that's not all. There are also people working behind the scenes who support the work of parliament, clerks, librarians, researchers, and many more.

Okay, so after everything I've just said, and that video you've watched, hopefully you found it useful, I would like you to write me a paragraph to explain how government and parliament differ. What is the difference between government and parliament? And what I've done is I've put a few words at the bottom there to help you write your paragraph. So your challenge is to see if you can include all those words in your paragraph, plus some more, obviously. So please pause the video now and have a go at that task. Okay, well done for having a go at that task. This is quite a complex area to get your head around, so don't worry too much if you found it a bit difficult. So this is my paragraph. So the UK is a representative democracy, which means every five years, elections are held. The UK has a conservative-led government, and the current Prime Minister is Boris Johnson. The government's role is to run the country by organising public services and introducing new policies and laws, whereas parliament is made up of three parts, the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Monarchy. UK citizens elect MPs who they wish to represent them in the House of Commons, whereas members of the House of Lords are appointed or inherit their title and role. Parliament checks the work of the government by taking part in debates and scrutinising policies. They also help create new laws. So hopefully, you've got something similar to that, but it doesn't have to be exactly the same. But a massive well done for completing that task. The next thing we're going to do is we are going to have a further look at some of the roles undertaken by government and parliament. So what I would like you to do is draw a two-column table, and I'm going to read you some statements, and as I read you the statements, I would like you to decide if they would be the role of government or the role of parliament. So pause the video now, jot down that table, and then start it again, and then we can have a go at the task. Okay, so, decide how to spend the country's tax money. For example, increase the amount of money given to schools. So tax money is money paid by people in society from their wages or when they buy things, or because they own a business. So who do you think gets to decide, the people we elect, or the people appointed, the government or parliament? Opens parliament every year. So who do you think, government or parliament? And remember, parliament is made up of three different elements so it can be any one of those elements. Manages public services, so for example, the NHS, so makes sure the services run as they should. Or maybe it could be education. Questions the Prime Minister on the decisions the government has made, so they hold the Prime Minister to account and say, "Well, is the Prime Minister doing what the Prime Minister should be doing?" Oversees and signs in new Prime Minister and laws, so who oversees and says, "Okay, Prime Minister, you can be Prime Minister." "Yes, this law can be a new law." Is that the government, or is that an aspect of parliament. Okay, so hopefully, you have got these. So the government decides how to spend the country's tax money. So we elect a government to make these decisions on our behalf. For example, so they might decide, we're going to give some more money to schools. Manage public services, so the NHS. So remember, I said that each government department has a minister within the government to oversee it. So parliament, so opens parliament each year. So that's the Monarchy, within parliament. Questions the Prime Minister on the decisions the government has made. So again, remember, during the Prime Minister's question times during the House of Commons, that might be the opposition, or members of the government itself. And oversees and signs in new prime minister and laws, so, for example, that's done by the Monarchy. And there is a really close relationship between these two, and there is a lot of overlap, but there is also some difference. So that brings the lesson to an end for today. Hopefully, you found it enjoyable, and you learned some new things, and hopefully, you can now do the following things: You know that the UK is a representative democracy, and you know what that means. You can define government and parliament, and understand the difference, and you can give some roles undertaken by both government and parliament. Now that you've completed the lesson, don't forget to complete the exit quiz so you can assess your learning from today's lesson. Hopefully, see you again in the next one. Have a good day. Bye.

In this lesson, we will explore the processes involved in electing a new government. We will create the timeline of a typical election campaign, and look at events such as constituencies, debates, dissolving parliament, vote counting and forming a new government.

How do elections work?

