Unlike politicians,  civil servants, even of the highest rank, are unknown to the larger public. But for those who belong to it, the British civil service is a career. There are different grades in the civil service. The lowest grade is composed of the clerks and typists who deal with letters, or prepare the information required for their seniors or for the members of the public. In charge of them in the next, higher rank, are the men and women in the Executive [ig`zekjutiv] Grade. Their duty is to carry out the details of legislation [,led3is`lei∫зn]. The highest grade of all is the Administrative [зd`ministrзtiv] Grade, composed of the chief officials who advise the minister in charge of a department and decide how laws are to be implemented [`implimentid]. These most senior positions are usually filled by people who have been working in the civil service for twenty years or more. These people get a high salary (higher than that of their ministers) and stand a good chance of being awarded an official honour.

      The heart of the civil service is the Cabinet Office, whose secretary is the most senior civil servant at any given time.

      The system of local government is very similar to the system of the national government. There are elected representatives, called councillors [`kaunsilзz] (the equivalent of MPs). They meet in a council chamber in the Town Hall or County Hall (the equivalent of Parliament), where they make policy which implemented [`implimentid] by local government officers (the equivalent of civil servants).

      There is no system in Britain whereby – посредством которой a national government official has responsibility for a particular geographical area. There is no one like a ‘prefect’ [`pri:fзkt] or ‘governor’ [`gΛvзnз]. Local councils have traditionally been fairly free from constant central interference [,intз`fiзrзns] in their day to day work. So they manage nearly all public services.

      Local councils allowed to collect one kind of tax. This is a tax based on property. All other kinds are collected by central government. 

 

Vocabulary

‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’ – канцлер казначейства (министр финансов)

First Lord of the Treasury – первый лорд казначейства, номинальная должность главы совета казначейства, которую занимает первый министр

Lord President of the Council – лорд-председатель Тайного совета, представляет королеву в тайном совете в ее отсутствие

resign – уходить в отставку

legislation – законодательство

implement – выполнять

prefect – префект

governor – губернатор 

4. The Law

      The judicial [d3u`di∫зl] branch interprets [in`tз:prits] – толкует the laws.

      There is no police force in Britain. All police employees [,emploi`i:z] – служащие work for one of the forty or so separate forces which each have responsibility for a particular geographical area. Originally, these were set up locally. Each police officer had his own ‘beat’, a particular neighborhood which it was his duty to patrol [pз`troul]. He usually did it on foot or sometimes by bicycle. The local ‘bobby’ was a familiar figure on the streets, a reassuring presents that people felt they could trust absolutely.

      Later, central government gained some control over them. It inspects them and has influence over senior appointments within them. In return, it provides about half of the money to run them. The other half comes from local government.

      The exception to this system is the Metropolitan [,metrз`politзn] Police Force – Столичная полиция (официальное название полиции Лондона, за исключением  Сити, имеющего собственную полицию ‘City of London Police Force’), which polices [pз`li:siz] – обеспечивает порядок Greater London. The ‘Met’ is under the direct control of central government. It also performs certain national police functions such as the registration of all crimes and criminals in England and Wales and the compilation [,kompi`lei∫зn] of the missing persons register. New Scotland Yard is the famous building which is the headquarters of its Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

      Since the middle years of the twentieth century, the police in Britain have lost much of their positive image. In 1980s there were a large number of cases in which it was found that the police officers had lied and cheated [`t∫I:tid] – обманывали in order to get people convicted of crimes. As a result, trust in the honesty of the police has declined [ai]. Police officers are no longer known as ‘bobbies’ but have become the ‘cops’ or the ‘pigs’.

      Nevertheless, the relationship between police and public in Britain compares quite favourably with that in some other European countries. Police officers often still address members of the public as ‘sir’ or ‘madam’. They still do not carry guns in the course of normal duty, although all police stations have a store of weapons.

      The system of justice in England and Wales (there are separate ones for Scotland and Northern Ireland), in both civil and criminal cases, is an adversarial [,ædvз:`seзriзl] system. In criminal cases there is no such things as an examining magistrate [`mæd3istreit] who tries to discover the real truth about what happened. In formal terms it is not the business of any court to find out ‘the truth’. Its job is simply to decide ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a particular proposition [,propз`zi∫зn] (in criminal cases, that a certain person is guilty of a certain crime) after it has heard arguments and evidence from both sides (in criminal cases these sides are known as the defence and the prosecution [,prosi`kju:∫зn]).

