The influence of British bipartisan politics

Since the British Labor Party came to power in May 1997, it has vigorously promoted its ruling position at home and abroad, and has made remarkable achievements such as stable and sustained economic growth since it came to power. In the national election held on May 5, 2005, he defeated the Conservative Party for the third time and was re-elected. The Labour Party, the current ruling party in Britain, has exerted a far-reaching influence on British party politics through mutual competition. Studying this issue will help us to understand and grasp some objective laws of the mainstream western political parties in the post-industrial society, thus providing beneficial enlightenment for our party to further improve its leadership style and ruling style and continuously improve its leadership ability and ruling level.

(A) handling inter-party relations: mutual competition

The ruling position of the British Labor Party is not formed by history, nor is it legally unchanged and forever in power, but it is obtained through competition in the five-year national election. For the ruling party, including the Labor Party, the general election is an important juncture and opportunity to test its handling of inter-party relations with opposition parties (such as the Conservative Party). Properly handled, it can increase the support of voters and get more votes; If you don't handle it properly and lose the support of other political parties, you may lose the chance to win the general election. Although Britain is a typical country that regulates the participation of political parties in elections by convention, the activities of political parties include the national election competition once every five years, which is not inaction, but permeates many links of political operation. Especially in an election year, the competition among political parties is peaceful and a democratic, equal, legal and rational process. However, since it is a competition, there must be winners and losers. So the election is thrilling and full of suspense. For example, in the British general election in May 2005, from June+10, 5438, various creative billboards in which the Labour Party and the Conservative Party attacked each other, as well as various publicity meetings held by various parties in communities and universities, can be seen in the streets and alleys of all parts of Britain and some cities across the country. In the first week of April, 2005, the Conservative Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democratic Party, the three major political parties in Britain, couldn't wait to announce their election platforms. In order to encourage more voters to cast a cautious vote at the polling station, the Election Commission took pains to erect two billboards more than three meters high in Trafalgar Square in central London. The billboard reads "Voting on May 5th", which is very eye-catching. Its purpose is to remind and encourage voters to vote for the Labour Party. Once the Labour Party is in power, when dealing with the inter-party relations with the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and other small parties in daily political life, it mainly adopts the following methods: First, it tries its best to vilify and isolate competitors in order to crowd them out and seize their weaknesses. The second is to win over, divide and disintegrate opponents. The third is bargaining with opponents. Once you find that your opponent's ideas and opinions are beneficial to you, you should put aside political differences and absorb them.

(2) Dealing with the relationship between the party and the government: the unity of the party and government.

The ruling way to deal with the relationship between the party and the government is an important means for a ruling party to seize political power and dominate public power, and it is also an important symbol to measure whether a ruling party's ruling way is scientific. Judging from the practice in Britain, no matter which political party obtains the ruling status, it needs to take over the political power in an all-round way, master the central administrative power and assume the leadership responsibility of internal affairs and foreign affairs. The problem faced in this way is that one party must form a separate cabinet and quickly form a cabinet to deal with it. The leading group of the ruling party, the party leader and the prime minister are trinity, and the party and government hold part-time jobs. They have both legislative power, executive power and real power within the party. [1] (p595) Since the British Labor Party came to power in 1997, it has also formed a government and controlled the cabinet according to the above practice. As far as controlling the cabinet is concerned, the British Labour government implements the cabinet system. Cabinet is the core of the British government, composed of parliamentary majority leaders, the organ that formulates British national policies and the hub of the whole national power. If the Labour Party wants to be in power smoothly, it must first control the cabinet, all members of which are from the Labour Party. Under the British constitutional monarchy, the government consists of all ministers, ministers of state, ministers of state, supervisors of the ruling party and royal officials, all of whom are called ministers of state. The Cabinet is only a part of the State Councillor, except the Prime Minister, and generally consists of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of National Defense, the Minister of Finance, the Chief Justice and the Secretary of the State Council. Cabinet members are not only managers of the government, but also members of parliament. The Prime Minister is not only the leader of the political party, but also the core figure of the cabinet, and it is also the embodiment of the combination of the ruling party, legislation and administration in the British government system. In this way, the ruling Labor Party controlled the Parliament and the Cabinet Government. In addition, the Prime Minister, as the leader of the Labor Party, controls the Party, and the supervisor controls the members of both houses, which can generally ensure the consistency of legislative power and executive power. In addition, since the Chief Justice and the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal are also recommended and appointed by the Prime Minister to the Queen, the Prime Minister actually controls the judicial power. In this way, the ruling Labor Party, by virtue of its power to influence national legislation, administration and justice, formulates and implements major domestic and foreign policies that reflect its political value orientation. [2](P77) In fact, both the legislative power and the executive power are monopolized by one party. [3](P56) It can be seen that the Labour Party adopts the ruling style and leadership style of combining party and government, which can be summarized as follows: putting forward its own policy proposals, controlling the cabinet, organizing elections, participating in community activities, contacting people and social organizations, striving for voters, gaining political power and consolidating its ruling position.

