The Parliament. Elections.

British State System. Political Parties.

Monarchy as an Institution

GB is a country with a demcratic form of government, and it is at the same time a constitutional monarchy.The monarch is considered to be the symbol of nation’s unity, head of the executive branch of power, integral part of legislature, head of judiciary branch, commander-in-chief of all armed forces, Defender of Faith. She summons, prorogues or dissolves parliament, appoints every important office holder and some senior clergy; confers peerages, knighthoods and other honors; makes peace and declares war; is informed and consulted on every aspect of national life – so she naturally has access to all secret documents. The Windsor family is one of the largest landowners in Britain as well as custodian of British standards and values. The monarch embodies unity of the Commonwealth (Heads of the Commonwealth meet every 2 years with an informal exchange of views). The Queen presides over the ‘secret council’, a consultative body comprising Prince Philip,Duke of Edinburough, Prince of Wales (Charles), cabinet members and leaders of opposition. Once a week Her Malesty grants audience to PM, but their meetings are strictly confidential.

Gueen Elizabeth II (who succeeded to the throne in 1952) is supported by 70 % of the population, who consider the figure-head above political strife very important, while the annual upkeep of the monarchy institution does not exceed some washing powder ads campaigns. (The Queen gets about 2 mln pounds per year, secured from inflation and free of tax). The Queen’s family are charged with royal comissions. The weekly allowance of this or that member of the family will depend on their being more or less cooperative.

The Parliament. Elections.

In GB ‘Westminster’ stands for legislative and ‘Whitehall’ for executive power. Parliament is the highest legislative authority in GB and its legislative power is unlimited. It means there is no institution in GB similar to the Supreme court of USA that can abolish a law if it considers it contradictory to the constitution. Probaby perhaps there is no written constitution. What stands in its stead is a loose conglomeration of the statute, the common law and the convention, modified by a constant process of interpretation.

The Parliament has 2 chambers – the House of Commons, to which members are elected from constituencies, and the House of Lords – often referred to as ‘the upper chamber’. Its members are not elected and not paid.

In GB there are approximately 650 electoral districts or constituencies, each elects 1 MP. Labour, Conservative, and The New Liberal – the main adversaries - have political organisations in most constituencies. Some are ‘safe seats’ where this or that party has the lead. Some constituencies are ‘marginal’ or even ‘3 way marginal’ – it means that political sympathies are divided and it is ‘sleeping voters’ – people with vague political outlook who can be easily swayed this way or that – who decide the matter.

Voting takes place on the same day (usually a Thursday) at all polling stations. Every resident over 18 has the right to vote unless he is imprisoned, is a lord or mentally ill. People can either drop their ballot papers into ballot booth or express their will by postal vote. In GB there is a majority electoral system – that means the candidate who wins the most votes is selected, even if he doesn’t get as many as the combined votes of other candidates; proportional representation is very mush desired but not yet reached..

If the majority changes grom one party to the other the defeated PM usually resigns at once.

The Parliament Act fixed the life of Parliament at 5 years, although it can be prolonged or dissolved. The life of Parliament is divided into sessions. Each session lasts for 1 year and it is terminated by a prorogation, which begins or ends in October or November. The period in which the Parliament is not sitting are known as recesses.

The House of Lords is often referred to as an institution opposing democracy. In fact, it is an effective check upon the lower chamber, the so-called ‘braking mechanism’. This function is carried out through the so-called ‘Lords’ veto’. The Act of 1949 reduced the delaying powers of Lords to 1 year, and abolished the veto altogether over bills dealing exclusively with expenditure or taxation.

The House of Lords has important legal functions being the final Court of Appeal for civil cases. Judicial business is conducted by Lords of Appeal.

In the House of Lords, the office of the Speaker carries with it no authority to controll debate. Members of the House of Lords do not address themselves to the Lord Chancellor, but to fellow Members of the House. Nevertheless, the position of Lord Chancellor is unique in a number of ways: beside position of Speaker of the Upper chamber, he is a cabinet Minister and Supreme Justice; he nominates judges.

As to the structure of the Upper Chamber, it consists of life peers and hereditary peers. Life peers are nominated by the Queen for special services rendered to the country or excellency of expertise in this or that field. They are former MPs, bankers, diplomats, scientists, writers, trade union leaders. E.g. Elton John, Paul MacKartney, Mike Jugger were knighted and became peers of GB. Hereditary peers sit in the House of Lords because their fathers used to sit there. They are nobility of GB – dukes, counts, viscounts and barons. In October 1993 the House of Lords issued a regulation according to which the number of hereditary peers was made less – from 750 to 91. 26 seats in the House of Lords are taken up by Lords of the church – bishops and archbishops. At present the upper chamber is gets more representation of minority groups: there appeared the so-called ‘black lords’ – Euroafricans and Asians. Another experiment is alotting special money compensation to get lords interested in attending the sessions. They are paid 14 pounds for every session they attend.

The British House of Lords has the lowest quorum needed to adopt a decision – 3 Lords present a quorum.

In the Commons the Speaker has full authority to rule and order the House. In the event of tied vote (when an equal number of votes is cast) the Speaker must give his decisive one. On election the Speaker suspends his party membership: his function is to provide neutral policy in the House and to stand above party interests.

A vote is taken by means of division, and must be executed strictly in person (not by pressing the button). MPs voting ‘Aye’ go out of the chamber to the lobby on the rightof the Speaker while those voting ‘No’ pass on his left 9voting with their feet). Members’ votes are recorded by 4 clerks and 4 tellers. MPs are not expected to be in constant attendance on routine days and debates. Their work is organised by special officers known as ‘Whips’. On the Government side in the House of Commons the Chief Whip is Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury. He is responsible for settling the details of the Government’s programme of business, estimating the time likely to be required for each item and arranging the procedure of individual sittings.

In terms of sitting positions in the lower chamber the front bench to the right is called Treasury Bench. It is reserved for the PM and members of the Cabinet. The front seat to the left is called Opposition Bench. It is reserved for the leader of opposition and the Shadow Cabinet. The ordinary members are called backbenchers. The members of the independent parties are called crossbenchers.

Work of both Chambers is steeped in, and often obstucted by tradition (opening of the Parliament, the Black Rod service, ‘thronging’ of the Speaker, treading the red line) – ceremonial occasions, official gowns and special language of parliamentary debate. The latter can be characterised by abundance of absolete forms (e.g. address ‘honorable member’), a lot of verbal warm-upmanship and special protocol. There exists a special reference book which lists restrictions and regulations to MPs as to the verbal side of their work: no verbal abuse is allowed and showing lack of regard for Her Majesty is out of the question. The protocol is enforced by a system of cuts in the salary (which for a MP is about 50.000 pounds). Cabinet MPs are prohibited to go in for private enterprise.

Westminster is not the only parliament in the UK. There is the Assembly of the States in the Channel Islands and there is the Tynwald in the Isle of Man (both are dependencies) and the parliaments of Wales, Nothern Ireland and Scotland. But they deal with domestic matters and in matters affecting their common interests Westminster has overriding authority.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20