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British Institutions. Parliament. Government. Political Parties & Electoral System. Monarchy
British Institutions. Parliament. Government. Political Parties & Electoral System. Monarchy
British Institutions. Parliament. Government. Political Parties & Electoral System. Monarchy
This topic deals with British institutions. I will divide the topic into four
different sections. In my first section, I will to look at the parliament, and I will
deal with the House of Lords, the House of Commons and the monarchy. I will
analyse some aspects such as the voting system, the layout of the parliament,
and the case of Scotland and Wales. In my second section I will deal with the
government. In my third section I will discuss the electoral system and the main
political parties. Finally, in my last section I will deal with the monarchy and the
To begin with, I would like to mention that there are many traditions
mention throughout this topic that we can reach a greater understanding of the
where the Head of State is the reigning king or queen, at present Queen
Elizabeth II. The Head of government is the Prime Minister, who is the leader of
present Tony Blair, leader of the Labour Party. Britain does not have a written
Constitution at all. There are rules, regulations, principles and procedures for
Parliament’). The British Parliament is divided into two separate houses: the
House of Lords and the House of Commons, plus the sovereign. The
Parliament is responsible for making laws, discussing major issues affecting the
all the two houses and the sovereign is required for laws to be passed.
The word Parliament comes from ‘parley’ (which comes from French
‘parler’), a discussion. The word was first used in the 13 th century to describe a
meeting between Henry III and his noblemen in the Great Council. Over time,
the Great Council became the House of Lords, and the people from the
Now, I will deal in detail with each chamber. Also called the Upper House,
the Lords Spiritual (the Archibishops of Canterbury and York and senior
bishops) and the Lords Temporal (hereditary peers and life peers (one of the
best known life peers is Baroness Thatcher)); the members are not elected;
they are members as of right. The total number of people eligible to attend the
Lords is about 1200, but some get permission to be absent. The Lord
Chancellor presides over debates from the Woolsack. The House of Lords have
little, if any, power. Its power has been reduced over times. On 11 th November
1999, Blair’s Labour government initiated the first stage of reform in an effort to
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1999). His aim was to abolish the right of hereditary peers to sit in the Lords,
and create new life peers to take their place but it is not yet clear how they will
be chosen. Its most useful function is to review bills that have not been
Nowadays, the House of Lords is more a forum for public discussion than any
other thing.
Commons has the right to impose taxes and to decide when to give or withhold
money from the various public departments. A limitation on the power of the
Lords is based on the principle that the Lords, as a revising chamber, should
The third part of the government is the Crown. Elizabeth II is the Head of
State, Head of the Judiciary, and Head of the Church of England. She is also
Queen. Although the monarch formally opens Parliament every autumn and
must formally “grant” the winning political party the right to form the government,
these functions are today merely state rituals. In terms of political power, the
monarch has little power and today her duties are ceremonial, restricted to
affairs of state, signing documents, conferring honours (in which the queen
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gives titles in return for their services such as The Beatles or Sean Connery),
Royal Assent to new laws. She also formally appoints the PM, senior ministers,
judges and diplomats. She is expected to be impartial and not support any
political party. Although formally nothing becomes law without her signature,
monarchs have not withheld approval of a law since 1707. Her main role is as a
representative of Britain and the British people. Other members of the royal
supporting the work of charities and good causes. However, in recent years the
role of the monarchy has been questioned due to separation, divorce, and
scandal with incidents that have deeply affected public opinion and support for
expenses and exemption from taxation lead to latter being withdrawn in 1992.