﻿Hi welcome to our second lesson in the unit of how does political system work in the UK. Today we're going to be exploring the question of how do elections work? and looking at the different processes and kind of procedures involved in electing the officials we have, who represents us. So in today's lesson you are going to need your notes from last time. Can have some paper, a pen Probably, could pen out your work and somewhere quiet to complete the lesson. If you need to get anything or you need to move please pause video now to do so and then rejoin once you're ready. So today we're going to look at kind of two things. Oh, we're going to look at what voting is. I'm going to look at how the general elections work in the UK. Okay. So let's imagine that you and your friends are having a party and you're trying to decide what cake to buy. Okay. And you've stood in the cake aisle, you've narrowed it down to these four flavours, chocolate fudge, lemon drizzle, carrot cake, and Victoria sponge. What are the different ways that you could decide what cake to buy? Just have a couple of seconds, just to think about the different ways you could choose Hopefully one of your ways was to vote. So you could all take turns and you could all say, well, I want chocolate fudge. I want carrot I want chocolate fudge and hopefully there'd be winner and you'd be and you'd be able to make and you'd be able to make your decision that way. Okay. Have you ever voted for anything before? So have you ever, you know kind of rang up a TV programme to vote for something Have you voted in your school council elections? There are lots of opportunities that you might have to vote and hopefully you, are you taking those up? So what is voting and what does it mean to vote? So voting is defined as the activity of choosing someone or something. Now you might want to pause the video and just make a note of that definition. So you have it for your notes Voting really underpins a democratic society. Okay. Voting is really important, in any kind of democracy and voting should always be free and fair. Okay. Elections is the period running up to voting for a new government. Should be held kind of regular. So in the UK, we have them we have elections, at least every five years They can be before five years but they do have to be at least have to be every five years. Citizens should be free vote for whoever they want to. Okay. So they shouldn't be forced to vote for political party. Sadly, in some countries people record about that happening Okay. And all those are voting age should be allowed to vote. So we have a voting age of 18. So people who are 18 and above should be able to cast their vote for whoever they want to win the election. So when election is a time when people vote in order to choose someone for a political or official job. Okay. So again, you might want to jot that definition down. So you have it for your notes. We have lots of elections in the UK. We have Local Elections We have General Elections, We have Devolved Elections. So elections in Devolved nations of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. We have Mayoral elections and police and crime commissioner elections. Within your assessments, your lessons you will get to explore some others in a little bit more detail, but this topic and discussion, we'll focus on the general election. So see what you can remember from the stuff I've been saying. So here's a little quiz, and all you have to do is think to yourself, is it true or is it false? If you want to, you can write it down But you don't have to. Okay. So pause the video and just have a think. Okay. So hopefully you have the same answers as me. So we've got number one, in a democracy citizens who are of voting age or elect their government? So there's tends to be, so this is true. Okay. When we have an election, we are voting for that government. In the UK you can vote at age 16 in the General Election. This isn't true but you have to be 18 to vote in a General Election in the UK Voting is when you are forced to select somethings So, you know, voting should be free and fair. You shouldn't be forced to vote for something that you don't believe in. In the UK election should take place at least every five years. That's true. So they can be before but have to be at least every five years. And There's only one election in the UK That's false because are the general election the local action, the devolved election, et cetera. So well done for that. Okay. Next question is how did general elections work in the UK? So let's imagine that this was the news. Okay. It's not but let's imagine it is as a general action has been announced. Okay. So how do we get from this to brand new government? Okay And that's what we're going to look at in the next part of the lesson Your main task for today is that is that you're going to create a timeline of the general election period. Okay. So it's really important that you do have your paper with you at the moment, do this. because we're going to pause at significant points as we go along. Okay. I'm not going to ask you to do, is have a symbol, and a description, a summary of each point using some of the key vocabulary. Related to that aspect. Okay. The first thing I would want you to do is draw a line or cross down your page. Okay. And you're going to need a full piece of paper for this. Okay. Now I'm just going to show you an example. So this is one of them. So this is mine. Okay. You can tell my drawings are wonderful. And this is a kind of thing I'm going to ask you to do. Okay. I'm going to stop you at various points to give you some time to do it. So let's have a look. So, so the first thing what happens is that the existing parliament is dissolved. Okay. So it's tradition and, and customary, for the Prime Minister to go to the Monarch and ask their permission to dissolve parliament. Okay. So in this case the Prime Minister will go to the Queen and say, "We're going to have a general election please dissolve parliament. And they do. Okay. So this means that MPs are no longer MPs and election process begins. However people are still in charge of the country but the prime minister would still be charge of the country And should something happen should a big decision needs to be made then they could do that. Okay. So that's number one, Number two, constituencies and campaigning Okay. For the purpose of a general election for the purpose of a lot of the political systems in the UK, the UK split into 650 areas, okay. And each area is called a constituency. Okay. Each constituency is represented by one MP. So there's one MP for every 650 constituencies. So that means there are 650 MPs If the MP wins the election in the area they will be awarded a seat in the House of Commons Okay. So they get to sit in the House of Commons for that area Okay, but a fun fact is that there, The House of Commons isn't actually big enough for everyone sit down. So it's often quite crowded when people are allowed in MPs often stand for an election representing a political party. Okay. We're going to look at political parties a bit and a bit later in another unit, but a political party, basically a group of people who share the same political ideas and views So last time we looked at government and the political party currently representing us is The Conservatives. That means they have most MPS in The House of Commons, but you can also stand as an independent candidate so not