      There are basically two kinds of court. More than 90 % of all cases are dealt with in magistrates’ courts. Every town has one of these. In them a panel [`pænl] of magistrates (usually three) passes judgement [`d3Λd3mзnt]. In cases where they have decided somebody is guilty of a crime, they can also impose [im`pouz] a punishment.

• If it is someone’s first offence [з`fens] and the crime is a small one, even a guilty person is often unconditionally [`Λnkзn`di∫зnli] discharged [dis`t∫a:d3d]. He or she is set free without punishment.
• The next step up the ladder is a conditional discharged. This means that the guilty person is set free but if he or she commits another crime within a stated time, the first crime will be taken into account.
• He or she may also be put on probation [prз`bei∫зn], which means that regular meeting with a social worker must take place.
• A very common form of punishment for minor offences is a fine, which means that the guilty person has to lay a sum of money.
• Another possibility is that the convicted person is sentenced to a certain number of hours of community service.
• Wherever possible, magistrates and judges try not to imprison people. This costs the state money, the country’s prisons are already overcrowded and prisons have a reputation for being ‘schools for crime’. Even people who are sent to prison do not usually serve the whole time to which they are sentenced. They get ‘remission’ [ri`mi∫зn] of their sentence for ‘good behaviour’.
• There is no death penalty [`penlti] in Britain, except for treason.
• For murders, there is a life sentence. However, ‘life’ does not normally mean life.

      Magistrates, who are also known as Justices of the Peace (JPs), are not trained lawyers. They are just ordinary people of good reputation who have been appointed to the job by a local committee. They do not get a salary or a fee for their work (though they get paid expenses).

      Even serious criminal cases are first heard in a magistrate’s court. In these cases, the Jps only need to decide that it is possible that the accused [з`kju:zd] may be guilty. They then refer the case to a higher court. In most cases this will be a crown court, where a professional lawyer acts as the judge and the decision regarding guilt or innocence is taken by a jury [`d3uзri]. Juries consist of twelve people selected at random [`rændзm] from the list of voters. They do not get paid for their services and are obliged to perform this duty. In order for a verdict to be reached, there must be agreement among at least ten of them. If this does not happen, the judge has to declare a mistrial [mis`traiзl] and the case must start all over again with a different jury. The judge’s job is to impose a punishment on those found guilty of crimes. A convicted person may appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal (generally known as the Appeal Court) in London either to have the conviction [kзn`vik∫зn] quashed [kwo∫t] or to have  the sentence reduced. The highest court of all the Britain is the House of Lords.

      Scotland has its own legal system, separate from the rest of the UK. The basis of its law is closer to Roman and Dutch law. A very noticeable feature is that there are three, not just two, possible verdicts. As well as ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty’, a jury may reach a verdict of ‘not proven’ [`pru:vзn], which means that the accused person cannot be punished but is not completely cleared of guilt either.

      There are two different kinds of lawyer in Britain. One of these is a solicitor [sз`lisitз]. Solicitors handle most legal matters for their clients, including the drawing up of documents (such as wills, divorce papers and contracts) and presenting their clients’ cases in magistrates’ courts. If the trial is to be heard in a higher court, the solicitor normally hires the services of the other kind of lawyer – a barrister [`bæristз]. There are only about 5000 barristers in the UK, and they are the senior branch of the legal profession. The only function of barristers is to present cases in court.

Vocabulary

employees – служащие

beat – участок

patrol – патрулировать

‘bobby’ – полицейский (Bobby уменьш. от Robert; по имени Роберта Пиля, реорганизовавшего лондонскую полицию в 1829)

