Young Wrexham

Politics

Politics generally refers to groups of people coming together to make decisions about the world we live in, such as the laws that we live by, how we are educated, how we work and how we are taken care of.

In the UK and Wales these people are called politicians, councillors, members of parliament or assembly ministers. They are elected when we vote for them, we vote for them when we feel that they would be the best people to have the power to make decisions for us.

There are many different types of governments across the world, and each country has a different political set up.

Wales is run by the Welsh Government which is a devolved government. This means some decisions about health, education, social services, agriculture and local government can be made in Wales. Decisions about employment, social security, policing and defending the country are made by the UK Parliament.

Wales and the UK are part of the European Union which has another set of politics for the countries that are part of it. These countries share a common currency, the Euro.

On an international scale, the UK forms part of several international political bodies such as NATO and United Nations.

NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, an alliance or group of countries that agree to defend each other if they were attacked. The Untied Nations is an international organisation that works for cooperation between counties on laws, human rights and works to achieve world peace.

This section should give you a good understanding of politics in Wales, the UK and the rest of the world.