Current UK Politics for interview

Sparrow_Hawk

Hi

I have an interview next week in England and i know I will be asked about their corrent political state of affairs. Im not uptodate on UK politics, so could anyone on here give me a brief synapses? i would very much appreciate it.

Also, anyone know of any political talking points regarding the NHS?

Any info would be v helpful

Cody Pomeray

The best tip I can think of is to read the international papers' coverage of British politics.

They assume less reader information, and will generalize the main issues.

This article from the Irish Times on the rise of UKIP is very relevant.

Interesting thing about UKIP is how they might force the political centre ground to shift to the right, and yet at the same time, how the UK public is being presented with some very stark political options (Labour vs UKIP) in electoral decision-making.

The rise of UKIP is very relevant to the NHS, because UKIP want the most aggressive reforms, privatising parts of the NHS and allowing complete "opt outs" for those who want out, which presumably would be reflected in those individuals' tax contributions.

Scofflaw

UKIP is one talking point, and certainly the one the media is perhaps showing most interest in, but judging by their local election results, I wouldn't be too concerned about UKIP policy for the moment. I would also consider the results of this poll: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/14/britons-sympathetic-unemployed-france-germany - I'm not sure the British in general would really accept UKIP's plans for the NHS.

However, the state of the main parties is something you should definitely know, and currently they look a bit like this: Labour regrowing, Lib Dems suffering, Conservatives allowing themselves to be pushed right by UKIP. Nobody seems to like either Clegg or Cameron - of the two, the Lib Dem party faithful are probably fonder of Clegg than the Tories of Cameron. While Labour are doing better in the polls, the local elections, again, suggest that the next election could still deliver another hung parliament, because while the Tories took losses, there was no particular direction to the swing away from them.

If you wanted to be a smarty, you might talk about the Lib Dem's problems in terms of the minor partner in a coalition government, which is a standard problem in Irish politics because most of our governments are coalitions, whereas a coalition government is pretty much new to anyone now living in the UK.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Sparrow_Hawk

Thank you Cody Pomeray & Scofflaw for your pointers, very much appreciated. I shall do a bit more reading on the subject now that i have an overview.