Parliament General Aspects Activities of Parliament: o Make new laws o Gives authority for the government to raise and

d spend money Discussion o Keeps a close eye on government Palace of Westminster or The House of Parliament: it contains offices, committee rooms, restaurants, bars, libraries and some places of residence. Two larger rooms: House of lords/House of Commons holding meetings. British Parliament is divided into these two Houses. Only Common members are known as MPs (Members of the Parliament), theyre by far the more important of the two. The Speaker: The 2nd most important non-aristocrat commoner after the Prime Minister o The person who chairs and controls discussion in the House. o Decides which MP is going to speak next. o Makes sure that the rules of procedure are followed: if theyre not, Speaker has the power to demand a public apology from an MP or even ban an MP from the House for a number of days. o MPs in the House always address the Speaker as Mr Speaker or Madame Speaker. o Once an Speaker is appointed he or she agrees to give all party politics and normally remains in the job for as long as she or he wants it. The Speaker is appointed and placed by other members to sit in the large chair in the middle of the House because Hundreds of years ago, it was the speakers job to communicate the decisions of the Commons to the King, because the king was often very displaced with what the Common had decided. This was an unpleasant task so nobody wanted the job. They had to be forced to take it. These days the position is a much safer one but the tradition of dragging an unwilling speaker to the chair has remained.

The atmosphere of Parliament The way in which the meeting room of the House of Commons is arranged differ from the interior parliament buildings in most other countries, this is something that makes British Parliament distinctive. Seating arrangements: 2 rows of benches facing each other. o Left: government benches where MPs of governing party sit. o Right: opposition benches. o Depending on where they take sit, MPs are seen to be supporting the government or against it. This division is emphasized by the table on the floor of the House between the two rows of benches. Speakers Chair, which is raised some way off the floor, is here, from this commanding position.

Reasons of the Parliament Design 1st: The arrangement encourages confrontation between the government and opposition. And reinforces psychologically the reality of the British two-party system 2nd: The Commons has no special place for people to stand when they are speaking; they simply stand up and speak from wherever theyre sitting. 3rd: there are no desk for the MPs, benches are placed just as in a church which makes physically easy for them to drift in and out of the room-something that they do frequently. 4th: The room is very small, actually, there isnt enough room for all the MPs (They are about 650 members but there is seating for fewer than 400) o When a candidate wins an election, it is said he or she had won a sit in the parliament, but this is imaginary, they don t have their own place to sit. MPs just sit wherever they can find room. All of this makes an informal atmosphere, as MPs dont have an own territory, theyre encouraged to cooperate As room is small and they dont have any podium, MPs do not speak as if they were in front of a large audience, in fact, they speak in a conversational tone for a short period of time because they have nowhere to place their notes. Exception: when theres an special important occasion, when all MPs are present, an extended oratory is used. On these occasions, the fact that 200 MPs have to stand makes clear the occasion is important. House of Commons was deliberately designed like this. Long time ago, their meetings were placed in a church, and churches of that time often had rows of benches facing each other. After the London bombing in 1941, the House of Commons was badly damaged and they decided to rebuilt it according to the old pattern. Rules and customs of procedure It is forbidden for MPs to address one another by name. All remarks and question must go through the chair, which is the Speaker. An MP who is speaking refers to or asks a question of The honourable member for Winchester or my right honourable friend. The fellow MP concerned must be sitting directly opposite but the MP never says you. These ancients rules were made originally to take off the heat out of debate and decrease the possibility that violence might break out. An MPs Life Traditionally, MPs were supposed to be ordinary people who gave some of their time to keeping an eye on the government and representing the people. And no specialist politicians. They came from all walks of life bringing their experience to the parliament. Originally they were not even paid until the beginning of the 20th century, it was a public service and not a career. This meant that only rich people could afford to be MP.

Even though they did come from a wide variety of backgrounds, these backgrounds were of power and wealth. British MPs do not get paid very much in comparison with many of their European counterparts. Politics in Britain in the last haft century has become professional. Most MPs are full time politicians. If they do another job it is only part time. The amateur tradition is reflected in the hours of business of the Commons: o The house never sat in the mornings because at this time, MPs would be doing their ordinary work or pursuing other interests outside the parliament. o The House also gives itself quite long holidays, similar to those of schools in Britain. Apparently easy life misleading: o MP spends more time at work than any other professional in the country o The prepared timetable of sittings sometimes has to be extended and the House occasionally debates all through the nigh and the next day without a break. o MPs mornings are taken up with committee work, research, preparing speeches and dealing with the problems of their constituents (people they represent) o Weekends: MPs are expected to visit their constituencies or areas they represent and listen to the problems of anybody who wants to see them. o Their life leaves very little time for pursuing another career and leaves not too much time for their families either. o Politicians have higher rate of divorce than the national average.

When the Commons sit The day in the main chamber of the House of Commons normally follows this order: 1. Prayers: 1 minute 2. Question time: 1 Hour The best attended and the noisiest part of the Parliament day. Theres no subject for debate MPs are allowed to ask questions of government ministers, in this way they force the government to make certain facts public and to make its intentions clear. Oppositions MPs have the opportunity to make government ministers look incompetent or perhaps dishonest Questions to ministers have to be tabled, written down and placed on the table below the Speakers chair two days in advance. Ministers have the time to prepare their answers so they can avoid major embarrassment. However, MPs are allowed to ask an unexpected supplementary question relating to the minister answer in order to catch a minister unprepared. Question Time has been widely copied around the world. The majority of television news take a short extract of Parliament from this period of its day.

It is common for the news to show an extract from the 15 minutes each week when its the Prime ministers turn to answer questions. 3. Miscellaneous business: such as a statement from a minister (up to 45 minutes) 4. Main business: up to 6 and half hours A debate on a proposal for a new law known as BILL Bills are introduced by the government, but sometimes some days in each year bills are introduced by individual MPs, these are called private members bills. Not many of the bills become law because of lack of interest or lack of time for proper discussion of them. 5. Adjournment debate: half an hour MPs are allowed to bring up different matters for general discussion. The parliamentary day used to run from 2.30 pm to 10.30 pm, but in 2003 the hours changed with sessions starting in the morning and finishing by early evening. This was in order spend more time with families and to present a more normal, nine to five image to the public. This change was also a recognition that with so many more women MPs than before, some of them with young children. But the new hours were unpopular, some MPs complained they no longer had time to drop their children off at school, and some other who did not live near London had to stay there in the evening. They reached a compromise in which the old hours are used now form Mondays and Thursdays and the new ones for Wednesday and Thursdays as follows o Monday 2.30 pm-10-30 pm o Tuesday 2.30 pm-10-30 pm o Wednesday 11.30 am-7.30 pm o Thursday 10.30 am -6.30 pm o Friday 9.30 am-3 pm (the house do not sit every Friday)

Hansard Name given to the daily verbatim reports of everything that has been said in the Commons. Published within 48 hours of the day they cover. Frontbenchers and backbenches Some seats are reserved for particular MPs. These are the front benches or either the other side of the House, Frontbenches: benches where the leading members of the governing party (i.e ministers) and leading members of the main opposition party sit. Backbenches: MPs who do not hold a government post or a post in the shadow cabinet