Learn Political Vocabulary & British Culture | The UK Political System Explained

hey everyone in this lesson we are going to take a look at the uk government system and how it works so you're going to learn heaps of vocabulary related to this as well as better understand the system this is an important part of learning english because it's going to enable you to follow and understand current events in the media right now i'm watching the new season of the netflix series the crown and it's incredible how many times these terms that i'm going to teach you about today come up during the show so it's especially useful when watching tv series and movies as well also you'll be able to talk about politics with a native and also better understand the culture but before we get into it i want to let you know that we are here to guide you beyond the classroom to live learn and speak english in the real world so be sure to hit that subscribe button and the bell down below so that you don't miss a single one of our new lessons so first of all the united kingdom is a constitutional monarchy meaning that the queen currently queen elizabeth ii is the head of state however she does not make any open political decisions she is the main representative of the country but she is not the head of the government in the uk the head of the government is the prime minister and that is currently boris johnson this differs to the us where the president is the head of state and the head of government so in the uk all political decisions are taken by the government in parliament which i'll explain a little bit more about later after an election the elected prime minister will visit the queen and she will ask them to form a government in her name so if you're watching the crown like me you may have wondered why this happens and as she is the head of state but not the head of government this is why this happened so it's actually called her majesty's government and this is why she then asks them to form a government in her name but it goes back to her being the head of state and not having any power or decision-making within the government or parliament so although the queen is the representative she's like the head of state and she's what people view as great britain and the uk she doesn't really have any political powers so sometimes people are confused or are surprised to hear this but it is actually in fact true so the queen and the prime minister meet once a week to discuss current issues and you may have seen this depicted in the crown these meetings are confidential meaning that the information and what they talk about is completely secret so nobody should know about it an interesting fact here is that during her reign queen elizabeth ii has actually worked with 14 prime ministers and if you're interested in learning more weird and interesting facts about british culture then i highly recommend you check out this lesson that i made by clicking up here or down in the description box below to watch it next so now that we've learned a little bit more about what the queen does we're now going to learn a little bit more about what the prime minister does as well as his or her cabinet in the uk the prime minister leads the government with the help of the cabinet and ministers so when elected the prime minister in this case boris johnson must appoint members of his or her cabinet the cabinet is made up of senior members of the government such as the chancellor of the exchequer also known as the treasury so this person is in charge of the uk economy and money you could also for example have the foreign secretary who is in charge of keeping good relationships with other countries around the world we also have a home secretary who is in charge of immigration the police and keeping the country safe as well as many others making a total of 21 cabinet ministers including the prime minister so in total there are actually 119 ministers you'll sometimes hear in the news that there might have been a cabinet reshuffle now what this means is that the prime minister has decided to move some people around into different positions or even fire them if certain things aren't working and they're not doing a good job you may know this or you may have even visited if you've been to london but the prime minister lives and works at 10 downing street and they have done since 1735 so there is a lot of history regarding this famous place in london and i highly recommend you give it a visit you can't physically go outside the door and take a photo there but you can see it it is there cordoned off meaning that it's secured with police but you can still visit and have a little look from far away so if you enjoy learning about different cultures and connecting with people all around the world our fluency circle would be perfect for you and this is a global community that you can be a part of that you can join when you join one of our courses our real life native immersion course will help you to understand and use real native english and make it a permanent part of your life in a way that is fun natural and convenient the best part is you can try it right now for free with our three-part power learning series all you have to do is click up here or down in the description box below to learn more and sign up now we look forward to seeing you there so now we're going to learn a little bit about parliament now parliament is made up of three central components the house of commons the house of lords and the monarchy and generally any decisions made by either house has to be approved by the other so the two houses meet at the palace of westminster which is informally known as the houses of parliament which you can find sitting along the river thames now the house of commons is made up of 650 members of parliament or mps as we call them and they are elected by the public in a general election to represent them and their concerns and interests in the house of commons so in the uk when we have a general election we are voting for the member of parliament that we want to represent us this is different to the us for example where when they have an election they vote for one party out of two either the democrats or the republicans they do however have congress which is where people get to vote for a representative for their state in the uk we vote for the representative that we would like who is a member of one of the uk political parties now there are quite a few in the uk but the most popular are the conservatives labor and liberal democrats so the party with the most seats is the winner of the election and then the leader of that particular party becomes the prime minister so in our last election the conservatives won and boris johnson is the leader of that party which makes him the prime minister the house of lords is the second chamber of the uk parliament and they play a crucial role in examining bills in questioning government action and also investigating public policy there are around 800 members who are from all different walks of life and also different professions and they are selected by the queen but as advised by the prime minister so she doesn't just sit down and kind of make a decision as to who will be in the house of lords she is advised on this by the prime minister members of the house of lords bring experience and knowledge from a wide range of occupations and many members continue to be active in their fields and have successful careers such as in business culture science sport academia law education health and public service and they bring this knowledge to their role of examining matters of public interest that affect all uk citizens in summary the main function of parliament is to check and challenge the work of the government to make and change laws to debate important issues and topics and also to check and approve government spending so there you have it a crash course in the uk political system but i hope this lesson has helped you to better understand it and i want to ask you what other aspects of life in britain would you like to learn about let me know down in the comments below and i'll see you guys soon take care hey everyone i'm andrea your real life english fluency coach and in today's fun lesson you'll be learning lots of weird and interesting facts about british culture and life in general and you'll also improve your listening skills now for today's lesson this is based on my own experience of growing up and living in the uk

Channel: RealLife English

Views: 75,951

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Id: 8dhe7LJ33Zc

Length: 9min 19sec (559 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 01 2021