02 Parliament Exam Q Planning Flashcards
Arguments for the House of Lords being an outdated institution and should be abolished?
- would fail to scrutinise legislation
- would fail to hold the government to account
- would be unrepresentative of wider society
Arguments against the House of Lords being an outdated institution that should be abolished?
- would scrutinise legislation
- would hold the government to account
- would represent wider society
Evidence to suggest the House of Lords fails to scrutinise legislation properly?
The EU Future Relations Act 2020
Was proposed to The House on 30th Dec 2020 and was passed on Dec 31st meaning both houses had little time to scrutinise the legislation
Evidence to suggest the House of Lords does scrutinise legislation properly?
The Lords blocked the Internal Markets Bill 433-165 and proposed 2 amendments which didn’t then break international law
Evidence to suggest the Lords can not hold the government to account properly?
Salisbury Convention
–cannot block a manifesto commitment
Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949
Evidence to suggest the House of Lords can effectively hold the government to account?
Lords blocked a trade agreement with genocide China 344-214.
Led to select committees having a say on trade deals with poor human rights records and also led to an amendment to the bill.
In the 2019-2020 Parliamentary session the lords blocked the government 53 times
Evidence to suggest the House of Lords is unrepresentative of wider society?
- 38% of the Lords are educated at Oxbridge compared to less than 1%
- 28% of them are women compared to 50% of society
Arguments to suggest that Parliament is an effective institution?
- holding government to account
- providing democratic legitimacy to decisions
- scrutiny of legislation
- representation
Arguments to suggest that Parliament is an ineffective institution?
- doesn’t hold government to account
- doesn’t provide democratic legitimacy to decisions
- doesn’t scrutinise legislation properly
- isn’t representative of society
Evidence to suggest Parliament is effective at holding the government to account?
-public and departmental select committees.
= 22nd April Health and Social Care Committee investigated govts handling into pandemic
Evidence to suggest that Parliament is ineffective at holding the government to account?
PMQs is an ‘event’
Conservatives created ‘departmental support groups’ under Cameron to launch insults at opposition when they disagreed
Evidence to suggest that Parliament provides democratic legitimacy to decisions?
HoC has the consent of the people
Turnout of 67% in 2019
Evidence to suggest that Parliament is ineffective at providing democratic legitimacy to decisions?
HoL is unelected.
FPTP system creates disproportionate results
No party is elected on more than 50% of the popular vote
Evidence to suggest that Parliament is effective at scrutinising legislation?
Public Bill Committees are set up which all MPs have to be apart of. House of Lords have crossbench MPs which are impartial and therefore make better decisions
Evidence to suggest that Parliament is ineffective at scrutinising legislation?
PBC are whipped to avoid govt embarrassment
Sarah Wollastone who was a former GP was denied access to the Heath and Social Care committee because of her experience in the field and the thought she may embarrass the government
Evidence to suggest that Parliament is representative of wider society?
Geographical. Every citizen in the UK is eligible to vote in UK GE.
Evidence to suggest that Parliament is not representative of wider society?
Socially, in 2019
38% of MPs were women. 50% wider society
29% privately educated. 7% of wider public
Arguments for the House of Commons is a more important institution than the House of Lords?
- it is all elected
- can remove or dismiss a govt or PM
- can control Public Finances
Arguments against the House of Commons being a more important institution than the House of Lords?
- examination of secondary legislation
- delaying primary legislation for up to a year
- as it is unelected, party control is less of an issue so more impartial decisions
Evidence to suggest the House of Commons is elected?
650 MPs
365 seats Conservative
202 seats Labour
Evidence to suggest the House of Commons can remove or dismiss a government or PM?
Theresa May survived a vote of no confidence in early 2019. However, it severely damaged her power and reputation so could be argued it led to her resignation in July 2019
Evidence to suggest the House of Commons can control public finances?
In January of 2021, MPs voted for the government to reduce universal credit by £20
Elected Rishi Sunak gave the Budget in March 2021
Evidence to suggest the House of Lords examines secondary legislation?