After this, the Queen, the richest woman in the world, now pay taxes. However,
for many, the family remains an integral part of the British history.
the meetings of Parliament. The word ‘parliament’ is also used to mean a period
and for holidays. Something curious about it is that when in session, a flag flies
from the top of Victoria tower, and if a session runs on into the night, a light
burns over the clock face of Big Ben. The State Opening of Parliament takes
place at the beginning of each session. Black Rod, a servant of the Queen,
knocks on the door of the HC and demands that MPs allow the Queen to come
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inside and tell them what her Government is planning to do next year. They
always refuse to let her in because in the 17 th c. Charles I once burst in and
tried to arrest some MPs. Instead, MPs agree to go to the HL and listen to the
through one of 2 corridors at the side of the House- one is for the ‘Ayes’ (in
favour) and the other is for the ‘Noes’ (against). MPs or Lords speak only once
in a debate; they stand up and speak, and it is quite interesting and funny that
they do not use personal names but refer to another MP as ‘my right
avoiding violence between them. There is also a ‘Question time’ (1 hour) during
which MPs are allowed to ask questions to ministers but these questions are
‘tabled’ ( written down and placed on the table below the Speaker’s chair) 2
days in advance so that minister have time to prepare their answers, avoiding
so embarrassment. For the public, it is often the most interesting and liveliest
part of Commons’ life, and the part the media most often televises.
Before moving on, I would like to say that the parliamentary activity in the
Commons goes from Monday to Thursday, starting at 14.30 (on Friday it starts
in the morning). Although it would seem that the MPs do not work much, the
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reality is that they do not have time for their private lives, so much so that
surprisingly, politicians have a higher rate of divorce than the national average!
In terms of layout, the HC has several rows of seats facing each other.
MPs who belong to the Government sit on one side and those from the
Opposition sit on the other. Ministers and members of the Shadow Cabinet
(=leaders of the opposition) sit on the front benches (frontbenchers). Other MPs
sit behind and are called backbenchers. On the table between them are two
wooden dispatch boxes. Ministers and shadow ministers stand beside them
when making a speech. “Mr. Speaker” sits on a raised chair at the top end of
the table and is chosen by Mps from amongst themselves to preside over
debates. It is curious that MPs sit wherever they can find room on the side of
the House. There are about 400 seats, not enough for all MPs to sit down at
once! Above the chamber is a gallery where members of the public and the
press may sit and listen to the debates called Strangers’ Gallery.
political-party system. In every important vote, all party members are required to
vote as a bloc and to follow the directive of the party leaders. Detailed
Parliament, this is known as the whip system. Each party will select one of its
members to be the chief party whip to organise and secure the attendance and
underlined to indicate its importance. A 3 line “whip” means that the item is very
important and every member must attend and vote according to the party line.
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Sometimes, the major parties allow a ‘free vote’ and MPs vote according to their
own beliefs, for instance about the abolition of the death penalty.
It is interesting to deal a little bit with Scotland and Wales. Until recently,
most Scottish people were happy to be part of the UK. But there has been some
whether complete independence will eventually follow, bit this is the policy of the
Scotland has now its own parliament which controls its internal affairs and has
the power to vary the levels of income tax imposed by the UK government. In
Wales the situation is different. Nationalism is felt mostly in the central and
northern part of the country since the south is anglicized. The Welsh assembly
has responsibility for many internal affairs. Due to their autonomy, England
Let’s now move to deal with the government and its main elements.
come from the ranks of Parliament, most of them from the HC. Britain normally
has a ‘single-party government’, i.e. all its members belong to the same political
responsibility’, i.e. every member of the government shares the responsibility for
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The Prime Minister (PM) is the leader of the political party elected from a
winning vote and must be a member of the HC. He is the head of government
and with the Cabinet is responsible for ensuring the passing legislation. On
winning the election, the new PM receives his/her seals of office from the
monarch, and once elected, the PM appoints the members of the Cabinet, the
executive and policy making body of the government. He presides over the
Cabinet and is responsible for the allocation of functions among ministers and
for informing the Queen at regular meetings of the general business of the
Government.
most of them are the heads of the government departments (called Secretary of
State of…) which carry out policies. Cabinet ministers can be members of either
the HL or the HC. It meets once a week to plan and lay out all important bills
before Parliament and to approve policies and take decisions about new ones
and about the running of the various government departments. To help run the
and drawing up the agendas for cabinet meetings. Most of the cabinet’s work is
done through committees that are in charge of looking into various matters in
more detail Committees are formed by MPs and civil servants. There are 2
consider particular issues and once they have reported their findings they cease
members. Before a bill becomes law, it will be sent to it where the finer points
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are examined. It usually meets in the PM’s official residence at 10 Downing
Street, London.