representing a political party but your own ideas and your own views Okay. Well, that's not that common in the UK. And the final bit for this section is campaigning and manifestos. Okay. So campaigning will often focus on on local and national issues. So an MP will often focus on the issues in their constituency and on national issues to try and encourage you to vote for them. That's quite it, isn't it? Policy promises join the action. Okay. And these promises are collected into a document called a manifesto. Okay. And these manifestos are promoted during the election process to make each party different and stand out. And people make the decision based on their manifestos. Yeah. So a manifesto is a very helpful thing for people to use, to decide who to vote for. So, what I would like to do is take a couple of minutes pause the video and have a think about how you would summarise those three different elements. Okay. So you need three different stages on your timeline to represent all the things I have just said. So please pause the video now to complete that task. So you might have something that looks like this. Okay. So this is mine. So you can see I have the key words and I've summarised each stage. Okay. So the next stage is debates. Okay. So you might have seen the 2019 election that often the leaders of the political parties will engage in far more debates on the TV. Okay. And you can watch them talk about the issues and answer questions from media people, and from members of the public. So they may the questioned on the manifesto and how they plan to govern country if they win. And, and sometimes these election debates focus on a specific issue. So for example, there was the climate change debate during the 2019 General Election. So we've had some campaigning, We've had some debates, we've had some more campaigning. We finally get to election day. Now election day is also called polling day. And the reason why that is will become familiar soon. It's always, always on a Thursday. On this day people go visit a polling station. And this is where people cast their vote. Okay And it's often open from 7:00 AM, till 10:00 PM. Now your primary school might've been used as a polling station can be another place in your community might also be a polling station. Those who vote, are given something called a ballot paper and they're asked to mark with an X who they would like to represent them. After they marked the ballot paper they put it into a ballot box. The process is done all alone or in secret. So traditionally, you not meant to tell anyone who you voted for obviously you can, that's up to you, but sometimes people choose to spoil the ballots. They choose not to vote for anybody that's probably because they don't feel that anyone who is standing who represents their views or feels like they can represent them adequately. And you can also request to vote by post or by proxy. So you can get asked So you can ask to send the postal vote or you can ask for someone else to vote on your behalf but you do need to give your express permission for that to happen. And this is an example of a ballot paper. So what you can see all the, all the parties are listed. And it says at the top, please put a cross in the box, next to your choice You put a across in Can you pop it in the ballot box on your way out Okay. So you going to pause video now, please. And add those two stages to your timeline again, and remember to summarise and again add a little picture Okay. Hopefully yours will look something like that. Probably better. So you have the debate stage and you have the polling station and on ballot paper and voting stage. Okay. So after people have voted Voting concludes at ten o'clock because the polling station is closed The votes are collected and they're taken to a nearby vote count station. So this is often quite a big hall of kind of a big space and count teams under strict guidance and supervision will count the votes. So votes are checked continually to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Yes Once its undertaken the result is announced And each constituency is one of 650. Okay. And it normally take some till early the next day to get the full count. So you might have, you might have a recollection of the 2018 election by about 7:00 AM. We kind of had an idea who was going to win And this is an example of a count. You can see the ballot boxes, you can see the voting so she can see people's supervisors in the count, et cetera. And then we have the winner. Okay. So for general elections or the UK uses what we call first past the post voting and simple, this means that the person with the most votes wins that constituency and the party who collectively has the most votes are the party of that form of government. So remember those who have the authority to of rule the country and the leader of this party becomes the Prime Minister To have a majority you need to win 326 seats. So you need to get over half because remember there's 650 The party that gets second biggest majority becomes the opposition. So they oppose the government kind of regularly debate and challenge and scrutinise their work. If no one party gets a majority then perhaps a minority government can be formed or maybe a coalition. And that happened a few years ago with the Conservatives on the Democrats. So these are some of the results of the 2019 General Election You can say there's a lot of blue and that blue represents Conservatives. You can see pockets of red that's Labour up in Scotland. You can see a light to yellow. That's up there the SNP Again in Whales you can see green and some blue The green is the Plaid Cymru And in Ireland you can see a darker green and that's Sinn Fein and all sorts of like orange and that's to Democratic Unionist Party. We will look at these parties in an up coming lesson. Okay. But that is what the UK General Election looked like. I don't know if you can see it, but right at the bottom of that in Brighton, you can see a little bit of green. That was a green party. So after the election has been announced and you have the new Prime Minister, they will go and revisit the Monarch and ask their permission to form a new government The Monarch will say yes. And after this a short time later, so a few days or a week the parliament is officially opened again by the Monarch Who gives a speech, how iron in the policies proposed association of the new government. So all these things were promised during the election campaign, during manifestos this is what will be put to work. This is what, this is what will be in the speech and the government meeting straightaway In the afternoon, they back in the House of Commons and they are debating. And here's the Queen giving her speech and the Lords So again, the final three stages please pause the video now of those three stages, remember, remember just kind of summarise under our picture and then come back and check your answers. So, here you go here are mine, again with a very special looking crown and I'm not an artist, but that's okay. So again, I've got some key words I have underlying my keywords, you can do that too, if you want to. And then this is what the whole thing might look like. Hopefully you also have something similar so well done and hopefully you now have a better understanding of how a General Election works. And so what I would like you to do now, again is we have a very nice kind of video. What kind of sums up that process

