13 Independent MPs have been elected in the UK since 1950

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Party

RESPECT

• Stands for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community, and Trade Unionism.

• Established in 2004, in opposition to the Iraq War

George Galloway, Leader of RESPECT

George Galloway… dressed as a cat on celebrity Big Brother

• Opposed to privatisation• Has biggest support in London• Gained significant Asian support after the War,

after which many British Asians felt alienated• Has fraternal links with international

anticapitalist organisations like the French LCR and the Portuguese Left Bloc

The Green party

Leader: Natalie Bennet

Green Party

• Founded in 1973 (originally known as the ‘People Party’, subsequently the ‘Ecology Party’)

• The World’s first ‘Green’ Party• Launched the influentual ‘Manifesto for a

Sustainable Society’• Considerably grew after the Chernobyl

disaster in 1986.

UKIP

Leader: Nigel Farage

Policies

• Founded in 1993• Primarily aim to withdraw the UK from the EU• Widely regarded as right wing and populist• Opposes unlimited immigration from the EU• Instead, proposes a ‘Commonwealth Free

Trade Area’.

Nationalist Parties in Britain

• Scotland: Scottish National Party• Wales: Plaid Cymru (‘The Party of Wales’)• Northern Ireland: Sinn Féin (‘Us, Ourselves’)

Scottish Nationalist Party

SNP

• Founded in 1934• Is now the third largest political party in the

UK• Has a generally socialist ideological position

SNP Leader: Nicola Sturgeon

SNP constituencies

Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru

• Welsh for ‘Party of Wales’• Founded in 1925• Promotes the Welsh language and the

continuance of a bilingual society in Wales (22 percent of the Welsh are native speakers of the Welsh language).

• Envisages the eventual independence of Wales

Plaid cymru constituencies: in green

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin

• Founded in 1905 • Originally objected the partition of Ireland in 1922• Has a strongly socialist (Marxist) ideology• Irish for ‘Us, Ourselves’• Has parties both in Northern Ireland and the

Republic of Ireland• Promotes the idea of a United Ireland (Northern

Ireland leaving the UK and joining the Republic)• Has had strong historical associations with the IRA

Sinn Féin Leader: Gerry Adams

Sinn Féin Constituencies