To what extent does the UK still have a two party system?

Here is an essay I wrote in year 12, my first year of college, on British political parties. Reading it now makes me cringe like mad.

Robyn, UK

To what extent does the UK still have a two party system?

Political parties are important because the relationships between and amongst them are crucial in structuring the way the political system works in practices. The traditional view of UK politics is that it is dominated by a two-party system. However changes in politics have caused people to argue the extent to which the UK is a two party system.

In 1998, devolution took place through the creation of a Scottish Parliament, a Welsh Assembly and a Northern Ireland Assembly. Devolution has made nationalist parties more prominent. This means that although they may still be minor parties in Westminster, they are major parties in their part of the UK. An example of this can be seen in Scotland’s by-election. The two main parties were SNP and Labour. For a nationalist party to be in Scotland’s two party system shows the significant difference devolution has had. On the other hand, the labour party still won the election. This means that Scotland is a two party system, but has two different parties to England but the UK on the whole remains a two party system as labour still won.

Since 1997 the use of proportional electoral systems for new bodies has improved minor party representation. The two party system is maintained by first-past-the-post system, so this new electoral system means two-partyism is harder to achieve. However, this system is very rarely used across the UK and isn’t used in the general election. This means that when it comes to electing a prime minister, the UK remains a two party system.

New issues which have emerged have also made a difference to the UK party system. These issues, such as war, the environment and Europe cut across traditional party-political battles. Where there is consensus politics on these issues, more people look towards parties such as UKIP, the Green Party and Respect. This is because these parties focus on certain issues. However, these parties don’t get enough votes for them to make a difference to the Westminster two party system as they have a two narrow focus.

There is evidence that multipartyism is becoming more common. In 2004 the European Parliament election saw MEPs elected from seven different parties. Also, the Scottish parliament was controlled by a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition until 2007 and then a Scottish National Party administration came into power. In terms of the Welsh Assembly, there have been three different types of government: a majority labour administration, a minor labour administration and a labour-liberal democrat coalition. With all of these governments, the main opposition party was Plaid Cymru. From this you can see that more parties are having better opportunities for winning power. However, it must be noted that Labour still always won and none of these happened in Westminster. This means that the two party system is still winning, although the labour-liberal democrat coalitions show that the liberal cemocrats are close to creating a multiparty system.

Since 1997, there has been multiple or overlapping party systems, which operate in different ways at different levels. In Scotland and Wales nationalist parties are coming closer to winning, although Labour still ends up in power. The party system in England is becoming more and more complicated as in the midlands, there is a labour-conservative battle, in the north there is a labour-liberal democrat battle and the liberal democrat-conservative battle is in the south. Despite this, two partyism still continues to operate within the House of Commons. This means that despite the regional voting patterns, a two party system still exists.

I think that voting patterns show that we are on the brink of a multiparty system. However while the UK still mainly uses the first-past-the-post system, a multiparty system can never exist.