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"The British Parliament"
The British Parliament is the oldest in the world. It originated
in th 12th century as Witenagemot, the body of wise
councellers
whom the King needed to consult pursuing his policy.
The British
Parliament consists of the
House of Lords
and the House
of
Commons and the Queen as its head. The House of Commons
plays the
major role in law-making. It consists of Members
of Parliament
(called MPs for short).
Each of them
represents an area
in
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. MPs are elected either
at a
general election or at
a by-election following
the death or
retirement. Parliamentary elections are held every 5 years
and it
is the Prime Minister
who decides on
the exact day
of the
election. The minimum voting age is 18. And the voting is
taken
by secret ballot. The election campaign lasts about 3
weeks, The
British parliamentary system depends on politicals parties.
The
party which wins the majority of seats forms the
goverment and
its leader usually becomes Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister
chooses about 20 MPs from his party to
become the cabinet
of
ministers. Each minister is responsible for a particular
area in
the goverment. The second
largest party becomes
the official
opposition with its own leader and "shadow
cabinet". The leader
of the opposition is a recognized post in the House of
Commons.
The parliament and
the monarch have
different roles in the
goverment and they only meet together on symbolic occasions,
such
as coronation of a new monarch or the opening of the parliament.
In reality, the House of Commons is the one of three
which has
true power. The House of Commons is made up of six
hundred and
fifty elected members, it is presided over
by the speaker,
a
member acceptable to the whole house. MPs sit on two sides
of the
hall, one side for the governing party and
the other for the
opposition. The first 2 rows of seats are occupied by the
leading
members of both parties (called "front benches")
The back benches
belong to the rank-and-life MPs. Each session of
the House of
Commons lasts for 160-175 days. Parliament has intervals
during
his work. MPs are paid for their parliamentary work and have
to
attend the sittings. As mention above, the House of Commons
plays
the major role in law making. The procedure is the following:
a
proposed law ("a bill") has to go through three
stages in order
to become an act of parliament, these are called
"readings". The
first reading is a formality and is simply the publication
of the
proposal. The second reading involves debate on the
principles of
the bill, it is examination by parliamentary committy.
And the
third reading is a report stage, when the work of the
committy is
reported on to the house. This is
usually the most
important
stage in the process. When the bill passes through the House
of
Commons, it is sent to the House of Lords for
discussion, when
the Lords agree it, the bill is taken to
the Queen for
royal
assent, when the Queen sings the bill, it
becomes act of the
Parliament and the Law of the Land. The House of Lords has
more
than 1000 members, although only about 250 take an active
part in
the work in the house.
Members of this
Upper House are
not
elected, they sit there because of their rank, the
chairman of
the House of Lords is the Lord Chancellor.
And he sits
on a
special seat, called "WoolSack" The members of the
House of Lords
debate the bill after it has been passed by the House of Commons.
Some changes may be recommended and the agreement between
the two
houses is reached by negotiations.