(3) Dealing with the relationship between the Party and the people: "one-sided" with voters.

The support of the people is the prerequisite for the survival and development of all political parties, and the support of voters is the legal basis for political parties to govern. No matter what kind of party it is, it is no exception. During the ruling process, the British Labor Party, from the Prime Minister to the ministers, from every Labour Party member to every Labour Party local member, attaches great importance to the interaction and communication with voters, timely transmits the signal of being close to the people, tries its best to handle the relationship between the party and the masses, tries its best to establish the image of being close to the people, tries its best to reduce the ruling resistance and optimize the ruling environment. The concepts of "voters are the real God" and "voters are the hope of being in power" are very obvious. For example, we are very concerned about social issues, especially public welfare issues, and vigorously reform the education and medical and health systems that are related to the vital interests of thousands of households, so that they can benefit more middle and lower class voters. In addition, the Labour government has also made great efforts in controlling public expenditure, reducing fiscal deficit and returning power to the people. For example, in London in 2000, for the first time in British history, voters directly elected the mayor, which decentralized the power of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Parliament. These ideas and practices are realized on the basis of listening to public opinion. In a word, the Labour government has deliberately created an image of sharing weal and woe with the people and achieved sustained and stable economic growth and other achievements. And these tangible achievements are achieved through various forms of being close to the people. First, establish a people-friendly image by establishing a website. The website of the Labor Party headquarters has complete columns, strong election will and strong openness. For example, you can register online to join the Labour Party, register online as a volunteer for perennial elections, and donate money for Labour Party elections online. The website opens the e-mail addresses of prime ministers and ministers to the public, and people can directly send comments, suggestions and even criticisms and attacks on any issues they care about, including major decisions of the Labour Party. E-mail sent to the Prime Minister, and the answer results will be published on the website. The Labour Party has also launched a website for school administrators of the Labour Party, aiming at strengthening the communication between the Labour Party and local schools and improving the quality of education. In addition, many Labour MPs not only successfully held every "Friday service day" in their respective constituencies, but also set up their own websites in their respective constituencies to publish their mailing addresses, contact numbers, e-mail addresses and fax numbers. Serve the voters all day. The second is to establish a people-friendly image through multimedia interaction. Under the modern western social system with increasingly rich material life, the sense of alienation between politics and voters is getting stronger and stronger, and the enthusiasm of ordinary people to participate in politics is getting lower and lower, and Britain is no exception. In order to overcome this political phenomenon and further strengthen the relationship between the government and voters, the Labor Party government attaches great importance to the role of modern media as a "mouthpiece" and a "bridge" to strengthen communication between the Labor Party and the inside and outside the Party, as well as its auxiliary role in implementing government decisions. Some ministers and Labour MPs often take the initiative to invite the media, take the initiative to accept media invitations, and personally interact and chat online; Grass-roots activists hold extensive group meetings and branch meetings, and encourage citizens to make suggestions and suggestions to the National Policy Forum, the decision-making body of the Labour Party, on current hot social issues by means of e-mail, television, radio interviews, online messages and short messages. To some extent, these forms have restored the sense of alienation between politics and the people under the British social democracy system, and narrowed the distance between the government and voters. Third, the prime minister and ministers set an example and establish an image of being close to the people. For example, former Prime Minister Blair (1who ascended the throne at the age of 43 in 997) is young and active, good at communicating with the public and the media, and has a strong affinity. He was once widely recognized by the British people and even regarded as a model of a new generation of politicians in Europe. In particular, Blair's smile, abundant energy and approachable image make him deeply loved by all ages inside and outside the party. In particular, Blair used work inspections, TV interviews, writing personal letters to newspapers, visiting the Internet and other forms to strengthen exchanges with the British people, which left a deep impression on the British people.