Metropolitan Police Force – Столичная полиция (официальное название полиции Лондона, за исключением Сити, имеющего собственную полицию ‘City of London Police Force’)

compilation – составление

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) – Департамент уголовного розыска

cheat – обманывать

adversarial system – система, основанная на противоборстве сторон (защита и обвинение)

magistrate – судья-магистрат

proposition – утверждение, заявление

prosecution – обвинение

magistrates’  court – суд магистратов

panel of magistrates – коллектив судей-магистратов

pass judgement – вершить правосудие

impose a punishment – приговаривать к наказанию

offence – проступок, нарушение, преступление

unconditionally discharged – освобождение без каких-либо условий

conditional discharged – условный приговор (освобождение на определенных условиях)

on probation – условное освобождение на поруки

fine – штраф

community service – исправительные работы

imprison – заключать в тюрьму

death penalty – смертный приговор

remission – смягчение приговора

life sentence – пожизненное заключение

Justice of the Peace (JP) – мировой судья

accused – обвиняемый

jury – присяжные

at random – наугад

mistrial – судебный процесс, в котором присяжные не вынесли единодушного решения

appeal – апеллировать

conviction – осуждение, признание виновным

quash – аннулировать

‘not proven’ – ‘не доказано’

solicitor – солúситор

barrister – барристер 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

LECTURE 5

The media [`mi:djз] 

Plan:

1. The Press
2. Radio and television

 
 

1. The Press

      Britain's first newspapers appeared over 300 years ago. British people are the world’s third biggest newspaper buyers; only the Japanese and the Swedes buy more.

      Newspaper publication is dominated [`domineitid] by the national press: nearly 80 % of all households buy a copy of one of the national papers every day. There are more than eighty local and regional daily papers; but the total circulation [,sз:kju`lei∫зn] of all of them together is much less than the combined circulation of the national ‘dailies’. The only non-national papers with significant [sig`nifikзnt] circulation are published in the evenings, when they do not compete with the national papers, which always appear in the morning. Most local papers do not appear on Sundays, so on that day the dominance [`dominзns] of the national press is absolute. ‘The Sunday papers’ are so-called because that is the only day on which they appear. Some of them are published by the same company but employing separate editors and journalists. The Sunday papers sell slightly more copies than the dailies and are thicker.

      Local papers give information about films, concerts, and other things that are happening in the local neighbourhood, including, for example, information about local people who have been married or died recently. There are also many free local papers which are delivered to people’s homes whether they ask for them or not. These papers contain a lot of advertisements and also some news.

      Each of the national papers can be characterized as belonging to one of two distinct [dis`tiŋkt] categories [`kætigзriz]. ‘The quality papers’, or ‘broadsheets’ [`bro:d∫i:ts], cater [`keitз] – снабжать, обслуживать, зд. предназначаться for the better educated readers. The ‘popular papers’ or ‘tabloids’ [`tæbloidz], sell to a much large readership. The tabloids contain far less print than the broadsheets and far more pictures. They use larger headlines and write in a simple style of English. While the broadsheets devote much space to `politics and other ‘serious’ news, the tabloids concentrate on ‘human interest’ stories, which often means sex and scandal. However, the broadsheets do not completely ignore sex and scandal or any other aspect of public life. Both types of paper devote equal amount of attention to sport. The difference between them is in the treatment of the topics they cover, and in which topics are given the most prominence [`prominзns]. The reason that the quality newspapers are called broadsheets and the popular ones – tabloids is because they are different shapes. The broadsheets are twice as large as the tabloids.

      The daily broadsheets are: Daily Telegraph [`teligra:f], Guardian [`ga:djзn], Independent [,indi`pendзnt], Times, Financial [fai`næn∫зl] Times. The Sunday broadsheets are: Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Observer, Independent on Sunday.

      The daily tabloids are: Sun, Daily Mirror [`mirз], Daily Mail, Daily Express [iks`pres], Star. The Sunday tabloids are: News of the World, Sunday Mirror, People, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Express, Sunday sport.

      The way politics is presented in the national newspapers reflects the fact that British political parties are essentially parliamentary [,pa:lз`mentзri] organizations. Although different papers have differing political outlooks, none of the large newspapers is an organ of a political party.

      Most of newspapers are right-wing. These are the Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail and the Sun. The Times, the oldest newspaper in Britain, did not formerly have one strong political view but it is now more right-wing. The Guardian is slightly left-wing. The Independent does not support any one political party, and neither does Financial Times, which concentrates on business and financial news. The Daily Mirror is left-wing.

      What counts for the newspaper publishers is business. All of them are in the business first and foremost to make money. As newspapers receive no government subsidy [`sΛbsidi], their primary concern is to sell as many copies as possible and to attract as much advertising [`ædvзtaiziŋ] as possible. The British press is controlled by a rather small number of extremely large companies. This fact helps to explain two notable features.