Talk:His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition

untitled

"This is usually the second-largest party in a legislative house, although in certain unusual circumstances it may be a third or fourth party." - Exactly what unusual circumstances? The only one I can think of is if the largest parties make up a coallition goverment... Iain 10:05, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

makes no sense

The Official Opposition (more formally, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition) in the United Kingdom is usually the largest political party or coalition which is not a member of the government.

What on earth does this mean? What does it mean to be "a member of the government"?? What on earth is "the government"?? Are you saying anyone who isn't in the party enjoying the current plurality (not even majority!) is not a "member of the government"? Are legislators members of the government? Someone from Britain please explan, because the explanation here makes no sense at all. Revolver 07:29, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

"Government" here is the the ministers controlling the executive. I will try to clarify this. Please keep comments like this on the discussion pages, not in the article space. --rbrwr^± 08:59, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

It was an unintentional slip...didn't hit "discussion" before "edit". Sorry for the hassle. Revolver 19:03, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

For those Americans who do not understand international parliance, a Government everywhere else on Earth consists of the ministers, similar to our secretaries. The party or coalition that supports them is the governing party, and thus forms the government. We use the somewhat analogous term "administration."

It's really quite simple. An MP is the equivalent to a member of the United States House of Representatives: they have been elected by a particular geographical constituency, to represent that constituency in the House of Commons, the lower (but dominant) House of Parliament. By virtue of their membership of Parliament they are a part of the legislature, voting on laws; this is not the same as a member of the executive, with the power to take executive decisions. Members of the executive (Secretaries and Ministers) are appointed by the Prime Minister from among MPs and Lords; the majority of appointees to executive offices will usually be MPs from the Prime Minister's own party (though they needn't be). "Government" is the collective term for members of the executive; the "Cabinet" contains the most senior members of the government. Thus the majority of MPs are not members of the government. BartBassist (talk) 21:30, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Source

I have added the origin of the phrase with a quote from [[1]] which may not be exact. I can't find a confiming quote although I believe that I have previously seen it in this or an approximate form. If someone can find a confirmation or a parliamentary source that wouldbe great.Alci12 13:39, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Seriously lacking

Given the importance of the Opposition in British politics, I really can't believe lack of depth in this article. Anyone who is curious about how the UK government works will need to know about the Opposition, and quite fankly this article is crap!! I'm no expert on politics (but then I suppose neither are the contributors to most of Wikipedia's articles on politics!), but I would appreciate some help in expanding this article, preferebly from someone who knows what they're talking about (any politics students out there?).Mathsguy 20:52, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I can help with this article, but you may find that the relevant information is contained in other articles as well (have a look at the see alsos). I agree thought that there could be more information on, for example, opposition days, motions of no confidence, the usual channels etc. I might add some of that - remind me if I forget. Captainj 23:39, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

To do list

*PMQs

• Seating
• No confidence

*Leader of the opposition, history of leaders and parties

• General Opposition vs specific
• Shadow Cabinet / UK government in waiting
• Example of when unclear who is opposition (1918 / 1922) 1940-1945

*Opposition days

• role of speaker

*Rights of the opposition

• Short money

*The usual channels

• History of opposition
• Opposition in other countries
• Photos (in parliament?)

I can do all these myself, just a to do list which is better here than the article. Any help appreciated though. Captainj 18:21, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Edited above post (crossing off "done"). CaptainJ ^{(t | c | e)} 22:07, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for volunteering, I've rewritten the opeing paragraph, I think it makes a bit more sense now, especially the meaning of "government" which so seemed to confuse our American friend. Do yo think we should mention anything about other parties which act in opposition to the government, such as the LibDems?Mathsguy 16:15, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for doing the opening paragraph, I've tweaked it slightly. I've already mentioned other parties at some point later in the article, but we have to be careful, because they are not part of the official opposition. It's probably best to mention them as and when they impact on the official opposition (for example Kennedy's ambition in the 1997 election to replace the Conservative Party as the official opposition). It might be better to discuss them more in a new article on third party politics in the UK.

Incidentally, just a quick note about references (having learnt half of this myself recently): please be careful when deleting references, especially if they are of the form <ref name="refname">Reference</ref>. The name part means they can be used in shorter forms later in the article, so if you delete it, then it can mess up the other references.

Origins

Does anyone have a good ref on how the two-party system came into existence? --Andy Fugard (talk) 11:53, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

The "UK Parliament Standard Note:SN/PC/3910" reference in the article gives a useful introduction into the historical context and statutory recognition of the Official Opposition. Does that answer your question, or are you looking for something that delves into the subject in greater depth? Road Wizard (talk) 17:48, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Road Wizard! It's going the right direction. I guess I'm really after examples of how the thing functioned with "interests, relationships and factions". How the general public voted for people, and so on. --Andy Fugard (talk) 23:04, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Local opposition

In view of the importance of local council politics, is there anything that could be added here or to another article about the concept of local opposition or the local opposition party? This issue came up on another article I was working on. GDallimore (Talk) 15:19, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Most loyal?

I'm curious as to when HMs Opposition became HMs Most Loyal Opposition? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.19.224.63 (talk) 04:39, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Good question, the article states "The phrase His Majesty's Opposition was coined in 1826" but doesn't state when the longer phrase was coined! 11:18, 20 November 2020 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.186.40.121 (talk)

SNP true opposition?

In the lead section, it states:

Since May 2010, the Official Opposition has been the Labour Party, although in 2015, the Scottish National Party Westminster group has claimed to be the true opposition to the current UK Government.

I feel like there should probably be at least one inline source for this claim from the SNP, so I will add a {{cn}} tag later. But I want to ask whether this claim should be here or not as this page is about the official HM Opposition not the "whoever-claims-the-title opposition". I think that unless there's a source credibly stating that the SNP are regarded as the official opposition, this claim should be removed.  Seagull123  Φ  21:33, 24 August 2015 (UTC)