One way to have a say in how the country is run is to use your vote. You have to be 18 or over to vote in general elections but you can register it from the age of 16. There were lots of other ways to get involved and have your voice heard, whatever your age remember MPs represents all of their constituents but how? You can visit an MP in their local constituency office, or you can even travel to the houses of parliament to lobby them in central lobby Lords have knowledge and experience in specific subject areas. You can look them up by policy interest on the parliament website. Anyone can contact any Lord or their local MP by letter or email to discuss an issue that's important to them or their community. Sometimes though there's strength in numbers. So to get your voice heard, you could join the youth section of a party or the UK youth parliament. If you're passionate about an issue you could start a petition for a cause either on paper or online or joining an existing campaign pressure or protest group to influence decision-making. These groups use different methods to get their voices heard from lobbying to peaceful protest all designs to bring about change. And don't forget, you can get your voice heard in school or college too, by joining or starting a student council a bit like a mini parliament. So parliament sits at the heart of UK democracy debating the big issues of the day making and shaping laws and holding the government to account by voting petitioning campaigning, and more you can also get involved with the work of parliament. What will you do?

And if you want to do something a bit further after the lesson, why don't you have a look and see what the election result was like in your area. Okay. So under the supervision of your parent or carer use a search engine to find the 2019 General Election result in your constituency. So literally just search 2019 General Election Results in wherever you live. And you can have a look at things like who win the most seats? How big was the majority? Can look at what the other political parties stood? Just to get a sense of the politics in your local area. That is completely optional, though. It gets completely up to you and how much time you have That brings the lesson to the end. Okay. So hopefully now you can define what voting is and you can explain the different stages of the general election in the UK. So now we've reached the end of the lesson. Don't forget to complete the exit quiz time then you're finished. And hopefully see you again for the next one. Have a good day. Bye.

In this lesson, we will explore the role of political parties within the UK political system. We will learn about the role of political parties and some of the key differences between political parties.

What do political parties do?