Secondary Legislation Scrunity Committee are set up
—- expressed concerns about checks on people not self-isolating after coming back from abroad
Evidence to suggest that the House of Lords can delay legislation for up to a year?
The Lords defeated a bill for the 14th time that would of allowed centralised power to Westminster in terms of trade agreements regarding devolved nations
Evidence to suggest that the current House of Lords remains impartial because of it being unelected?
Lord Dannat (crossbencher) has no party affiliation. He was a former member of the military and now lends his expertise to the House when needed
Arguments to suggest that Parliament is a representative institution?
- geographical representation. Commons
- social representation
- political representation
Arguments against the idea that Parliament is a representative institution?
- geographical representation. Lords
- social representation
- political representation
Evidence to suggest that Parliament is geographically representative?
Every citizen of the U.K. lives in a constituency in which they can’t vote for a candidate in every general election.
David Cameron who was MP for Witney often held surgeries to advance the needs of his constituencies
Evidence to suggest that Parliament is socially represented?
Although not perfect.
2018 = 208 women MPs
2019 = 220 women MPs
2017 = 52 MPs from an ethnic minority origin 2019 = 65 ethnic minority MPs
Evidence to suggest Parliament is politically representative?
House of Lords have crossbench 183 MPs. Also, party allegiance in the Lords is a lot less stringent do Lords can make impartial decisions that benefit the public interest rather than party interest
Evidence to suggest Parliament is socially unrepresentative?
27% of Lords were educated at Oxbridge, compared to less than 1% of the wider public
Evidence to suggest Parliament isn’t politically representative?
FPTP system
Evidence to suggest Parliament isn’t politically representative?
FPTP system is in place for general elections in the U.K. Means people in safe seats are not represented fully. 12.5% of people who voted for UKIP, but only got 1 seat so therefore were unrepresented in Parliament.
Arguments to suggest that further reform to the House of Commons is needed?
- questioning (PMQs is a political theatre)
- select committees (government doesn’t have to act of comments)
- legislative committees (they are not independent and are heavily whipped)
Arguments against the view that further reform to the House of Commons is needed?
- questioning (gives the opposition a good opportunity to ask questions)
- select committees (select committees receive a lot of attention when they are critical)
- legislative committees (were strengthened in 2007)
Evidence to suggest that PMQs is a political theatre?
Dennis Skinner called Cameron Dodgy Dave
Cameron set up committees whose specific job was to heckle to the opposition
Evidence to suggest that legislative committees are heavily whipped?
Sarah Wollaston who was an ex GP was denied access to the Health and Social care Act committee because of the worry she would defy the government
Evidence to suggest that PMQs gives the opposition a chance to ask questions?
In 2017 Jeremy Corbyn used PMQs to effectively overturn the access to universal credit decision by the Conservative government
Evidence to suggest that select committees gather media attention and make change?
Yvette Cooper harassed Boris Johnson in the Liason Committee over quarantine for new arrivals into the U.K.
Drew media attention and hotel quarantine was introduced in mid February
Evidence to suggest that the reform of legislative committees in 2007 made a difference?
Tony Blair strengthened the power of the legislative committee along with backbench MPs
Arguments to suggest that the House of Lords is more effective than the House of Commons?
- scrutiny of legislation (secondary and impartiality)
- holding government to account (no PMQs, can only subtly hold the government to account)
- representation (no representation of constituencies)
Arguments to suggest that the House of Commons is a more effective than the House of Lords?
- scrutiny of legislation (bill committees)
- holding the government to account (vote of no confidence, select committees)
- representation (geographically representative)
Evidence to suggest that the House of Lords is better at scrutinising the government than the Commons?
Impartiality of Lords can make it effective
Defeated the govt
=2018, 14 times over the EU Withdrawal BIll
=2012 Welfare Reform Act
Evidence to suggest that the House of Lords is better at holding the government to account than the Commons?
Can subtly bring pieces of legislation into the public eye.
Lords blocked a bill which allowed the UK to form trade agreements with countries committing a genocide. Whisked up media controversy
Evidence to suggest that the House of Lords is better at the representation function?
Better at representing interests and the national interest.
