Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Harris, and I'm the person who's going to be guiding you through today's lesson.

The lesson today is called "What Do Political Parties Do?" And it's part of a larger series of lessons called, How Does the Political System Work in the UK? By the end of today's lesson, you are going to be able to say, I can explain why political parties exist, what they do, and how they can be categorised.

Some of this you might know, some of it might be completely new, and some of it might be challenging, but I'm gonna be guiding you all the way through it and we'll do it together.

Let's start with our key words.

I'm going to say the key word and you are going to repeat it back.

Are we ready? Political party.

Policies.

Political spectrum.

It's time for our first learning cycle called, what do political parties do? A political party is an organised group of people, and all the people within it share really similar beliefs and ideas about how they think society should be run.

Now, people become members of the political party 'cause they support the same ideas and policies of that party.

One of the major aims of a political party is to influence public policy.

So that's to change how the country, communities and societies run, and they do that by getting their members into positions of power.

So that could be getting people into power within Parliament, it could be getting people into positions of power in local councils, or things like devolves governments.

Jacob's telling us that the devolved governments are the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Parliament, and the Northern Ireland assembly, and they have some powers transferred to them from the UK government.

A very quick check for understanding then.

So can you fill in this missing word? "Political parties want to influence public by having their members in positions of power." Which word fills this gap? I'll give you a few seconds to think.

Okay, that word is.

Policies.

Political parties want to influence public policies by having their members in positions of power.

Well done.

Political parties select candidates who've got the best chance of getting these positions of power.

So gaining that power.

And then the Party And the candidate work as a team to persuade the electorate to vote for them to be their representative.

Now, the word electorate means the group of people who are eligible, who are allowed to vote.

The ultimate goal is to win enough votes to be able to form a council or a government that can then make laws and pass laws and then make the decisions on local and national issues.

There are four main things that a political party does, and one of them is that it supports its candidates and its elected members.

When somebody wants to become a counsellor or an MP in a position of power, it's really important that the political party supports them to do that.

So that might be on the campaign trail, actually having people knocking on doors, handing out leaflets.

It might be financial support by actually printing things or having fundraising events and things like that.

It might be when the person wins a seat that the political party support them in being in office and helping them learn the best way to do their job.

Another thing the political parties do are to represent and engage with the people.

If you don't represent and engage with the people, people aren't gonna vote for you, and therefore you're not gonna get into a position of power.

So this is one of the most important things that they do.

They will be in the community.

So they might have clubs or groups or meetings.

They're there if people need help.

So, for example, MPs and counsellors will be there to support the people that live in the area that they represent.

They'll go out on the campaign trail and actively speak to people and get their opinions and their ideas and see what that community needs.

Political parties are very much a voice for the citizens that live in the UK.

Now, I can't just travel to parliament or to my local council and speak.

It's my local representative that will do that for me.

So it's important for the parties to engage with people like you and like me to find out what's important to us so that they can voice our needs and our ideas and policies that we would like to see on behalf of us.

Another thing a political party does is they create a manifesto of their plans, and then they'll carry out the policies.

So they have to speak to people who live in the local area, find out what the issues are, and then they have to put solutions in place and work out how are they going to make things better.

If they then get voted into these positions of power, they then have to carry out those plans, carry out those policies, to make that area better and society work better.

Another thing political parties do will behold the government to account.

So this means if there isn't the party that is in control of the government, then they'll scrutinise the government.

They will look at what they're doing, ask questions, decide if what they're doing is right for the country, is there something they could be doing, is there something they've completely messed up? And they'll ask questions sometimes directly of Prime Minister themselves to find out what is going on and if the country is being run in the very best way that it can be.

There'll be debates where they look at the good things and the bad things of different policies, and then they'll work together to hopefully make sure that the country is moving forward in the best way for the people who live here.

A quick check for understanding then.

So the document that contains the ideas and plans for political party is called a.

Cabinet, a campaign, or a manifesto? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it.

All right, so the document that contains the ideas and plans of a political party is called a manifesto.

That is right.

Well done.

Let's look at how political parties are funded then.

Now, there are three main ways that political parties get their money.

So one of them is through donations.

Now, this could be individuals and it could be organisations or businesses that will choose to give money to political parties that have the same beliefs and ideas as them.

There are limits on how much money can be donated and also there are rules that it has to be UK citizens or UK residents can donate to political parties.

Another way that political parties are funded is through membership fees.

So that's if you are a member of a political party, you will pay a membership fee, as lots of people do for different clubs.

But the cost for this is usually quite low to try and encourage as many people as possible to get involved in it.