﻿Hi, and welcome to lesson three of the unit. How does the political system work in the UK? Today, we're going to explore the role of political parties. We're going to look at who they are and what they do in UK politics. So you are going to need your notes from last lesson. You need some paper. You need a pen, probably the pen is out to actually work, a quiet place to sit to complete the lesson. So if you need to grab any of that or you need to get some equipment, please pause the video now and go and do that. Restart it once you are ready. In today's lesson, we're going to explore three key questions. We are going to look at what a political party is. We're going to look at what political parties are found in the U.K. and we're going to look at how political parties differ. So our first key question is what is a political party? We're going to think of a general party. Just a party that many of you have been to. Why do people have them? What is the purpose of having a party? So if you want to, you can just jot down a few ideas, or you can just have a think about it in your head. It is up to you. So I've got to kind of celebrate something, you know, so you can soon have a birthday party. You might want it to come together as a family or maybe a community or a group of friends. You may want to show appreciation so you have a party to say thank you to somebody. You might want to have a party to make an announcement. So I think like a baby shower is quite popular for people to say, "Oh, I'm having a baby." or you might have a party to gather with those you know or those you share an interest in. Now it's going to be quite common to have a party with people you know. And the people you know, you generally share an interest with. A political party then is an organised group of people who share similar ideas and values and want to win an election to become the government. You might want to pause the video now and just note down that definition of a political party. So what do you put the parties do? What kind of the political parties are really important within a democratic society? What I'm meaning about links the citizens of the society to politics. Now they do a number of different functions and carry out a number of different roles. But their three main functions can be categorised into these three headings. They represent their voters, the people who vote for them and the people who elect them. They represent them or stand for them so within the political system. They help people to understand politics and they run the country. If you remember about the last lesson, we looked at the workings of a general election. So if a political party is elected, then the power, then they've won the country. Now what we're trying to do is thinking about those three categories so representing the voters, helping people to understand politics, and running the country. I would like to make a table of all the different functions, which I'm going to give you. What I would like to do is read each of these sentences and categorise them under the correct heading of the table I have just shown you. I'll just flip back in case you forgot the headings. So represent voters, help people to understand politics, and run the country. You might want to pause the video here to kind of knock that down and start it again. You can have it on this page. So pause the video now and categorise those sentences under the correct headings please. Okay, well done. Well done for giving that a go. These are my answers. So political parties represent voters by they represent a particular and unique set of political ideas and this gives people choice when they're voting because if everyone thought the same ideas then there wouldn't really be any choice, would there, within the political system. They give the public people to hold to account about the running of the country. The public have someone to say, "Well, actually, something's gone wrong. "What are you going to do about this? "How are you going to fix it if you're the people in charge?" Also, it gives someone to go to if there's a problem, what needs to be addressed politically. So if we remember back to the last lesson, then each constituency, each area is represented by an MP. And that's who people can go to if it's a national issue or they can go to a local counsellor if it's a local issue. They help people understand politics so they host parties. They host conferences where they explain their policies and ideas. Every year around September, October time, most of them have the parties, conferences, they share with people what they think of certain things. Members of the party can go along and hear these and they run social media accounts as well, so people can follow all the major political parties and hear them say what they think about an issue, what issues are happening. They run the country so if they were elected to power, then they can make policy and laws. If they're not elected into power, they can also hold the government to account. Remember Parliament, the role of the opposition is real important in that. Hopefully, you got those in the right order. If not, you can just correct them and give some of the tick using a different colour pen. Well done for that. What I would like to do now is take a minute or how long it takes you to list all the political parties that you have heard of in the UK. So remember the UK is England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Pause the video now and make a list of all the political parties you have heard of. The electoral commission have 347 parties registered with them. The Electoral Commission are those who make sure the elections run and are fair in the UK. But we don't have time to look at all 347 of them. So we're going to look at the 11 who were elected, came into Parliament during the last election. Now you might want to compare this list with the list you have. Maybe add some ones you didn't get. Some of these parties are found across all four nations of the UK and are quite popular and you might have heard of them before. Just for an example, the Conservative Party you probably heard of before and they stand across all four nations. Some of them are a bit smaller and only stand in one of the four nations. So for example, the SNP, the Scottish National Party, only stand in Canada and Scotland. These are some of the main political parties in the UK. So the the Alliance Party, the Conservative Party, the Cooperative Party, the Democratic Unionist Party, Green Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Scottish National Party, Sinn Fein, and the Social Democratic and Labour Party. These are some of the logos. You might have seen them around. This is what gives a party part of it's identity. Now each political party had its own items. What makes them them? All the political parties are different in some way. Some of them might share some ideas and values, but they're all distinctive in their own little way. Traditionally, political parties are organised along what's called a political spectrum. If you think of a spectrum as a line. They're classified along this line in some way and, historically, there are three ways this has been done, left wing, centrist and right wing. Left wing parties have something in common. Centrist parties have something in common and right wing parties have something in common. But a lot of people work in politics or political scientists or academics, and even some politicians themselves, are saying that this isn't very useful anymore because of the way politics has changed. Parties are kind of merging, right's coming left and left's going right and there's right centre and left centre. It's all just a little bit complicated now. It' no easy way of classifying them. However, saying all that, they are still used quite frequently. This is a political spectrum. We have the centre in the centre, the left wing, and right wing. Now this is a very simplified version of it. It's a very summarised version. It is a lot more complicated than this. But if you're a left wing political party, then you typically want things to change. You don't want things staying the same. You want things to happen. You are often quite in support of government intervention. You want the government to get involved. You want the government to help. You want to nationalise key public services. So nationalisation of key public services basically means you want things to be run by the government. So things like the railways, how we get out water is currently run by private organisations. When you're a left wing political party, typically, you want that to be under control of the government so the government can control it. So it is run not for profit. However, if you are right wing political party, then you often want the opposite. So you like things to stay the same pretty much. You don't like change all of a sudden. You think things should be thought about a bit more and things should be left how they are. You think the individual should be left to get on with it and they should do their own thing. But you know, as a government, that you'll help them if they need it. And you think that service like railways, like water should be run for profit because that's what makes them better, That's what makes them work harder. Now, like I said, it is a bit more complicated than that, but we're just going to look at those things. And then the centre, obviously, tries to bring the two sides together and tries to take bits from each. Now, if you want to write that down to add to your notes, you are more than welcome to just pause the video now but you don't have to. So what I would like you to do is access the worksheet attached to this lesson. I want you to read the slides, which are labelled "Party, Key Promises." There are five of them. What I would like to do, just based on the ideas on your sheet. Decide which party you would vote for if you could vote in a general election. You don't have to agree with everything they say but the party you agree with most. What I would like to do is just finish these sentences with your ideas. That's the party I would vote for is, and then you write down the name of the party. The policy you most like, so what thing they suggested you like the most and why on the policy you least liked because and why. Pause the video, access the worksheet, and pop back and we'll go through some ideas. Please pause the video now to complete the task. I've not got a set answer for this because it's all down for opinion, but you could have had Conservatives or Labour, Green, et cetera, and the policy you liked so it could be that you liked what they were doing for health. You liked what they're doing for education. You liked what the comments about your environment on the party use. It could be because you didn't like something, they were doing something to maybe something that's very important to you. You didn't like the education policy. You didn't like what they were doing about taxes, anything as far. And figuring out which party you support is all about developing your own political identity. It might be quite common that you'd have a very different identity to your friends, your family. And that's fine because everyone thinks different things. So you could have had the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, Labour, Brexit, all the Conservatives. That is what each of them stood. That's what each party was. Party one was the Dems. Party two the Green Party. Party three for the Labour. Party four with the Brexit party and party five with the Conservatives. Now I don't know that might surprise you, or you might have already known you support them, or you might not have known. How has this changed your opinion about political parties in any way? Just things you think about and reflect on. But remember there are also lots of other reasons why someone might support a political party. It's not just based on what their manifesto says. So the next task I would like you to do is access the worksheet again, and on the worksheet, you'll see task five. And this has summaries from the 2019 general election. Kindly provided by the Day Newspaper, which is a newspaper for young children. I would like you to copy the table, or if you'd rather do it another way, you can do it simply too. And each of the column has a question on it. And what I would like to do is read through the worksheet and use the information to answer that question. Now the pack can, the table asks you to do the Conservatives and Labour and that's purely because they are the two biggest. There is also a third row, which you can choose whichever party you want to do. It might be that you got the Green Party in your last task and you want to know a bit more about them. So the third party is completely up to you. So here's the table. So I've got the party name, party's view on taxes, party's view on the NHS, and any other information you think you'd like to know for the future. These are your notes that you're building up. However, if you select the SMP, Plaid Cymru, or the DUP, the NHS and taxes aren't included. This is because of what we have is called a devolved system of government. Again, we'll look at this a bit later in lesson six. But you can either, just write some information about them or you can pick your own things you would like to compare. So pause the video now to complete that task. Here are some answers for the task you've just completed. Well done for having a go at that one. So you've got the Conservative Party. The party leader is Boris Johnson. The party view on taxes, so what they said in their last manifesto, is that they aren't going to increase tax. Instead, they're going to try and give tax cuts. They want to give people more freedom and they may increase the NHS budget by an additional 20 billion pounds by 2023. So Labour is led by Sir Keir Starmer, QC. They want to increase taxes because they think that if we increase taxes, then we can develop public services more. And again, they want to increase, as well, the NHS budget by 26 billion. Now these were written during the manifesto at a very different time in the world. As things happen in real life, parties might change ideas. So with COVID and things, it is very interesting to see what all political parties saying about how they're going to increase budgets and decrease budgets, et cetera. So please do keep an eye on the news and you can find out what's happening. For your third row, hopefully, you've included your own party there on that. That brings today's lesson to an end. So, hopefully, you can now define what a political party is. You can give examples of different political parties in the UK, and you can explain some key policy differences between UK political parties. That brings today's lesson to an end. Please don't forget to complete the exit quiz after the lesson. Hopefully, you can receive the next one. Have a good day. Bye.

