Click
Here to return to the previous page
Paul Sparks, Online Business English Lesson Plans, Lesson Material and Ideas for
Grade 2 English Conversation Lessons at Xiangtan Normal University...
Lesson 2 -
British Elections and Political System
Lesson Objectives:
This
lesson will introduce the topic of the UK political system. By using a
mix of debate and discussion we will look at the process of Elections.
This lesson will get the students speaking to each other in English as
well as provided knowledge of the political culture in the UK.
Lesson Activities:
We
will hold an election in the classroom. By dividing the class into groups
they will discuss election procedures and differences between political
parties.
Introduction: In
UK Politics there are General Elections about every 4 years, The elections
are to decide which of the 3 main Political Parties will be allowed to
form a government and run the country.
The
three main political parties are:
-
Labour
(Current Government)
-
Conservative
-
Liberal
Democrat
For
this lesson the class is divided up into 4 teams, one team for each of
the three political parties, and a fourth team who will be the voters.
The political parties have to decide on their policies (reasons that people
should vote for them) in order to be voted into government. There are help
sheets available with example policies (see below)
The
voters can ask the parties any questions about their policies (such things
as the environment, the economy, and education)
After
preparation each party will argue the reasons that they are the best party,
and try to persuade the voters to vote for them.
The
winning team is the team who receives the most votes.
Labour's Manifesto
(Source:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/pledges/story/0,8150,491908,00.html)
SocietyGuardian
reporters - Wednesday May 16, 2001
Health
(NHS = National Health Service)
•
Build NHS services around the needs of the patient, introducing guaranteed
maximum waiting times
•
Employ 10,000 more doctors and 20,000 more nurses by 2005;
•
7,000 extra hospital beds, build 100 new hospitals
•
Public-private partnership to make home ownership more affordable for nurses
and other staff;
•
Set up a university of the NHS to guarantee training and career development
for all NHS staff
•
Ban all tobacco advertising and sponsorship.
Local
and regional government
•
Give successful councils access to a £400m reward fund
•
Give more freedom to high performance
•
Strengthen regional chambers as regional development agencies
•
Hold referendums on English regional government for those regions that
want it
•
Introduce a new tax credit to encourage £1bn of investment in disadvantaged
areas.
Regeneration
•
Give Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) the task of promoting business
start-ups, strengthening links between businesses and universities
•
Provide £1bn in tax cuts over the next five years to increase capital
investment in urban areas for new businesses and housing;
•
Reform the planning system to speed up decision making, promote the most
efficient use of land and strike the right balance between the environment,
safe communities and economic growth;
•
Create a new department of rural affairs to lead renewal in countryside;
Housing
•
Reduce substandard housing by a third by 2004, and bring all social housing
up to a decent standard by 2010;
•
Invest £1.8bn to be invested in social housing over next three years;
Charities
and the voluntary sector
•
Build on financial incentives for volunteering by developing an effective
infrastructure to support voluntary work in every community in Britain;
•
"Welcome the contribution" of churches and other faith-based organisations
as partners of local and central government in community renewal;
Social
services
•
Subject all children's homes to independent spot checks from 2002;
•
Increase educational attainment among children in care and guarantee a
job, training or education for all children leaving care;
•
Make adoption easier and faster, ensuring 1,000 more children each year
are adopted, and improving post-adoption support for parents;
Society
•
Enable people with disabilities to play a full part in the community through
an extension of basic rights and opportunities;
•
Tackle social exclusion through cutting rough sleeping; reducing teenage
pregnancy, and truancy;
•
Introduce "crime fighting partnerships" in every neighbourhood to fight
crime and drugs;
Liberal Democrats'
Manifesto
(Source:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/pledges/story/0,8150,491296,00.html)
SocietyGuardian.co.uk
reporters - Tuesday May 15, 2001
Health
•
Recruit 7,500 more nurses and midwives, 2,500 more doctors and 3,750 more
physiotherapists than proposed in the NHS plan.
•
Increase pay for the lowest paid NHS staff by an average of £1,000
each per year and set up a commission to examine terms and working conditions
throughout the NHS.
•
Provide 3,000 more beds than under existing planned increases, and review
private finance initiative hospital building process.
•
Guarantee booked dates for appointments with consultants and for surgery.
•
Restore free dental check-ups and free eye checks for all, and inject £500m
into dental services over five years to guarantee access for everyone to
an NHS dentist.
•
Pay for the personal element of long-term care for the elderly, in line
with the recommendations of royal commission on long-term care.
Local
and regional government
•
Replace council tax with local income tax.
•
Define minimum standard of service for local councils across the country.
•
Legislate for election on English regional government.
•
Empower devolved administrations by strengthening the Scottish parliament,
giving the Welsh assembly the right to pass primary legislation and vary
taxes, and offering the Northern Ireland assembly income and corporation
tax varying powers.
Housing
•
Provide secure entry systems on inner city housing blocks.
•
Allow councils to specify the percentage of social housing on all new private
developments.
•
Introduce tougher building regulations to ensure that more homes are built
to lifetime standard and can be converted for wheelchair use.
•
Require public and private landlords to bring empty homes back into use.
•
Examine the problem of housing for key public sector workers such as teachers
and nurses.
Social
care
•
Boost investment in mental health services to improve the quality of, and
access to, treatment.
•
Pay for all long-term care personal costs, in line with the recommendations
of the royal commission on long-term care.
•
Develop minimum service standards on children in care, adoption, and HIV
and Aids.
Charities
and the voluntary sector
•
Honour the UK's commitment to meet the United Nations target of increasing
overseas aid to 0.07% over the next 10 years.
•
End links between aid and trade by subjecting all aid programmes to thorough
assessment for their environmental, social and human rights consequences.
Society
•
Establish police hate crime investigation units to tackle racist, homophobic
and other hate crimes.
•
Abolish the child support agency and replace it with a system of family
courts.
•
Make the social fund more effective by shifting the balance from discretionary
loans to grants.
•
Reform the asylum system so that applicants are dealt with fairly and quickly.
•
Extend freedom of information legislation to provide genuinely open administration
at all levels of government.
Conservative (Tory)
manifesto
(Source:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/pledges/story/0,8150,488815,00.html)
SocietyGuardian
staff - Thursday May 10, 2001
Health
and social care
•
Increase NHS funding - by matching Labour spending plans and encouraging
more use of private health insurance by removing tax penaties.
•
Give patients the right to choose the hospital in which treatment will
take place.
•
Introduce limits on NHS waiting.
•
Allow alternative and complementary therapies on the NHS
•
Protect the savings and homes of people needing long term care.
Charities
and the voluntary sector
•
Reform of charity taxation - specifically to address £500m lost each
year in irrecoverable VAT burden.
•
Reform rules which govern applications for lottery funds to make them more
accessible to small community groups.
Local
government
•
Force local authorities to hold local referendums before large increases
in council tax.
•
Introduce a "free schools" policy under which councils will take a back
seat in front line education provision, handing more power to heads and
parents.
•
Scrap all plans for elected regional assemblies.
Housing
•
Increase home ownership
•
Allow greater commercial freedom for housing associations and make more
social housing managed by private companies.
•
Scrap regional and local house building targets. Councils will be allowed
to declare extra areas of green belt.
Regeneration
•
Demolish tower blocks. The Tories want to tear down what they see as monuments
to Labour-controlled authorities.
Society
•
House asylum seekers in "secure reception centres" and create a "Removals
Agency" to "quickly deport" bogus asylum seekers.
•
Ensure more rights for victims of crime.
|