ESL Politics Reading Comprehension Passage Politics in the UK
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, which means that the Queen is the head of state but she does not actively participate in politics. The British people vote for the members of parliament and they make the laws and run the country for the Queen. The Queen the signs all the laws passed by the politicians but she does not have any responsibility for saying what the laws should be about.
The political leader of the UK is the Prime Minister, who is also called the PM. This person is the leader of the political party that has the most seats in the House of Commons. Normally in the UK there is one party with a majority in the House of Commons, which means they have more than half of the seats, that forms the government to run the country. Some times if one part does not have enough seats to form a majority it will need to form a coalition with another party, and they will run the country together.
The UK is divided into many different constituencies, and each constituency is represented by one member of parliament, also called an MP. Nearly all the MP in the UK belong to a political party. The two biggest parties are the Conservatives and Labour. There are then several smaller parties, such as the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, UK Independence Party (UKIP) or SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party). Some MPs may also be independents, which means they are not linked to any party.
Normally there are elections every five years in the UK. The polling day is normally a Thursday. When there is an election, polling stations are set up all around the country so everyone can go and vote. Everyone who is on the electoral register has one vote. Most people go to polling stations where they get a ballot paper. On the ballot paper there is a list of all the candidates that are standing for election, and the person needs to make a mark by the name of the person they want to vote for. When they have done this they put their ballot paper in the ballot box.
In the UK, the candidate with the most votes in a constituency is the winner. They get to go to London and become an MP in the Houses of Parliament. It is their job to represent their constituents and try to run the country in a fair and proper way.