In this lesson, we will explore the role of an MP and how they undertake their work to ensure those who voted for them are represented.

What do MPs do?

In this lesson, we will explore the organisation of the UK Government. It will look at the roles of the Monarch, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and other ministers. It will introduce the different UK Government departments and focus on the work of the Treasury.

How is the UK government organised?

﻿Hi, and welcome to lesson five of how does UK political system work. Today, we're going to be exploring the question of how is the UK government organised. So, we're going to be looking at different, kinds of different government departments and their role. Okay, so for today's lesson, you are going to need your notes from last time, some paper, a pen, a different coloured pen and a quiet place to complete the lesson. If you need to grab any equipment or move, please do so now. Pause the video and then come back when you are ready. Okay. So, today we're going to look at three key questions. We're going to look at, how the government is organised. We are going to look at what the kind of different government departments are and we're going to look at the role of the treasury, which is one specific government department. Okay. So our first question is how is the government organised? Okay. So to think about this, we're going to start off with kind of something quite familiar to you, and we're going to look at how your school is structured and organised, okay. And we're going to produce what's called an organisational structure diagram. And what I would like to do is draw a diagram to represent your school structure okay. Think about all the different people in it. So your head teacher, your deputy head teacher, your assistant head teacher, your heads of department, your heads of year, your teachers, your form tutors, you. Who would you start with, who would you end with and how do these people relate to each other? Okay. And if you don't want to do your school, then you can do another organisation that you belong to. So a sports team, music group, et cetera. Okay. And if you're not too sure by what I mean by an organisational structure, I've had a go at drawing one for a football club, okay. So if you think about a football club, you've got the person in charge of it who's the chief executive okay. And then you have some kind of kind of vice executives and then kind of a big football club might split off into two bits. So it might split off into the kind of football players. So you've got your kind of executive for the football players and the team manager and then your head coach and you've got your first team players, and then for the other bit of the team you've got how it runs and how it makes it's profit et cetera. So you've got a commercial director, sales manager who makes sure tickets sell, you know they sell merchandise and things like that okay. So what I would like to do is produce a school organisational structure. So pause the video now and have a go at doing that. Okay well done for having a go with that, okay. And here is one produced by another assistant teacher, Mrs. White. And this shows the organisation of you know, many, many schools okay. It depends how your school is kind of organised. So at the top, we've got the Department for Education who kind of oversees schools and then because there are different types of schools, they've branched out to a County council or an Academy Trust. And then you got your head teacher, your deputy head teacher, your assistant head teacher, head of year, your teacher, through to you, your parents and carers. And an important thing, let's have a look at how they're all organised, okay. So while those are the top person in charge or a group in charge, everyone kind of links together to make the school work. And this is very much like the government okay. So why do you think it's important to have a structure with an organisation? What do you think are the benefits and what do you think could be the negatives? Okay. Now you don't have to write this down if you don't want to, but you kind of if you want to make a list. Kind of maybe pause the video and just take a couple of minutes, just have a think about what the benefits and what the negatives of having a structure within an organisation. So I've just got some thoughts here. It gives a clear chain of command so when something goes wrong you know kind of where to go. It gives each person their responsibility. So for example kind of when I go to school, I'm a teacher so I know that I've got a defined responsibility. I know I'm a form teacher so I know how to look after that form, et cetera. and there are also tasks to be overseen and directed so I know my manager gives me things to do specifically because of my job. She also does things because of her job, et cetera. It might make it a bit difficult though, because if there's lots of people in charge, it's like well which kind of which manager do I go to? And it might cause a bit of tension if you think the people above you aren't supporting you well enough to do your work effectively. Okay, so I'm sure you've got some of the same ideas, so well done for giving that a think. Okay, so we're going to have a look now at how the government is organised. I'm going to look at the key roles and people within the government. So I'm going to start off kind of with the Monarch okay. And we've looked at the role of the Monarch in a previous lesson, kind of the difference between government and parliament. So we know that we have a constitutional monarchy now. So that means that that kind of the monarchy doesn't run the country, but does have a very important role in it. It's kind of often quite traditional, it's often quite ceremonial, but she is technically kind of the head of state. So kind of, this is where we will start off. Then we have the prime minister okay. So the prime minister is the leader of the government, and currently this is Boris Johnson and the prime minister has overall responsibility for the policy decisions of the government okay. So kind of the Monarch would then kind of feed into the prime minister. And then we have got cabinet ministers okay. So the prime minister is supported in running the government by the cabinet okay. And the cabinet are senior members of government who oversee the running of different government departments. So the government is split up into lots of different departments and as well as being known as cabinet ministers, they're also known as secretary of state and each week they meet to discuss issues kind of which are important and this is called a cabinet meeting and you can see in the picture there that is where they meet kind of usually around the cabinet table, number 10. And then this is the current list of them. So I'm filming this in kind of August 2020, and this is currently list. I mean, I'll just say a few. So we've got Rishi Sunak, he's the Chancellor of the Exchequer so he is in charge of the treasury department. We've got Matt Hancock, who is the Secretary of State For Health and Social Care. We got Grant Shapps he is in charge of transport. Priti Patel, she is in charge of the Home Department. So you got lots of different people okay, which come together to support the work of the government. And then each government department is supported by ministers okay. So the head of the department is kind of the secretary of state, although the cabinet minister, and then these are supported by ministers. Okay. And the minister will have a specific responsibility within the department. And for example they'll oversee one aspect of his work. So if we look at this kind of education department for example, we have the secretary of state as Gavin Williamson, but then we've got other roles within the department which are overseen by different ministers. So for example, the minister of state for school standards is Nick Gibb, while everything needs kind of overseeing by Gavin Williamson. So a bit like in your school. So your school will have kind of heads of department and teachers might have a specific role kind of within the department, but everything will be overseen by the head of department. And then that secretary of state will feed in back to the prime minister. All right so we've got one prime minister, we got 21 kind of cabinet