Another way political parties can get money is through government funding.

So this money is used for things like carrying out research, having public consultations, it might be hiring experts, lots of different things like that, and that comes directly from the government.

Political parties will spend the money on lots of different things.

So it could be on running campaigns, it might be paying the staff, it could be that advertising their ideas or even organising events.

There are quite strict rules though on how funding can be used.

So if the money comes from government funding, you can't use that on election campaigns or other election-related activities.

So they do have to be quite careful in how they're spending the money and making sure that it's spent on the right things.

Let's have a look at this check for understanding then.

So fill in the missing words.

"There are three main ways political parties can get funding: Donations, membership fees, and.

." What are those missing words? I should give you a few seconds to think about it.

Okay.

There are three main ways political parties can get funding, through donations, membership fees, and government funding.

Well done if you've got that one.

Now it's time for the first task, Task A.

You need to match each of these tasks to one of the four main roles of a political party.

So we have eight statements here, eight tasks, and you need to cut the numbers into the correct box, which shows the role that it's playing.

So number one is to fund election campaigns.

Two, expose the government's wrongdoings.

Three, hold local meetings and events for residents.

Four, make plans to tackle issues in things like healthcare, education, et cetera.

Number five, offer candidates training and resources.

Six, push for laws which reflect the interests of citizens.

Seven, scrutinise the prime minister laws and budgets.

And eight, make reforms using their manifesto as the starting point for change.

You need to decide if these things are supporting the members, representing the people, holding the government to account, or creating and carrying out policy.

It's a really good idea now to pause this video, give yourself that time to do the task, and then we'll come back and look at the answers together.

Let's go through the answers together.

So your answers should look like this then.

So number one, fund election campaigns, and number five, offering candidates training and resources, that's all about supporting the members.

Number three, hold local meetings and events for residents, and number six, pushing for laws which reflect interests of citizens, they come under representing the people.

Number two, exposing the government's wrongdoings, and scrutinising the prime minister laws and budgets, that's number seven, they go under holding the government to account.

And final one is number four and eight, making plans to tackle issues in things like healthcare and education and making reforms using their manifesto, and they both come under creating and carries out policies.

Amazing job if you've got those ones.

Well done.

It's time to move on to our second learning cycle now.

Why are there so many political parties? Giving voters a wide selection of political parties to choose from means that lots of different ideas get represented in politics.

And the different political parties, they exist because they represent diverse opinions.

Now people care about all kinds of things, don't they? Like the economy, they care about the environment, they care about things like social justice and education, and the political parties are there to represent these issues.

They're also there to give choice to voters.

Now, parties exist for almost every single reason out there.

And so the more parties that exist, the more chance there is that person will find a party that really represents the same ideas as them.

Different political parties also represent regional differences.

Now, the United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and each of regions have got their own interests and their own ideas.

And so having different political parties to represent these give chance to focus on the issues that are specific to those regions.

And finally, we've got different political parties to challenge and debate.

So having lots of different political parties that encourages debates, it encourages discussion, and it encourages thinking of things a little bit differently.

So having political parties which challenge each other helps improve policies and makes people feel like they're the ones that are being represented because it's listening to a variety of opinions.

Quick check for understanding then.

You are going to match these headings to their explanations.

So we have number one, diverse opinions.

Two, regional differences.

Three, choice for voters.

And four, challenge and debate.

Which of these headings there match the explanations? We've got A, encourage discussion and innovation, B, ensure there's a party for everyone, C, to focus on issues specific to geographical areas, D, focus on different societal issues, and you match headings to the explanations.

I'll give you some time to do that.

All right, let's match them up then.

So, number one, diverse opinions goes with focusing on different societal issues.

Two matches with C, to focus on issues specific to the geographical area.

That's the regional differences, isn't it? And three, choice for voters means that there's a party for everybody.

And finally, challenging and debating encourages discussion and innovation.

Excellent, if you got those.

At the moment, there are 375 registered political parties in the UK.

375, and yet, only 13 of them won seats in parliament in the July 2024 general election.

So let's have a look at some of these parties then.

These ones in green, these stood for election and they focus on issues in more than one region of the UK.

So remember, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, these stand for more than one region there.

These ones in green now.

These are regional parties because they're only found in one region of the UK.

So they'll focus on issues that are important to just that region.

So it could be about regional identity, it could be about the local governance and how that's run there, or it could even be focusing on independence of that region.

Can you fill in the missing word in this check for understanding? "Political parties which focus on issues that are important in either Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales are known as.

." What kind of parties? I'll give you some time to think about it and we'll come back.

