Hi, my name's Mrs. Hastings, and I'm excited to be learning with you today and to be helping you as we learn together.

Welcome to today's lesson from the unit: Why was the struggle for the vote important today? Today's lesson is called: How have our political rights changed over time? We are going to be, by the end of the lesson, describing what political rights are and how they have changed over time.

Some of the learning might be a little bit challenging, but that's great, as it means we are thinking hard and learning lots of new things.

There are some important ground rules as we go through this lesson, as there are some topics that some people might have strong opinions about or find more challenging.

We need to listen to each other.

It's okay to disagree with each other, but we should listen properly before making assumptions or deciding how to respond.

When disagreeing, challenge the statement, not the person.

No judgement.

We can explore beliefs and misunderstanding about a topic without fear of being judged.

Respect privacy.

We can discuss examples, but do not use names or descriptions that identify anyone, including ourselves.

And choose the level of participation.

Everyone has the right to choose not to answer a question or join a discussion.

We never put anyone on the spot.

Here are our keywords that we are going to come across in our lesson frequently today.

Right: something we're entitled to by law.

Democracy: a system of government in which citizens vote in regular, fair elections for representatives who then make laws and decisions on their behalf.

Suffrage: the right to vote.

Today, we are going to be answering the following questions: What political rights do UK citizens have? And how have these rights changed over time? These are our learning outcomes.

The first learning outcome we are focusing on is, What political rights do UK citizens have? So on to our first slide.

What political rights do UK citizens have? Human rights are basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to.

Political rights are the rights people have and may use in a democracy.

Political rights give people a say in the governance, running, of their country.

For example, the right to vote, the right to join a political party, and the right to participate in a demonstration.

Political rights allow people to have a say in the decisions that the government make, and they are protected by law.

So which of the following is not a political right? a: the right to vote, b: the right to an education, c: the right to join a political party.

Have a think about which of those is the correct answer to the question, Which of the following is not a political right? Brilliant.

The answer is b: the right to an education.

The right to an education is an important social right, but it is not a political right.

Suffrage means the right to vote.

It is a key political right.

In the UK, you can vote if you have the following criteria: you are a UK citizen, you are over the age of 18, and you have registered to vote.

In the UK, you cannot vote if you: are a member of the House of Lords, do not have UK citizenship, or are in prison.

So let's check our understanding on what suffrage means.

Suffrage means: a: the right to join a political party, b: the right to participate in a demonstration, or c: the right to vote.

Correct, it is c: the right to vote.

And remember that suffrage if one of our keywords from today's lesson.

In the UK, you cannot vote if you are: a: over the age of 18, b: you are a member of the House of Lords, or c: you are a UK citizen.

Have a think, so in the UK you cannot vote if you are: a, b, or c? Brilliant, that's correct.

You cannot vote in the UK if you're a member of the House of Lords.

You have to be over the age of 18 to be able to vote, and you also have to be a UK citizen to be able to vote in the UK.

So when you have suffrage, you are allowed to vote in lots of different types of elections in the UK.

We have a number of different ones.

The biggest one that you probably already heard of is a general election.

But there are also elections for local government.

That might be for council elections or for district or borough elections, and it could even be for a mayoral election.

And then, occasionally in the UK, we have a referendum.

So a referendum is a public vote on a specific issue.

The last one we had was on whether or not the UK should leave the European Union, and that was held in 2016.

Depending on where you live, you may also have local elections.

For example, in Scotland, if you live in Scotland, you have Scottish Parliament elections.

And if you live in London, then you can vote for the London mayor.

So in a UK general election, eligible citizens vote for their representatives in the House of Commons, which is one part of Parliament.

There are three parts to Parliament.

Firstly, the House of Commons.

This is made up of 650 Members of Parliament who are voted for in a general election.

The House of Lords are made up of around 800 members, and these are permanent members.

They're not elected, okay? And they are selected because of their knowledge and experience and also include Lord Spirituals, so people from religious backgrounds.