The Civil Service is the vast administrative arm of parliament, and its
governments and ministers order and serves and advises the government in
power. Although governments come and go, the civil service remains. It is
interesting to point out that it is the only institution in GB where people have to
My next section deals with the electoral system and the political parties.
The British political system relies on a two-party system, that is, it has at least 2
as a “first-past-the-post”2 system where the only candidate who gets most votes
is elected. Elections are held every five years. The country is divided into a
single ballot paper with the names of the candidates for that constituency on it.
Each voter then puts a cross next to the name of one candidate. After the polls
have closed, the ballot papers are counted, and the candidate with the largest
number of crosses next to his name is the winner and becomes the MP for the
constituency. There is no counting of the proportion of votes for each party, and
2
An allusion to horse-racing.
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there has been much debate about it since people would like proportional
this means that he or she needs to win more votes than any other candidate.
The party with the most elected members wins the Election, winning so most
seats in Parliament.
Historically, the main parties were the Tories and the Whigs. Recently
these 2 parties became known as the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Party,
although the main rival of the conservative party is now the Labour Party. The
Conservative Party is on the political right whereas the Labour Party is on the
left. A split took place within the Labour Party and the Social Democratic Party
was formed, which today forms a coalition party with the Liberals called the
Liberal Democratic Party. Each party has its own emblem and colours. The
Conservative has a blue torch, Labour a red rose and Liberal Democrats a
yellow bird. Nowadays, in general, the North of England favours the Labour
Party and the South the Conservative Party. Scotland and Wales have their own
nationalist parties, the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and in Wales Plaid
parties. The Pairing system is an excellent example of this. Under this system,
to be a vote in the House of Commons, and the 2 MPs know that they would
vote on opposite side, neither of them bothers to turn up for the vote. In this
way, the difference in numbers between one side and the other is maintained,
while the MPs are free to get on with other work. The system works very well
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since there is hardly ever any ‘cheating’. I have to say that this pairing system is
used because there is not enough room in Parliament for all Mps, as I
would be very expensive to spend the whole day travelling from the
government can call an election at any time, and are always held on Thursdays.
After the date has been fixed, anyone who wants to stand for Parliament (be a
candidate) has to leave a deposit of 500 Pounds. If a candidate wins more than
5% of the votes, the deposit is get back, otherwise candidates lose it. Moreover,
opportunity to find a seat in Parliament, changing the whole system. It may even
happen than, when getting a further seat in the parliament, the opposition party
I would like to conclude with a brief discussion about the 3 main powers
in the British political system. The Executive is responsible for carrying out
Judiciary, the UK contains 3 major legal systems (in England and Wales,
Northern Ireland and Scotland). Each contains their own legal rules, courts and
i.e. law, proposed legislation must go through various stages: the 1 st stage is in
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parliament for discussion. A Bill must be read 3 times in the HC (also in the
Lords) before it can be voted on. The 1 st reading is formal; the 2nd allows debate
to take place. Then it goes to the committee stage, where it is examined closely.
It will report back to the House with any proposed amendments and it is read a
3rd time. Members vote on the 3 rd reading of a bill. Before becoming law, it
In conclusion, this topic has dealt with one of the most outstanding
aspects of Britain, that is, its institutions, specifically those that make up the
British political system. Knowing all this is really important because it helps us to
understand better what life is like in Britain, above all through some of the
curiosities mentioned.
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