Okay, so political parties which focus on issues important in either Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales are known as regional parties.

Great job if you got that one.

So now we're onto Task B.

You will need to write one paragraph to explain why there are so many political parties in the UK.

And there is a word back here on the screen, if you would like that, to assist you to write this paragraph.

The words are democracy, regional, values, debating, choice, freedom, national, fair, and beliefs.

Pause the video to do the task, and then we'll come back and go through some possible answers.

All right, let's see what your answer might have looked like then.

"There are so many political parties in the UK because democracy allows people the freedom to form and support parties based on their beliefs and values.

Having a wide range of political parties gives voters a variety of choices.

Some political parties focus on national issues while others, known as regional parties, focus on concerns specific to areas like Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Political parties also play an important role in challenging and debating each other's policies, which makes parties think carefully about their own plans and ideas.

The freedom to create multiple parties strengthens democracy, but it's important that rules are followed so that parties are fair, transparent, and they uphold democracy." Did yours have ideas similar to mine in there? Did you use the word right? Really well done on that writing task.

It's time for our third learning cycle now, how are political parties different? As we've discussed then, every political party has its own identity.

It has its own ideas, it has its own values, they have their own logo, they have their own associated colour, and, obviously, a unique set of people involved in that Party As well.

To be able to differentiate, to tell the difference between the different kinds of policies that parties have, they get organised on a sliding scale called political spectrum.

Now, historically, there's been three main ways of classifying political parties and putting them on this political spectrum, and that's by calling them left wing, right wing and centrist.

So each side of this political spectrum you tend to have a group of ideas or policies and principles, and what this side of the political spectrum think sit in opposition to this side.

So the right wing sit in opposition to what the left wing believe in general and the left wing sit in opposition to what the right wing think in general.

The principles and ideas we're talking about are all about the best way to organise society, and that's to make sure that the countries and the people that live within them thrive and kind of have the best opportunities available to them.

So here is an example of the political spectrum.

Here, we've got the left.

Here, we've got the right.

And in the middle, we have the centre.

That makes sense, doesn't it? So a party here would be called left wing.

A party here would be called right wing.

And a party here in the middle would be called centrist.

Central but centrist.

Time to fill in then the missing words for this check for understanding.

"So to differentiate between the kinds of policies and standpoints political parties have, they're commonly organised along a sliding scale known as the," what? There are two words there to complete this.

I'll give you some time to think and then we'll check the answer.

All right, so it is known as the political spectrum.

Well done if you've got that one.

So being on the political spectrum means that political parties, they don't have to sit just at one end or the other.

They can be anywhere on the political spectrum.

So in other words, it's a mixture of the different classifications.

So if you get a party sitting here, they would be known as centre left.

If you have a party here, they would be known as centre right.

I think a good way to compare it would be thinking about compass points.

Not everything is just north or just south, you also have east and west, but you also have northeast and northwest.

And that's the same thing with political parties.

They don't often sit exactly at one point and are often a mixture of different classifications.

In general though, political parties do consider themselves to be left wing or right wing, even though some of their principles might come from a different part of the political spectrum.

I guess it's a little like best fit policy.

So if most policies come from the left and one or two from centre or right, you consider yourself more left.

Or if most of your policies on the right but a couple come from the centre, you're probably best to describe yourself as right, even though policies can be anywhere on the spectrum.

So if someone described themselves as right wing might actually support some policies which are left-leaning.

Now this can be a really positive thing because politics can be quite complex.

And if you just have strict labelling systems, it doesn't cover the difference of opinion and the difference of ideas.

So it does encourage people to keep an open mind.

A true or false question then.

"All the policies of a political party must fall on the same side of the political spectrum." Is that true or false? Take a few seconds to think about it and we'll come back.

All right, so the answer to this is false.

No, they don't have to fall on the same side of the political spectrum.

Why? I'll give you a few more seconds to think.

Why then? That's because political parties can have policies which are a mixture of the classifications of left or right wing.

So a party might be predominantly left wing or right wing, but they might have one or two principles from the other side of the political spectrum.

Really good job if you manage to explain that one.

So what does left wing and right wing actually mean? Well, let's start by looking at right wing.

So political parties on the right, typically, and I say typically because they're not all exactly the same.

But usually they favour policies which promote things like individual responsibility.

So that's about citizens being reliant on themselves and not just relying on government help.

They tend to support economic freedom.

So that's having lower tax for businesses and higher earners to encourage people to invest and spend their money in the UK.

They favour things like traditional values.

So having traditional family structures and strong national identity.

