ppeal, take account of changing economic and social conditions, and remain a major force in British politics.Conservative Party has traditionally regarded itself as a national party, which appeals to people across the class barriers. Although it has often criticized what it sees as the dogmatic and ideological fervour of the Labour Party, the Conservative Party has also become more radical in recent years, and has departed from what used to be considered as the consensus view of British politics. The party's support comes mainly from business interests and the middle and upper classes, but a sizeable percentage of skilled and unskilled workers, and women have always voted Conservative. The party's strongholds tend to be in southern England, with scattered support elsewhere in the country, although it has suffered serious setbacks in Scotland.political parties also have some representation in the House of Commons. Among these have been the Liberals and Social Democrats; the Scottish National Party; Plaid Cymru (the Welsh National Party); the Protestant Northern Irish parties of the Official Unionists, the Democratic Unionists and the Ulster Popular Unionists; the Social Democratic and Labour Party ( moderate Roman Catholic Northern Irish party); and Sinn Fein (Republican Northern Irish party). Other small parties such as the Greens and Communist Party, as well as publicity-seeking fringe groups, may also contest a general election. But a party which does not achieve a certain number of votes in the election loses its deposit - the sum paid when a party registers to fight an election.innovation in British party politics during 1982-7 was the emergence of the Alliance as an electoral force . This was formed by the co-operation for electoral purposes of the Liberals and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which was founded in 1981 by defectors from the Labour Party. The Alliance gained substantial support in public opinion polls, won some dramatic by-elections, and achieved considerable success in local government elections. But it did not make a comparable breakthrough into national politics and the House of Commons. The Liberals and the SDP saw themselves in this period as an alternative political force to the Conservative and Labour Parties, based on the centre or centre-left of British politics. They tried to 'break the mould' of the traditional two-party system, but their performance in the 1987 general election did not achieve this aim. In 1988 a majority of the two parties merged into one party called the Social and Liberal Democratic Party (or SLD or Liberal Democrats for short). But small groups of Liberals and SDP members continued as separate parties, until the SDP ceased to exist as a political party in 1990. At present, the support for the Liberal Democrats has sunk to some 16 per cent, and it seems that the centre ground in British politics has been largely recaptured by the Labour and Conservative Parties. However, the SLD and other smaller parties do allow alternative political parties to be represented in the House of Commons.party which wins most parliamentary seats at a general election, or which has the support of a majority of MPs in the House of Commons, usually forms the new government. Under the British system, that government need not have obtained an overall majority of the popular vote (representing the actual number of votes cast by the voting population). It is estimated that a party will generally have to gather more than 33 per cent of the popular vote before winning a substantial number of seats, and nearly 40 per cent in order to expand that representation and have a chance of forming a government with an overall majority. These figures will also depend upon whether support is concentrated in particular geographical areas, for a party may gain seats by its local strength. Smaller parties, which do not approach these percentages, will not gain many seats in the Commons. It is this system of representation that proponents of would like to change, in order to reflect more accurately the Popular vote and the anneal of minority parties. the results of a general election are known, the majority party in the Commons normally forms the new government, and the largest minority party becomes the official opposition. The opposition has its own leader and 'shadow government'. It plays an important constitutional role in the parliamentary system, which is based on adversarial and confrontational politics. The seating arrangements in the House of Commons reflect this system, since leaders of the government and opposition parties sit on facing 'front benches', with their supporting MPs, or 'backbenchers', sitting behind them. The effectiveness of parliamentary arrangements is supposed to rest on the relationship between the government and opposition parties, in which the members are required to observe procedural conventions....