Blocked numerous govt bills including the 2012 Welfare Reform Act which seeked to cap benefits
Lord Walton is the former president of the BMA so can make better decisions
Evidence to suggest that the House of Commons is better at scrutinising legislation than the Lords?
Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949.
Evidence to suggest that the House of Commons is better at holding the government to account?
Liason Committee for the PM
Yvette Cooper and hotel quarantine
Evidence to suggest that the House of Commons is better at representation than the Lords?
Geographical representation for the Commons is very strong. Every member of a constituency is represented by an MP
Arguments to suggest that the House of Lords is an effective institution?
- scrutiny of legislation (secondary legislation and legislative ping pong)
- holding the government to account (can use legislation to highlight important issues)
- representation of society (represents the national interest)
Arguments to suggest that the House of Lords is an ineffective institution?
- scrutiny of legislation (Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949)
- holding government to account
- representation of society (geographically shite and socially unrepresenatative)
Evidence to suggest that the Lords is effective at scrutinising legislation?
Gives the Lords an opportunity to propose amendments to pieces of legislation. This happens at the Committee stage of the bill. They can introduce clauses to protect the vulnerable
Evidence to suggest that the Lords is effective at holding the government to account?
The Lords blocked the EU Withdrawal Bill 14 times which could be perceived as holding the govt to account.
Also strongly objected to a Trade Bill which allowed the U.K. to trade with genocide committing countries
—caused media controversy
Evidence to suggest that the Lords is effective at representing wider society?
Represents the national interest
Crossbench peers and those that have come from experienced backgrounds
Lord Dannat used to be a senior soldier and now offers adivce to the government
Evidence to suggest that the Lords is ineffective at scrutinising legislation?
Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 limit the power and extend of legislative ping pong to 1 year. The Welfare Reform Act of 12 went through a process of legislative ping pong but the government eventually won
Evidence to suggest that the Lords is ineffective at holding the government to account?
The House of Lords does not have any specific committees such as select committees and the Liason committee to directly hold the government to account
Evidence to suggest that the Lords is ineffective at representing wider society?
6% of peers in the Lords are ethnic minority compared to 20% of the wider public.
28% of peers are women compared to 50% of wider public
Arguments to suggest that backbench MPs are an effective asset of Parliament?
- holding the government to account (select committees)
- scrutiny of legislation (public bill committees)
- representation (geographical and political representation)
Arguments to suggest that backbench MPs are ineffective?
- holding the government to account (select committees have no power to enforce)
- scrutiny of legislation (public bill committees are heavily whipped)
- representation (skewed by FPTP)
Evidence to suggest that MPs are effective at holding the government to account through various committees?
2020 Liason Committee. Yvette Cooper harassed Johnson over hotel quarantine and allowing variants into the country
Hotel quarantine was then brought in a few weeks later on Feb 15th
Evidence to suggest that MPs are effective at scrutinising legislation through the Public Bill Committees?
Public Bill Committees are made up of 13 MPs from different parties meaning in theory every piece of legislation has a wide range of views
Evidence to suggest that MPs are effective at representing their constituents?
Political representation, they won their seat. David Cameron who was MP for Whitney often held surgeries and had an inquiry from a lawyer about a detrimental bill regarding legal aid
Evidence to suggest that MPs are ineffective at holding the government to account?
Select Committees do not have constitutional power to enforce suggestions. When Michael Gove was Edu Sec, concerns were raised about the difficulty of the new GCSE exams, but they went ahead anyway
Evidence to suggest that MPs are ineffective at scrutinising legislation?
PBC are heavily whipped. Sarah Wollaston, ex MP, was denied access to the Health and Social Care Act 2012 Bill as there were concerns she would undermine the government
Evidence to suggest that MPs are ineffective at representing their constituents?
FPTP means MPs can win their seat on less than 50% of the popular vote. This means, politically that more than half of the electorate are unrepresented in parliament
Evidence to suggest that the House of Lords is representative of wider society?
Despite the 92 hereditary peers
There are 180 crossbench peers with no party affliation
Lord Fowler (former health sec for Thatcher) stood down as speaker to campaign for AIDS/HIV epidemic in UK