And then lastly, the last part of Parliament is the monarch.

The monarchy's the head of state, the king or queen.

So let's check our understanding.

What are we voting for in a general election? So in a general election, you are voting for: a: an MP to represent you in the House of Commons, b: an MP to represent you in the House of Lords, or c: the monarch or head of state.

Is it a, b, or c that you are voting for in a general election? Brilliant, yeah, it's a: an MP to represent you in the House of Commons.

Remember that the members of the House of Lords are unelected, and the monarch or head of state is hereditary.

So onto the first task.

You're going to pause this video and take some time to fill in the gaps from this word fill with the missing words from what we have been learning about so far in our lesson.

Great, so you've completed that task, so let's check that with the words that are missing from this paragraph.

So political rights are the rights people have and may use in a democracy.

Political rights give people a say in the governance, running, of their country.

For example, the right to vote, the right to join a political party, and the right to participate in a demonstration.

Political rights allow people to have a say in the decisions that government make, they are protected in law.

One of the key political rights in a democracy is suffrage.

Suffrage means the right to vote.

Well done.

Okay, we're now going to have a look at the second learning outcome of our lesson: How have these rights changed over time? So how have these rights changed over time? Democracy is always evolving, and the fight for political rights in the UK has been a long one.

One of the biggest changes has been in suffrage.

For example, historically, suffrage was based on income and if you owned a property.

So back in the early 1800s and throughout the 1800s, actually until about 1928 when we had a change in the law, the right to vote was based on how much money you earned or how much land you had or how much your, if you owned a house, how much that was worth, or if you rented a house, how much rent you paid.

So it was really based on income and wealth.

In 1900, so at the turn of the last century, women couldn't vote.

Only men were allowed to vote.

And even though only men were allowed to vote, actually 40% of men over 21 were excluded from the right to vote due to those income restrictions that I explained.

They didn't have enough money.

They didn't earn enough money.

They didn't own property.

Or they didn't have land, et cetera.

Of the UK's 30 million people in 1900, only 2.

5 million, that was about 8.

3% of them, actually had the right to vote.

So our political rights have really developed and really evolved over time and to the position that we are in today.

So let's just check our understanding of that.

Is it true or false? Historically, suffrage was based on wealth.

Remember that suffrage means the right to vote.

So historically, suffrage was based on wealth.

Is that true or false? Correct, it was true.

Why? Because it was based on income, how much you earned and the taxes you paid and if you owned property.

Is it true or false to say that by 1900, all men had suffrage? So by 1900, did all men have the right to vote? True or false? That is false.

Why? Because actually by 1900, there were still around 40% of men who didn't have suffrage.

Also remember that no women had suffrage either.

So let's have a look at some of the key events in the development of our political rights and democracy.

So that historically, we're gonna go back, right back into 1215.

And in 1215, we had the signing of the Magna Carta.

In 1265, we had the Parliament of Lords, Knights, and common men were created.

In 1430, votes for freeholders, so those with enough land, was given and granted.

In 1832, we had our first big piece of political legislation, a law, that widened the franchise.

And this has become known as the Great Reform Act.

And at the time, well, it's officially called the Representation of Peoples Act, but it widened the franchise, so it widened the people who were allowed to vote.

In 1918, women, some women were allowed to vote for the first time.

The Representation of the People Act gave all men over 21 and some women, those over 30 and who owned property, suffrage.

In 1928, the Representation of the People Act gave all women over the age of 21 suffrage on the same terms as men.

So this is the point where we gain equality between men and women in the right to vote.

And in 1969, the Representation of the People Act reduced the voting age from 21 to 18.

So I'm just gonna explain some of the key events to you in a little bit more detail.

So the Magna Carta, 1215, King John signed the Magna Carta to avoid a rebellion by barons who were upset with his rule and his high taxes.

The Magna Carta, which means great charter in Latin, it outlined the basic rules for governing, including the key principle that no one, not even the king, was above the law.