And often, they oppose quite quick social change when the social outset of the UK looks very different very quickly.

They also favour high national security.

So that's having strict law enforcement.

So heavy use of punishment for those who commit crimes, but also have policies that protect the borders of the country and also keeping the UK sovereign.

So the UK relying on itself and being self-governing.

If you have political parties on the left, typically, again, typically because they're not all the same, they will generally favour policies which promote equality.

And they believe that the government should intervene to try and reduce down this inequality between rich and poor and to try and make sure that everybody has fair access to services like healthcare and education.

Also things like environment.

A lot of parties on the left favour policies which help to tackle climate change and to support and promote sustainability.

Things like welfare.

There's often strong support for welfare systems and making sure that people can have access to free healthcare, affordable housing, and making sure that if people have fallen on hard times through health or jobs or that there is a government support system there to support them.

And they also tend to promote international relationships.

So having good relationships with other countries outside of the UK and cooperating on issues for things like environments, poverty, human rights, and so on.

Now, parties in the centre, as you'd probably gather, is going to be a mixture of left and right, and it tries to combine different aspects of left wing and right wing.

Now, remember again, they're not all exactly the same, but typically this could be things like having economic moderation.

So have some government rules, but also support having good investment and allowing businesses to be able to set up in the UK without being charged too much to do so with big, heavy taxes.

Promoting personal responsibility.

So knowing the government isn't going to do everything for you, but also being supportive to those people who do need help.

They also generally support sustainable welfare.

So this isn't giving out government help to everybody in the UK, but just making sure that help goes to those who really do truly need it.

And they also tend to be supportive of social progress, but with some tradition as well.

So, aiming for equal rights but respecting traditional values.

And so the idea is to have a modern but a stable society that isn't moving too quickly, but yet isn't remaining too far in the past as well.

Now, this political spectrum system, it is really commonly used, but some people say that the classifications are a little bit outta date now.

Because as we've said, politics is quite a complex thing and you can't just put it on a perfect line.

And so that's the reason why some people criticise the political spectrum and say it doesn't quite meet the complexities that we have within the political system.

For example, as we've said, one political party might be considered to be left wing, but some of the policies might put it in the centre of the political spectrum, or even sometimes slightly right as well.

A check for understanding then.

"So the policy of traditional family structures and strong national identity are typically considered to be: Left wing, centrist, or right wing?" Have a think about it and then we'll come back together to look at the answer.

Okay, so the traditional family structures and strong national identity, they're typically considered to be right wing policies.

That's right.

Task C then.

You're gonna read each party's manifesto and you are going to decide if you think of it as a left wing party, a right wing party or a centrist party.

So here we have Party A, Party B on Party C, and three of their principles, three of their policies, are listed below.

There is one for education, one for healthcare, and one for tax.

You are going to read through these manifestos and decide if Party A is left, right, or centrist, if Party B is left, right, or centrist, or Party C is left, right, or centrist.

As ever, it's a really good idea to pause the video to give yourself a time to do the task, and then we'll come back and look at the answers together.

Right, let's go through these answers then.

So your answers should have looked like this.

Party A is right wing, Party B is left wing, and Party C is centrist, isn't it? If you got those answers, that means you spotted the clues about what makes a party typically right wing or left wing or centrist.

So Party A we said was right wing, and there were clues in there about having low taxes for businesses and high earners, keeping the NHS publicly funded, but also having private care as well, things like improving standards and supporting traditional values.

Party B was left wing, and that was things like high quality education for all, free education for all, having small class sizes and give more money from the government to education, and the same for the NHS as well.

It also talks about having high taxes for the wealthiest and larger businesses, which sits at the opposite political spectrum side as a right wing party.

Party C was the one that was more in the middle, wasn't it? So having high quality education, but also having private schools.

To fund the NHS, but also having private companies to do that.

And to have low increased taxes for the wealthiest, but have some tax increases for the middle earners as well.

So it's trying to find a balance of the both the left and the right.

If you've got that, really well done.

Let's summarise our learning in this lesson then, which was called "What's Do Political Parties Do?" Political party is an organised group with shared beliefs on how society should be run.

Its main roles are representing the people, supporting members, creating policies, and holding the government to account.

Political parties' policies reflect their values, which shape their manifesto and the plans they will implement if they get in power.

The UK has many political parties to ensure that diverse opinions and values are represented.

Whilst it does have some flaws, the political spectrum shows where parties stand from left wing to right wing.

That has a really complex lesson in place today, so really well done for concentrating and getting through all the way to this summary at the end.

Hope to see you again soon.