How much do you know about United Kingdom politics [and history]

[minionofmidas]

1 - Who is the Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? What party are they from?
David Cameron. Conservative.

2 - Name the two houses of the British Parliament.
House of Lords, House of Commons.

3 - Who is the current Leader of the Opposition and what party is he from?
Ed Milliband, Labour.

4 - What parties make up the current government?
Conservatives, Liberal Democrats.

5 - Name 3 parties, which are have MPs, outside of the three largest parties.
"Are have"? Is this a trick question?
Plaid Cymru, SNP, DUP, SDLP, SF, APNI. Anyone else?

6 - Prior to the current Prime Minister, who was the Prime Minister and from what party was he from?
Gordon Brown, Labour

HISTORICAL

7 - What was the main right-wing party in Scotland until the mid-60s?
The Unionist Party. Which was basically the Conservative Party's Scottish branch.

8 - Which office gives the holder the official residence of 10 Downing Street? [hint: it's not as obvious as you'd think]
Whatever historical office that has been subsumed into the position of Prime Minister used to be Prime Minister did?

9 - Who was Britain's longest serving Prime Minister?
Robert Walpole? Does that far back even count or was the title "Prime Minister" not in official use yet?

10 - Since 1900, which party, under which leader, won the most seats, and, which party did he represent?
Labour, Tony Blair, 1997? Or is this National Coalition Government, David Lloyd George, 1918, Liberals?

11 - What was Labour's official campaign song in the 1997 election?
Things can only get better[/]. Dreadful tune.

12 - When did Labour first enter government, under which Prime Minister?
Wartime coalition during WWI, Lloyd George or his predecessor (Asquith?)

13 - Who made up the so-called 'Gang of 4' and what did they do together?
Roy Jenkins, Shirley something-or-other, David Owen, some other bloke. Walked out of Labour and founded the SDP.

14 - Which Prime Minister had a trademark smoking pipe?
Macmillan? Probably several, actually.

DEVOLUTION

15 - Scotland. Who was the first First Minister of Scotland?
Donald Dewar

16 - Scotland. Who is the only First Minister to have won a parliamentary majority?
Alex Salmond

17 - Wales. Who's the current First Minister of Wales?
Carwyn... Jones? Hughes? Summat like that.

18 - Northern Ireland. Who's the current Deputy First Minister?
Martin McGuinness

DIFFICULT

19 - What event did Tony Blair say "wasn't a day for sound bites"?
It would take Tony Blair to not notice that no events of any import are not "not a day for sound bites". (Hey, quadruple negation, bitches!)

20 - Name one of the four Communist MPs who were elected.
Philip Piratin, Mile End, 1945. Then there's the bloke who won a seat in Fife in 35 and 45, and some arguable stuff in the 20s. (Such as some Parsee businessman in Battersea, supported by Labour and the Commies and perhaps - hazy on details - a member of the latter, but for all practical purposes an Indian National Congress MP.)

21 - What are the other names that the Liberal Democrats have taken, in their various forms?
Liberals. SDP. The short-lived name that got shortened to LDs (Social and Liberal Democrats maybe?)

22 - Who were the five candidates in the last Labour leadership election? [Bonus: Their current offices]
Ed Milliband, Dave Milliband, Ed Balls, Diane Abbot, some random scouse.

23 - What was Margaret Thatcher most famous (or, you might say, infamous) for before she became the leader of her party?
Being a right idiot.

24 - What's the literal seat of the Lord Speaker?
No clue.

IMPOSSIBLE

25 - What part of Westminister Palace was the House of Commons originally?
No clue.

26 - Who was the only Prime Minister not to speak English as a first language?
David Lloyd George? Though I think he was raised bilingual.

27 - What constituency did the leader of the BNP run in and who beat him, in the 2010 election?
Barking. Forget her name.

[minionofmidas]

1. Which party won the 1959 General Election?
Tories

2. Who was the first Leader of the Labour Party?
Keir Hardie

3. Name the constituencies of the leaders of the three largest parties in the Commons.
Sheffield Hallam for Clegg, one of the more rural South Yorkshire seats for Ed Milliband, one of those posh commuter belt area seats named for a random village for David Cameron.

4. Who is the current Father of the House?
?

Shouldn't be so hard

5. What was the name of the constituency represented by Harold Wilson from 1950 until 1983?
Knowsley, under a different name and a different set of boundaries.

6. What do Stoke-on-Trent and Bournemouth have in common?
Both are cities in England. Of roughly comparable size, and born of mergers of several towns really (Stoke more so than Bournemouth). Otherwise, nothing.

7. Who were the following (points for each, I suppose)... Anthony Barber, Dai Grenfell, Cyril Smith, Cecil Parkinson, Billy Wolfe and Tony Crosland.
I think I've heard some of the other names. Tony Crosland was a Labour bigwig in the 60s and 70s, holding numerous ministries and I think running for leader at least once.

8. What connects T. Dan Smith, Andy Cunningham and Reginald Maulding? Bonus points for knowing who Cunningham was, because most people don't.
T Dan Smith was of course Newcastle's legendary boss. Apart from that, no idea. Who is Andy Cunningham? And who is Reginald Maulding?

9. Only one constituency has elected members of four separate political parties since 1945. Name it.
Anglesey / Ynys Mon.

The next section is ridiculous.

Fairly hard, I guess.

14. Which sleepy Cathedral City came within 51 votes of electing a Communist MP in 1922? Possible bonus points for a couple of related things.
This better be Durham.

15. Name the last Conservative MP for a Manchester constituency.
Wasn't that Winston Churchill's grandson of same name?

16. Who was Austin Donohue in Our Friends in the North based on? Actually this is pretty easy question if you've seen it.
But I have not.

17. Which Labour MP had a brief cameo in Edge of Darkness? Again, if you've seen it...
?

18. Who was Sir Herbert Manzoni?
Birmingham's chief city planner (forget the job description) for decades in the postwar area. I've dutifully read what you sent me.

19. Which future Prime Minister ordered troops to fire on striking Yorkshire miners?
Winston Churchill

20. Who was the MP for Meirionnydd when cult TV classic The Prisoner was filmed in the constituency in the late 1960s?
? (To clarify: I think that's too early for the answer to be Dafydd Elis Thomas.)

21. Who represented Hunslet when The Uses of Literacy was first published?
What is "Hunslet"? What are the uses of literacy? I can't think of any.

Very Important Question

22. Pronounce 'Gala' in the context of the Big Meeting.
Ok, done. May be totally wrong, of course. We will never know, unless you have this room bugged.
I assume you are referring to the Durham Miners' Gala.

[minionofmidas]

The Uses of Literacy is an extremely influential book on working class culture by (some brit). It was published (somewhere around that).

There is a reason I didn't put any asterisks or italics on the phrase "the uses of literacy".

[minionofmidas]

bangor, Caernarffon, Pwllheli, uh... a couple more.