Today we are going to talk about the UK General Election. Voters will go to the polls on Thursday 7th May 2015. On the same day local elections will also take place in many, but not all parts, of the UK.
There are 650 parliamentary seats up for grabs. Each seat is created from 650 constituencies. These are spread right across the UK. Their size varies, as each constituency is based on a certain number of people. Thus in London there are many MPs while in Scotland the areas for each MP in the countryside is huge, due to people not living near each other.
Incredibly at the time of writing this English lesson the US government has partially shut down! Why? Because the Republicans and the Democrats couldn’t agree on the US budget by midnight on the 30th September.
The politicians were squabbling like boys fighting on a school playground about the US budget and about the elimination or at least the delay of Obamacare.
Category: Economic / Politics / USA
Recently Britain lost one of its most famous Prime Ministers. Baroness Thatcher, who was Britain’s first female Prime Minister died “peacefully” at the age of 87 following a stroke. Baroness Thatcher will have a full ceremonial funeral with military honours at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Current Prime Minister David Cameron praised Baroness Thatcher saying she was “the greatest peacetime Prime Minister. She was a great leader, a great Briton”. He added, “She didn’t just lead our country, she saved our country.”
Category: Politics / Great Leaders / Margaret Thatcher
Recently an opinion poll in Britain revealed a majority of voters want Britain
to leave the European Union. The poll by opinion firm Survation showed
that 51% of people in Britain were in favour of the UK leaving the EU, while
only 34% wanted to stay with Brussels. The results suggest that support for
Britain to withdraw from the EU is at its highest in 30 years. The surge, up
41% on a year ago, is attributed to Britains Daily Express newspaper
waging a crusade to get Brits to think again on the EU.
Category: EU / Britain / Poll
Is Scotland going to leave the United Kingdom? Will it break away and become an independent country? That’s the question.
The Union has lasted more than 300 years - yet Scottish Nationalist party leader Alex Salmond would like to break away from it and form an independent Scotland. If so, will Great Britain suddenly become a little less great? The United Kingdom, which currently includes England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, would then be not so ‘United’.
The Union Jack would suddenly be without its blue colours. Northern Ireland and Wales have indicated they would prefer Scotland to remain in the UK. Ironically in a recent poll whilst 52% of Scottish people voted to leave the UK 59% of English people wanted them to leave! The English want an independent England!
Category: United Kingdom / Scotland / UK Breakup
Slovakia - A coalition of four centre-right opposition parties has won enough seats to unseat Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s coalition government. With most of the votes now counted opposition supporters across the country were partying the night away knowing the results will bring about a change of government in the small Central European country.
Mr Fico’s leftist Smer-SD party beat each of the opposition parties in the countries parliamentary elections - capturing 34.79% of the vote, enough to gain 62 seats in the 150-seat parliament. But the four centre-right opposition parties picked up 79 seats. Smer-SD actually increased its share of the vote. It will have the largest number of seats in parliament by far, but will fall short of an overall majority. Mr Fico has said he was willing to try to form a government or to lead the opposition TASR reported.
Slovak President Ivan Gašparovic has said he will ask the winner of the general election Smer-SD to form the next government. He said it is the moral thing to do. Opposition parties have however united against forming any form of coalition with Fico. SDKU-DS opposition leader Iveta Radicova: “I am ready to be the first female Slovak Prime Minister.”
Category: Central Europe / Slovakia / General Election 2010
