/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations/
129
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and
Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United
Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and
British unionism. It is the largest party in the United Kingdom:
being the largest single party in the House of Commons with 304
MPs, the largest party in local government with 9,391 councillors,
and the largest British party in the European Parliament with 25
MEPs. It governs in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, with
party leader David Cameron as Prime Minister.
Colloquially referred to as the Tory Party or the Tories, the
Conservative Party emerged in 1834 out of the original Tory
Party, which dates to 1678. The party was one of two dominant
parties in the 19th century, along with the Liberal Party. It
changed its name to the Conservative and Unionist Party in 1912
after merging with the Liberal Unionist Party, although that name
is rarely used and it is generally referred to as simply the Conser-
vative Party.
In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the
Labour Party became the Conservatives' main rivals. Conserva-
tive Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the 20th
century, including Winston Churchill (1940–45, 1951–55) and
Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990).
Thatcher's tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisa-
tion, placing the Conservatives firmly as the most free market
and eurosceptic of the three major parties. The party was re-
turned to government in coalition, having failed to win a major-
ity, in 2010 under the more liberal leadership of David Cameron.
The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the
United Kingdom, and one of the two main British political par-
ties along with the Conservative Party.
The Labour Party was founded in 1900 and overtook the
Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming
minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and
1929–1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to
1945, after which it formed a majority government under Clem-
|