So which of the following is not true about the Magna Carta? Is it a: the Magna Carta was signed by King John, b: the Magna Carts set out a list of basic rules about how the country was governed, or c: the Magna Carta was signed because common people were rebelling against King John? Which of those is not true about the Magna Carta? Correct, it is the Magna Carta was signed because the common people were rebelling against King John.

Remember, it wasn't the common people.

It was actually the barons, and the barons were very important.

They were the landowners in England.

And so if they were rebelling against the king, they could use their people, their knights, their people that worked for them to also potentially rebel.

So it was a really significant rebellion.

The next one we're going to have a look at in more detail is the Great Reform Act, okay? And I said to you that, at the time, well, that it's actually officially known as the Representation of the People Act.

But it's historically become known as the Great Reform Act, 'cause it was kind of seen as the first big piece of legislation that changed the political rights in this country.

So Britain had been transformed by the Industrial Revolution, but people in industrial towns and cities were not represented in Parliament.

Parliament was very much made up of people from the land, from the countryside, from these big landowners that had their big mansions and big houses, that owned these lands, what we might call lords, lords of the manor.

And in the lead-up to the Great Reform Act, there were riots all across the country, because it was seen as really unfair that you had the Industrial Revolution, which was creating these important industrial cities, like Manchester and Birmingham and Leeds, and none of them actually had representation in Parliament.

And yet, these people were the manufacturers of the world, and they were making Britain very rich and giving them a lot of money.

So they really felt that they should have a say in how the country was run.

And a bill was put through Parliament that failed to try to extend the franchise.

And so these riots broke out, and really, Britain was potentially, and it was feared by the government, that it was potentially on the edge of a revolution.

So the Great Reform Act was passed in 1832.

And this act gave 20% of men the vote, it created MPs for industrial towns, so the industrial towns now had representation in Parliament, and it removed some of the unfair seats in Parliament.

So you'd had these boroughs called rotten boroughs, for example, where only one or two people lived and they voted for the lord of the manor, if they were even allowed to vote.

So it was, you had very small constituencies.

A constituency is a geographical area that you vote for to then represent you in Parliament.

And some of these areas were so small and tiny that they were massively overrepresented in Parliament.

So the outcome of this was that while the middle class were generally very happy with these changes, the working classes didn't have suffrage.

So it was the working men, and obviously women, no women could vote at this time either.

And so elections remained corrupt, and rural MPs held more power than those in the industrial towns.

So let's check our understanding.

Which of the following is true about the 1832 Reform Act? a: the Reform Act didn't create MPs for industrial towns and cities, b: the Reform Act gave one in five men the right to vote, or c: the Reform Act gave working class men the right to vote.

Which of these is true about the 1832 Reform Act? Correct, it was b: the Reform Act gave one in five men the right to vote, about 20%.

In the 19th century, Parliament carried on passing laws that expanded the right to vote.

It introduced the secret ballot.

So before that, voting was done in public.

So you raised your hand as to who you wanted to vote for in something called a hustings.

And so it was very open to corruption and to bribery.

And also, these reforms throughout the 19th century created roughly equal-sized constituencies.

Remember, a constituency's a geographical area in which you're voting.

Some of the land was big, but the number of people living in that land who could vote was roughly the same across the country.

So didn't matter whether you were in a rural constituency that was a big area or you were in a town or city where your constituency was a small geographical area, but lots of people were living in it, because the number of people voting for that representation was roughly the same.

However, we get to 1900, women still could not vote and about 40% of men still could not vote.

This was despite groups like the Suffragists and the Suffragettes campaigning for voting rights for women since the 1860s.

During World War I, it became clear that suffrage changes were needed, as many returning men wouldn't be able to vote.

Subsequently, in 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed, giving all men over the age of 21 the right to vote.

So you had all these men out in the battlefields in France and Belgium fighting for Britain who didn't have the right to vote.

It was because they didn't earn enough money.

They didn't have enough income.