(4) Dealing with the relationship between the Party and the media: a moderate combination of freedom and intervention.

The modernization of Britain has created a highly developed information industry, and the influence of the media on politics is growing. The mass media is called "the fourth power", so how to deal with the relationship with the news media has become an important issue for the Labor Party to be in power. [4](P24) At the beginning of the Labour Party's administration, it was a period of rapid expansion of the British media. Today, British television has developed into a media empire with more than 400 channels. Its news products and English programs span and occupy most corners of the world media map, enjoying an unshakable position. BBC World is the global television news service of the BBC, which has been transmitted to more than 100 countries in the world. In British radio broadcasting, BBC has maintained its dominant position so far, with the listening rate reaching 56% of the population and the program output accounting for 30% of all radio programs. In addition, the BBC not only produces TV programs through World Service, but also produces radio programs. At present, the BBC has a global audience of 65.438+0.2 billion. Periodicals, such as Private Detective and Economist, are very successful publications. At present, there are more than 3,000 kinds of periodicals and magazines in Britain, and new ones are still appearing. Periodicals and magazines are developing rapidly in a relatively healthy environment. Nowadays, under the capital and orderly market operation, the development of British media has reached a relatively mature stage. Different news products in TV, newspapers, periodicals and other media fields have drawn a British media map under the conditions of market segmentation, reasonable positioning, stable consumer groups and perfect organization. Generally speaking, like other developed capitalist countries, journalism has become a powerful economic industry in Britain. In England. 80% adults read at least one national newspaper, while the reading rate of Sunday newspapers is 75%. According to a survey in Britain, TV and newspapers, as sources of information acquisition, rank before friends, family, politicians and other information resources; In modern industrialized countries, 2/3 of the public get domestic and international news through TV. Of all the media, television has the greatest influence on the most people. [5] Therefore, after Blair became the leader of the Labor Party, he paid more attention to the positive and negative influence of the media on the Labor Party government and the results of various social surveys conducted by the media. He believes that public opinion supervision is an important means to keep the ruling party in close contact with the outside world, an important "magic weapon" to establish mutual trust between the government and the public, promote the transparency of government information and effectively restrict the government's functions and powers, and "organically combine the party with the media in a more professional way and design the party's campaign strategy with the media as the coordinate". The Labour Party clearly stipulated that the Prime Minister's spokesperson should coordinate the statements made by cabinet ministers and government ministries, and announced that it was forbidden for Labour Party members to attack the Party's policies in the media, and offenders would be severely investigated. The ruling Labor Party is cautious about the media, and the news media enjoys relatively full freedom of reporting. The government rarely conducts direct inspection and intervention unless it controls the media when it harms the national interests or the image of the government. [7](P33) Throughout the years when Blair and his Labor Party were in power, the ruling ways to deal with "party-media relations" mainly include: directly occupying or indirectly controlling the news media; Pay attention to public relations with the media, resolve the negative reports of the media on the ruling party, and actively guide public opinion; Pay attention to updating propaganda ideas and methods, improve propaganda mechanism, and establish a good image of the party. Of course, when public opinion supervision concerns the image of the government or the interests of the country, the Labour government will not be soft. Britain, like other western countries, although the government information is quite transparent and protected by a series of systems, there are still many political elements in the media's supervision of government public opinion, and the government will exert considerable pressure on the media. Media in all fields are controlled or restricted by some specific form to some extent. It can be seen that the freedom of public opinion supervision in Britain is subject to the checks and balances of government power, and this method of checks and balances is essentially a disguised form of control. [8](P 13) As James Curran and Colin Rice said, "It's time to explain the media and British politics at the same time ... Everything proves that the British national ruling party is in the process of evolution, and is gradually incorporating the mechanism with North American style into the left-leaning British Labor Party, trying to build an alliance-style political force. The rapid rise of Murdoch's media empire reveals the rapid development of global communication technology. At the same time, it is accompanied by the dramatic changes in British national politics and the adjustment of national politicians such as Blair to the cultural evolution and soaring economic pressure under globalization. The relationship between media and politics is getting closer and closer, so it is impossible to judge and analyze it at the level of a single country. However, the analysis of this relationship is the basis for understanding media and politics. "