minister's, so we got 120 ministers in total at the moment. So a government department is responsible for putting a specific policy into practise okay. So specific promises of the government are now put into practise by a department. And there were 44 departments in total and 21 of these are overseen by a cabinet minister. Now I'm not going to go through every department 'cause that would take too long, I've just picked a few. So the treasury is to do with money and the economy, the foreign and Commonwealth office is to do with our foreign relations with kind of other countries and home office is to do with things like national security, keeping us safe. Minister of justice is about kind of the justice system and crime. Defence about the army and the air force and the Navy The department of social care is health and NHS caring for people. International trade is about how we trade with other countries. Department of education is obviously education. So primary, secondary, higher education, further education. Department for work and pensions. So it makes sure people have their pension, people have job et cetera. And then all these people involved in these things are also members of parliament okay. So they can become a minister because they are a member of parliament, because they have been elected by the people. Our MPs have another role, kind of many MPS work just on representing their constituents, but others also have additional roles as well. So what I would like you to do now is applying this knowledge to create a structured diagram of how the government is organised. So just like we did with the kind of school, we're going to look at the government okay. And these are the things I would like you to include, the prime minister, the home office ministers, the Ministry of Justice, the Monarchy, the Department of Health and Social Care, the kind of government departments, secretary of state, Department of Education okay. And we're going to look at the hierarchy okay. So kind of who has the most power okay. How does that feed down into different people? And what's the relationship between them. Now if you think you can do that by yourself, then it's fine. You can pause the video now, leave it on the screen and just go off and do it. But if you think you're going to need some help, then you can stay with me and I'm going to give you a model to maybe help and fill in. So here is a model okay. So we've got some letters which you can use to structure your thinking. So again, you might have to pause this and kind of work it out from there, I'm going to have to flip between this screen and the other screen. So pause the video and have a go at that task please. Okay, well done for giving that a go okay. So this is what I got. So we've got the Monarchy at the top who feeds into the prime minister, who feeds in through the secretary of state, then we've got ministers and then we've got our government departments, okay. So it's probably a bit more complicated than that as well, but you know just keeping it simple just to have an introduction on how it's organised, that works quite well. So well done for giving that a go. Okay so we're going to look at the work of one government department in particular okay, And we're going to look at the treasury okay. And can you remember what the treasury does? Hopefully you can. So the treasury is concerned with money and finance okay, and this is how the treasury is organised okay. So we've got the secretary of state, our cabinet minister, just make things a little bit more complicated, the person in charge of the treasury has a different title, they're known as a Chancellor of the Exchequer and currently this is Rishi Sunak. And again, you can see under Rishi Sunak we have different ministers who are in charge of different things within the treasury okay. So there's a hierarchy within the treasury. And again, there'll be people below them as well who feed into that work, who they then feed back to Rishi Sunak. So the HM treasury is governmennt's economic and finance department, and over sees a number of things, including public spending. So each government department has a budget and this is treasury. financial policies like regulating the banks and different financial services. Then the tax system. So when people get paid they pay tax, then when you go shopping you pay tax on things Infrastructure projects like building a roads, hospitals, schools, et cetera, they provide the money for these. The growth of the economy and they can show whether the economy is growing and what happened when we're kind of in a recession. The treasury will put things together to make us try and get out of a recession or avoid a recession. And the budget is probably the most well known activity of the treasury okay. So each year the Chancellor of the Exchequer goes to the commons and outlines the budget of what they're going to to do okay, and it's symbolised by this red case okay. So each Chancellor holds the red case and has all the paperwork and the red case, and here's the 2020 pictures of that. There's Rishi Sunak on his way to parliament kind of to the house of commons to give his budget in 2020. Okay so the budget is the annual decision of the government of how to spend on each government department okay. So it involves a lot of balancing of income and spending, and the UK gets it's income primarily through tax okay. So tax is money given to the government through things like wages, from businesses, from our spending in the economy, et cetera. But the UK also borrows some money as well to support it's income. And in 2020 to 2021, the chancellor divided 928 billion pounds, which as a figure, I think it's incomprehensible to think of how much money that is, but that's a lot of money between the government departments and also paying off the national debt. And so this is a breakdown of kind of, it's probably quite simplistic break down of what the government spent. Kind of take that as the bottom, figures may not sum due to rounding okay. So it's been round up to be made a bit simpler okay. So you might actually want to pause the video now and just have a look at what amounts were given to what okay. So education for example got 116 billion. The health got 178 billion. Housing and development got 32 billion okay. So quite a lot of spending going on there. So what I would like you to do now is have a think about if you were the chancellor okay, and you would be preparing the budget for 2021 okay, Which is something that we'll be thinking about right now, how would you do it? So we're going to pretend that we have a little increase in budget okay. So we're going to say we've got 936 billion pounds okay. And to make the task a little bit easier, what you can do is you can allocate the money in percentages rather than actual amounts. So what percentage out of 100 Okay so your chart will have to add up to 100% So you're going to look at the government departments which are listed there. So you might want to make a note of them and you can either produce a pie chart or a list okay. Now, to produce a pie chart, you can just draw around kind of something circular. So if you've got any cello tape or a glass or kind of anything at home. Or you can just make a list okay. And have to think about who would give the most to, who would you give the least to, and do you think there's stuff that needs funding by the government that isn't already okay. I should say that this isn't everything that government funds, but just to make it simpler for you I've just put a few ideas there. So pause the video now, have a go at that and then kind of come back to finish off the lesson. Okay so here is mine okay. So I have decided to give the most welfare and then health, and then housing gets the least. So you can see my pie chart and yours might look something hopefully like that if you're doing a pie chart kind of, well done. So that brings the lesson to an end okay and hopefully you now have a better idea of how the government is organised. You can get examples of different government departments and explain what they do, and you can explain the role of the treasury kind of just specifically. Okay so now the lesson's ended. Please don't forget to complete the quiz afterwards to check what you've learnt. Hopefully kind of see you for the final lesson again. Have a good day and see you again next time. Thank you.