Also, the law said that you couldn't vote in an election if you weren't actually in the country at the time.

And an election was about to happen and people were still out in France and Belgium.

So they were disenfranchised.

They were not allowed to vote.

So government realised that this was not fair, and they changed the law so that all men over the age of 21 could vote.

But the new law's also really important because it also gave women over the age of 30 the right to vote if they owned property or were married to someone who did own property as well.

It also allowed women to stand for elections to become MPs for the first time.

These changes eventually led to the 1928 law that gave all men and women over the age of 21 the same voting rights.

So let's check our understanding.

Which of the following is not true about the Representation of the People Act of 1918? Is it a: the Act gave all men over the age of 21 suffrage? Is it b: the Act gave all women over the age of 21 suffrage? Or is it c: the Act paved the way for the 1928 Representation of the People Act? So which of those, a, b, or c, is not true about the Representation of the People Act 1918? Correct, it's not true that the Act 1918 gave all women over the age of 21 suffrage.

Remember that it was only women over the age of 30 who owned property or who had husbands who owned property that could vote.

So more middle class women, not the working classes.

So time for some practise.

Let's put into action what we've been learning today.

So the first task I'd like you to complete and pause the video to do this is to read Izzy's explanation of the changes to suffrage in the UK.

Is she correct? If not, can you rewrite her description to correct it? So Izzy says, "All people in the UK have had the right to vote since 1832.

The UK Parliament has been representative of all people since then." Is Izzy correct? Pause the video, rewrite her description if you think she is not correct.

Okay, you're right, Izzy was not correct in her explanation of the changes to suffrage in the UK.

She said that, "All people in the UK have had the right to vote since 1832.

The UK Parliament was been representative of all people since then." So Izzy's description was incorrect.

Your corrected version may include: The 1832 Reform Act only extended suffrage to one in five men.

These were wealthy, middle class men.

It was not until 1928 that all men and women over the age of 21, regardless of wealth, had suffrage.

And now, a second practise task.

I would like you to read the conversation between Izzy and Alex.

Izzy and Alex are having a conversation about changes to political rights in the UK.

I would like you to add to Izzy and Alex's arguments, using examples and explanation in your answers.

So try to think of really good examples that would support the argument and explain it.

Use linking phrases like this meant that, this shows that, this demonstrates, in your explanation.

So Izzy is arguing that, "The 1832 Reform Act was the most important change to political rights in the UK." Alex, however, has a different opinion.

He says, "I disagree.

I think that the 1918 Representation of the People Act was a more important turning point." So I would like you to look at both of them, add examples and explanation to their answers.

So pause the video and add to their opinions.

Okay, great, you've had time to complete that activity.

So I asked you to add to Izzy and Alex's arguments.

You might have said in support of Izzy: The 1832 Reform Act was important for political rights in the UK, as it gave one in five men suffrage and gave representation in Parliament to industrial towns and cities.

This was important, as it paved the way for further reforms to the electoral system.

So Izzy has included an example and an explanation in that answer.

You might have said in support of Alex, who had a different opinion: The 1918 Representation of the People Act was more important for political rights in the UK, as, for the first time, some women and all men over 21 were given suffrage.

It played a key role in achieving equal voting rights in 1928.

So to summarise our learning today for our learning outcome, How have our political rights changed over time? We've done some really important learning in today's lesson, so let's think about the key points that we have learned.

Political rights are rights that individuals have in a democracy, allowing citizens to have a say in government decisions.

These rights are protected by law.

Political rights give people a say in the governance of their country.

The fight for political rights in the UK has been a long one.

It has evolved over a long period of time.

One of the biggest changes has been in suffrage.

For example, women did not gain suffrage until 1918, and at that stage, it only applied to women over 30 who owned property or were married to someone who did.

It was not until a change in the law in 1928 that all men and women over 21 had the same voting rights.

Thank you so much for joining me for our lesson today.

I hope you have enjoyed it and I hope you have learned lots, and I really look forward to seeing you again.