This year is the 300th anniversary of Britain’s first prime minister taking power. The PM is the most powerful political figure in the UK, but the origins of the position are not clear. In the early 18th century, Britain’s monarchy was losing power to Parliament. This created an opportunity for a politician who could control Parliament and work with the monarch. Sir Robert Walpole was that man. Although his actual title was First Lord of the Treasury, historians consider him to be the country’s first prime minister. He dominated politics from 1721 to 1742.
Taboo Term The politicians who followed Walpole developed his role, but no one used the term ‘prime minister’ —it was actually taboo in British politics for decades because it suggested that one single individual had accumulated too much power. During the 19th century, however, it slowly became acceptable.rather than
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rather than:
en lugar de
the law. In 1870, the PM acquired the exclusive right to call
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to call:
convocar
cabinet meetings. In 1903, it was decided he could remove
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to remove:
destituir
ministers and, fifteen years later, that he could call general elections.
The PM’s Advisers A fundamental element of the premiership since the very beginning has been the question of advisers. Walpole had the assistance of ‘men of business’ —friends and colleagues. With the development of the professional Civil Service in the mid-19th century, the PM could ask for advice from some of the best specialists in the world. A hundred years later, Britain’s premiers started to use special advisers, who combined party political and civil service functions. At the same time, government, which had been cabinet-led
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cabinet-led:
liderado por los gabinetes
, slowly changed to prime ministerial government, and PM staff numbers grew dramatically, reaching two hundred by the year 2000.
a mixed bag In the last few decades, prime ministers have varied dramatically in quality. While Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair impressed with their general abilities, others have not covered themselves in glory. John Major and Theresa May were both compared unfavourably to Lord North, who famously lost England’s colonies in North America in the late 18th century. David Cameron’s 2016 referendum led to Brexit. Scottish independence could soon follow. Britain’s current and 77th PM, Boris Johnson, often compared himself to Donald Trump … but not anymore20!.
1 Sir Robert Walpole to do so
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to do so:
hacer tal cosa
. In 1712, he was found guilty of corruption (a trumped-up
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trumped-up:
inventado
charge
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charge:
acusación
) and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Britain’s longest-serving PM, he was excellent at pulling the political strings
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to pull the strings:
mover los hilos
in Parliament.
2 Frederick North, Lord North blame
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blame:
culpa
ever since
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ever since:
desde entonces
. He was only partially responsible. He spent his last five years in power begging
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to beg:
suplicar
King George III to let him resign
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to resign:
dimitir
. Charming
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Charming:
encantador
and popular, he loved to tell negative anecdotes about himself.
3 Sir Robert Peel free trade
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free trade:
libre comercio
and introduced income tax
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income tax:
impuesta sobre la renta
.
4 Benjamin Disraeli I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole.
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SPEAK UP EXPLAINS
He trepado hasta lo más alto del poste grasiento. Un entretenimiento que todavía hoy es posible observar en ferias y fiestas populares de Gran Bretaña consiste en trepar por un poste cubierto de grasa que, evidente-mente, resulta tremendamente resbaladizo (y bastante pringoso). Esta expresión se usa de forma desaprobatoria para referirse a lo difícil y a menudo desagradable que resulta el camino hacia la cima de una profesión.
” He also said: “There are three kinds of lies
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lies:
mentiras
: lies, damned
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damned:
malditas
lies and statistics.” He introduced a great deal
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a great deal:
una gran cantidad
of social legislation. He was also Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister.
5 William Gladstone bitter
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bitter:
acérrimos
enemies and had the greatest political rivalry in history. Gladstone served for four terms, more periods than any other PM. To the working classes, he was the ‘Grand Old Man
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SPEAK UP EXPLAINS
Venerable veterano. El adjetivo grand implica excelencia, como en grand hotel. Acompañado, como en este caso, de ‘old’ se usa para referirse a una persona que ha destacado durante mucho tiempo en su profesión; una figura importante en un campo en el que ha acumulado mucha experiencia y éxitos.
’. He spent much of his life trying to rescue prostitutes. Queen Victoria described him as “half-mad.”
6 David Lloyd George Nicknamed
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to nickname:
apodar
‘The Goat
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Goat:
cabra
’ for his inexhaustible sexual energy and womanising
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to womanise:
ser un mujeriego
, Lloyd George is the only Welshman to have become PM. As an MP he introduced reforms which helped lay the foundations
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to lay the foundations:
sentar las bases
for the modern welfare state
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welfare state:
Estado del bienestar
. As PM he played a major role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that re-ordered Europe.
7 Winston Churchill trade unions
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trade unions:
sindicatos
and workers’ rights —he even used the army against strikers
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strikers:
huelguistas
in Wales on one occasion.
8 Clement Attlee
9 Margaret Thatcher enterprise
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enterprise:
empresa
culture. She famously said: “There is no such thing as society”, but she did believe in the European Union. The IRA tried to assassinate her in 1984.
10 Tony Blair landslide
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landslide:
triunfo aplastante (lit. desprendimiento)
in history (418 seats
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seats:
escaños
out of 659). His legacy included revitalising the UK economy, civil partnerships
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civil partnerships:
unión civil
, Bank of England independence, and local government for Wales and Scotland —but he controversially joined America in the Iraq War.
Out of rank Boris Johnson (Conservative, 2019-?)lineage
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lineage:
ascendencia
, he cultivated an eccentric English persona
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persona:
personaje
as self-protection. After attending prestigious school Eton and then Oxford University, he went into journalism. Dismissed
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to dismiss:
despedir
from his first job on The Times for fabricating a quote
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quote:
cita
, he moved to The Daily Telegraph, where he spent five years ridiculing the European Union. He then spent six years as editor of the magazine The Spectator, where he hosted
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to host:
organizar, albergar
famously lascivious parties. Johnson has had two wives, several partners and countless
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countless:
incontables
affairs, often at the same time. It is not clear how many children he has. Johnson entered Parliament as a Conservative MP
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MP:
diputado (member of parliament)
in 2001. After two terms as Mayor of London, he became an MP again in 2015. He made himself the chief spokesman
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chief spokesman:
principal portavoz
for the Leave campaign in the 2016 EU referendum and then argued for a hard Brexit. The premiership quickly followed. In the December 2019 General Election, Johnson won a landslide victory for the Conservatives. A year later he signed a deal with the EU. Johnson contracted coronavirus last year and was seriously ill. Many experts have criticised him over his handling of the pandemic. However, the successful vaccination programme in Britain has restored some of his lost credibility. Johnson’s future, however, is still very uncertain.
