bnc uk election-facts-inequality

Inequality and the UK General ElectionBackground facts

May 7th 2015

Election Date:


5years

Elections take place every


The Conservative Party and The Liberal Democrats

joined together to make the new Government.

The last election was in 2010.


18to vote

You must be


There are three main political parties:


There are also lots of smaller parties,

including:


Each party uses a different colour to identify itself


This year’s election is exciting for two reasons…


reason number 1

It is very hard to guess who will win.

Sometimes it is clear which party will get the most votes. This time it looks like the two biggest

parties – Labour and the Conservatives – have similar amounts of support.

So the result could be really close.


reason number 2

Big things have happened since the last election.

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were worried that the government was spending more than it could afford, so have made cuts to some public services (like payments to people without a job). Some people

think this was a good move, but others are angry.

The election will give everyone a chance to vote on whether the cuts were right or not.


The LabourParty says

these cuts have been unfair.

It claims that the

government has let the

rich pay less tax and cut

public services used by

ordinary people.

It says that the

government has done too

little about inequality.


Inequalityis any sort of gap between one person,

group or area and another.

In British politics it usually refers to the gap

between people who earn a lot of money and

people who earn less.


The different political

parties have different

views on inequality.


The Conservative Party tends to think that it matters relatively little,

as long as everyone is getting richer.

It has cut the tax that the richest people pay, but also points out that

the country as a whole is getting richer. Its MPs are more likely to

say that successful people should earn much more than others,

because that encourages everyone to work harder and be successful.


The Labour Party tends to be more concerned by the size of the gap.

It tends to be more in favour of the government taxing the rich to

give some of their wealth to the rest.

It says that if it wins the election, it will do more to reduce inequality

than the current government. For example, it plans to increase tax

on people who live in very expensive houses.


The Liberal Democrat party is somewhere between the two.

Some of its MPs think more like the Labour ones,

others more like the Conservative ones.

bnc uk election-facts-inequality

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