In this lesson, we will explore the process of devolution, what devolved government means and the impact on politics in the UK.

How does devolved government work?

﻿Hi! Can I welcome you to lesson six of 'How does the political system work in the UK. Today, we are going to look at how devolved governments work. So, we're going to look at the governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. So, for today's lesson, you're going to need your notes from last lesson and from previous lessons, you're going to need some paper, a pen, a different coloured pen and a quiet place where you can complete the lesson. If you need any other things or you need to move, please pause video and go and grab your equipment and move and then restart it once you're ready to begin the lesson. Okay, so we have three things then. We're going to look at 'What is devolution?'. We're going to look at 'What powers have been transferred to the different administrations in the UK?'. And we're going to look at the advantages and disadvantages of devolution. Okay, so our first question to explore is 'What is devolution?'. So, let's have a look at some words. We're going to look at the word 'decrease', 'descend', and 'detach'. And maybe you can think of some other words beginning with 'de' as well. What do you think these words mean, what do you think they have in common, and how might they link to 'devolution'?. What other words sound like devolution? So maybe, pause the video and just have a little think about that question. Okay so, decrease. It means make or become smaller. Descend, it means move or fall downwards and detach means leave or separate. And all these three words link to devolution quite well. So to devolve something, like devolution, is the transfer or power to a different level. Especially from central government to local or regional administration. Transferring power from Westminster to UK regions, okay? And when we think of devolution in critical terms, this is what it means. We are transferring power from Westminster and London, to the different areas of the UK or the different nations of the UK. So Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It would be a good idea to pause the video and just note that definition down so you have it for reference. So, the UK, just so we are all sure, when we talk about the UK, we mean England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland isn't in the UK. And devolution also is starting to mean the transferring of power to different regions of England as well. So we're getting the power transferred from Westminster to local areas. So, a lot of areas now have mayors and these mayors have more power than they used to and they can make more decisions at a local level about what affects the local region. I'm from Greater Manchester and we have a mayor, Andy Burnham and he has a power to make decisions which he didn't used to have because of this idea of devolution. And this is just a diagram to hopefully represent that idea a bit more. So we have the UK government/Westminster Parliament, and devolution means the transferring of power to Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, those main administrations transferring it down into local councils. The UK government also transfers power to local councils. And then we've got devolution in England and devolution in English regions to regional mayors as well okay. If you want to note that diagram down in your notes, pause video and do so, it is quite a good representation of the process. So, what powers have been transferred to different administrations in the UK? Devolution in the UK has created a National Parliament in Scotland, a Welsh Assembly and a National Assembly in Northern Ireland. This process transfers varying levels of power from the UK Parliament to different jurisdictions in the UK or different parts of the UK. And you can see the different kind of buildings and different rooms where these parliaments are held. We've got the Welsh Parliament, Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly there. And here we've got the leaders of those. We've got the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon. We've got the leader of Wales, Mark Drakeford. And then in Northern Ireland, the power is shared by two people, Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill. And they come from two different parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin. So, devolved powers are policy decisions that Westminster Parliament controlled in the past but are now taken by separate UK bodies e.g the Scottish Parliament. This is because they have a regional impact. The decisions they make will only impact that region. The reserved powers however, are policy decisions that are still controlled by Westminster Parliament and this is because they have a UK-wide or international impact. So to figure out if something is reserved or devolved, it's to do with the impact it has and again, you might want to pause the video now to note down the definitions of those two things. Okay, so lets have a look then, which is which. Can you identify which power is devolved or which is reserved. So I'm going to bring up on screen a kind of government and you're going to just say out loud if you think it's devolved or if you think it's reserved. So, tourism. Do you think its reserved or do you think it's devolved. Think about if the impact of tourism is going to impact that region most or the whole country. So hopefully you've got it's devolved. So each devolved nation has control over its tourism, what it can and can't do etc. Education. Is education going to impact that nation or is it going to impact the whole country. Devolved. So you might see on the news, talk about the different education systems. In Scotland, they do Highers. England does GCSEs. That's how it differs. Defence. So making sure the country is safe, the army, navy, air force, etc. Is that devolved or is that reserved? So think about the impact of defence on the whole country. So that is reserved, that power is reserved for Westminster in London, make that decision for all nations. Now, the nations might be in those conversations but on the whole it's a decision made by the government in London on behalf of the whole UK. Health. So is health going to impact the region or will it impact the whole country. Devolved, so health is a devolved issue. Different nations have different rules and different policies about health. Prescription charges for example, are free in Scotland where as they are not free for everyone in England. Foreign policy, so how the UK interacts with different countries and how it feeds them in trade and things like that. Is that devolved or is that reserved? Does it impact just the region or does it impact the whole nation? It's a reserved power, so the UK central government in Westminster set that. What I'm going to ask you to do is, I'm going to ask you to access a worksheet attached to the lesson and you're going to use the information to complete the table. And I'm going to give you a challenge task if you can, don't worry if you can't. Can you find an area of policy which Scotland and Northern Ireland have devolved to them but Wales does not. There's one policy area, which will be clear on the sheet which Scotland and Northern Ireland have but Wales does not. So, here's the table. You have to fill in the missing information for UK, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with where it is, how many seats, full or devolved power and what they can legislate. You need four examples for that. Please pause the video now, access the worksheet, give it a read and make the table and pop back once you have finished. Well done for giving that a go. Here is the answers. Hopefully, you got the same as me, give it a tick with your different coloured pen or if you need, you can correct them. Here are some examples of the local services, remember, you only needed four. I shortened the list on your handouts but this is a full list. And then I gave you the challenge task. It's law and justice. So Scotland and Northern Ireland have devolved powers over the issue of law and justice but Wales do not, as of yet. It's something which might be discussed in the future but right now, it's not devolved. The law and justice systems of Wales are overseen by Westminster. England and Wales have a very similar justice system and laws. Wales also has oversight of the Welsh language as well which no one else does. So, what do we think? Advantages and disadvantages of devolution. So we're going to explore those now and hopefully, by this point, you've thought of your own. You've thought, well actually that's quite a good idea or actually that could cause problems because of X, Y and Z. So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of devolution? So, I'm going to read out some sentences and I want to ask you to select the correct word from a list to fill in the sentence. You'll only have to say and think the correct word out loud. Devolution allows for ___ to be taken at a local level. This allows for the different UK nations to ensure that the issues that impact them most are responded to locally. So, is it going to be knowledge, decisions, complexity or identities. What word goes in that gap for it to make the most sense. If you need to pause video to have a little think, please do so. But hopefully, you've got the word. Decisions. Devolution allows for decisions to be taken at a local level and this allows for the UK nations to make sure that what matters to them is dealt with locally. So, agriculture for example is different in Wales as it is to England. It can be quite beneficial. Devolution may create extra ___ for national governments. This is because buildings need to be built and maintained and staff employed. What word goes there? Costs. Buildings need to be built, maintained. Staff . In Westminster, you might not need those things. You probably don't need staff, probably wouldn't need buildings, but then how practical would it be to control four nations from one building in Westminster. That's a question that you have to ask yourself. The something identity of a country can be considered when making political decisions. This means each nation can retain important parts of their history and heritage. So, it's their national identity. When you're looking, making decisions about a country, you can make sure your national identity, who you are is represented and your history can come through, parts of your heritage, what matters to you most. Okay, final one. It may make political decision making more something. This is because some decisions are devolved and some are reserved. So, it adds a level of complexity. It may make political decision making more complex. Some decisions are devolved and some are reserved. Okay, so, your next task is I'm going to ask you what you think are the advantages and disadvantages of having devolved powers. You're going to use the arguments on the next slide which are the arguments we've just gone through, to create a table of the advantages and disadvantages of devolution and hopefully you'll be able to add an argument to one side or both sides of the debate. So here are the arguments. Draw a little table, advantages and disadvantages and put the sentence in the correct column. Pause video now to have a go at that please. OK, well done for having a go at that. Here are the answers so the green ones are advantages and the pink ones are disadvantages I'll just go through them. So advantages, devolution allows for decisions to be taken at a local level. This allows for the different UK nations to ensure the issues that impact most are responded to locally. And, the national identity of a country can be considered when making political decisions. This means each nation can retain important parts of their history and heritage. And then the disadvantages. It may make political decision making more complex. This is because some decisions are devolved and some are reserved. And, devolution may create extra costs for national governments. This is because buildings need to be built and maintained and staff employed. Hopefully you have got some of your own too. That brings the lesson to an end. Hopefully you can now define devolution. You can give examples of devolved and reserved powers. And you can consider the strengths and weaknesses or advantages and disadvantages of devolution. And that also brings the whole unit to an end. We've completed the six lesson unit on how does the political system work in the UK. So a very big well done! You should now be able to answer all these questions here. I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you've learned some new information and that you'll carry on your learning with Oak and maybe do another topic. Obviously check with your teacher. You can now leave the lesson. Please make sure you do the exit quiz to see how much you have remembered from today's lesson. And also, as it's the last lesson of the unit, if you have got any work that you would like to share, please do ask a parent or carer to share that work with us. The tag, the Twitter handle is @OakNational and if you us the hashtag #LearnwithOak, we can pick it up and we can get to see all the great things that you have done throughout the module. Thank you very much. Have a good day and see you again soon hopefully.

Unit Overview: How does the political system work in the UK?

National Curriculum

Unit Question

Lessons: