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Politics Paper 2 > Lords and Commons > Flashcards

Lords and Commons Flashcards

1
Q

Who are the House of Lords made up of?

A

Life peers
Lords Spiritual
Hereditary Peers
Lord Temporal
Crossbenchers

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2
Q

Who are the Lords Spiritual?

A

mostly senior bishops Church of England

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3
Q

How do the Hereditary peers earn their seats?

A

they inherited their seats
remnants of old aristocracy

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4
Q

How do the Lords Temporal earn their seats?

A

appointed by parties

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5
Q

How did the composition of the Lords change under the 1997 Labour Government?

A

the Lords was a largely hereditary chamber but the 1997 Labour Government pledged to remove hereditary peers
to ease this decision the Lords was allowed to elect 92 hereditary peers

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6
Q

Who makes up the vast majority of the Lords?

A

Life peers / crossbenchers

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7
Q

Who are Life Peers?

A

members of the Lords who hold their titles for their own lifetimes but cannot pass it on to their offspring

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8
Q

How do Life Peers get appointed?

A

the PM has the power of patronage in that he can fill a position with friends and allies

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9
Q

How does the Independent Appointments Commission effect appointments to the Lords?

A

it scrutinises the PM’s nominees for propriety and also recommends new crossbench peers

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10
Q

Who are Crossbench Peers?

A

those that are appointed for their expertise and have no party affiliation
make up the vast majority of the Lords

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11
Q

What are the main powers of the Lords?

A
  • they scrutinise legislation
  • they can introduce, amend, delay and veto bills
  • they hold the government to account
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12
Q

What matters must the Lords not interfere with?

A

matters of taxation
they are not able to introduce or delay a money bill

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13
Q

How did the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 place restraints on the power of the Lords?

A

1911 stated the Lords could delay a bill for two years
1949 stated reduced this to one year

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14
Q

What does the 1945 Salisbury Convention state?

A

that the Lords would not oppose a bill that gave effect to a manifesto commitment

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15
Q

What was the 1945 Salisbury Convention a response to?

A

the first majority Labour government as they were committed to a reforming the Lords

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16
Q

What does the Lords mainly act as?

A

a ‘revising’ chamber whereby it proposes amendments to government legislation which is then in the governments hands to accept or reject

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17
Q

How can the Commons claim privilege over the Lords?

A
  • claim financial privilege if there are money issues involved
  • able to accept or reject amendments suggested by the Lords
  • 1949 Gov Act means the bill becomes a law after the one year delay whatever happens
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18
Q

How does the Lords hold the government to account?

A

scrutinise the work of the government during question time and debates where government ministers then have to respond

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19
Q

How does the Lords play a role in public policy?

A

they offer in depth consideration of public policy
they use their extensive individual experience to investigate public policy - mainly through the use of select committees

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20
Q

Give an example of when the Lords offered in depth consideration of public policy

A

in the 2016-17 session the Lords’ select committees produced 41 reports on subjects especially Brexit with six Brexit reports in six days

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21
Q

What is the extremely unlikely case in which the Lords can retain its veto?

A

if a government were attempt to prolong the life of parliament beyond it legal maximum term of 5 years
the Lords is legally empowered to force to hold a general election

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22
Q

How are members of the Commons chosen?

A

through FPTP all members are chosen to represent single-member constituencies

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23
Q

When are general elections held?

A

in fixed five year intervals ( 2011 Fixed Term Parliaments Act )

24
Q

On what two occasions may an early general election be held?

A
  1. a government loses a vote of no confidence / the PM cannot form another administration within 14 days
  2. if 2/3 of MPs support a motion calling for an early election
25
Q

Give an example of a PM who called for an early election

A

Theresa May in June 2017

26
Q

What is a backbencher?

A

members of parliament who are not ministers or shadow ministers who sit behind the frontbenchers

27
Q

What is the role of a backbencher?

A

to represent their constituency
constituents rely heavily on their MPs to represent them and their concerns in parliament
backbenchers can raise their constituents concerns directly to the PM in PM Questions

28
Q

What is a frontbencher?

A

ministers and party officials appointed by the PM

made up of government ministers and their opposing counterparts (shadow ministers)
tend to be spokespeople for the different government departments

29
Q

What are the roles of MPs?

A
  • represent their constituents
  • support their party
  • scrutinise or play a role in government
  • creating and debating laws
30
Q

What is the role of the speaker?

A
  • decide who speaks in debates
  • maintains order in the Commons
  • responsible for administration
31
Q

What are the main functions of both the Commons and the Lords?

A
  • passing legislation
  • scrutiny of the executive
  • providing ministers
32
Q

How are the debates in the Lords often credited by?

A

their high quality as participants are usually recently retired individuals with expertise in a particular field

33
Q

What is the supreme legislative body in the UK?

A

Parliament - authority to pass or amend laws on any subject

34
Q

What exclusive legislative power does the Commons?

A

to give consent to taxation
the Lords is not allowed to interfere with the passage of ‘money bills’

35
Q

How can Governments push through legislation quicker? Give example.

A

they can use the argument of overriding necessity e.g. 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act (control orders)

36
Q

Give an example of a bill that was so poorly drafted that it was virtually unworkable

A

1991 Dangerous Dogs Act
critics argued that instead of prohibiting certain breeds of dogs it should have targeted irresponsible owners

37
Q

What proposal by the Cameron government was defeated in a House of Commons debate?

A

proposal to undertake military action is Syria

38
Q

How does the Commons and Lords fulfil the function of providing ministers?

A

parliament acts as a recruiting ground for future ministers
the award of peerage can be used to secure the services of a particular individual as a minister

39
Q

How do the whips fulfil the function of providing ministers?

A

the whips make recommendations to the prime minister on suitable candidates for promotion

40
Q

Give an example of an individual being awarded peerage for their services

A

Peter Mandelson got appointed as business secretary in the Lords by Gordon Brown

41
Q

What function is exclusive to the Commons?

A

representing the electorate as it is the elected house

42
Q

How is Lords somewhat representative?

A

it contains people with a wide range of professional backgrounds
the HoL Appointments Commission also improved representation

43
Q

How is the Lords not representative?

A

does not reflect the composition of the wider UK public
- most are over 70
- 3/4 male
- around 5% come from ethnic minorities

44
Q

How does the Commons fulfil its representative function?

A

FPTP means there is a strong link between an MP and their constituency therefore MPs are expected to respond to issues raised by individual constituents and to stand up for local interests

45
Q

What is the consequence of an MP not fulfilling the expectations of the local electorate?

A

the voters have the right to choose a different representative at the next general election

46
Q

How might the function of representation be challenged?

A

parliament may prioritise their loyalty to their party due to the desire to win promotion to government over the need to represent a constituency

47
Q

How does the Commons still fail to be truly representative of society as a whole?

A
  • ethnic minorities and women still lower percentage
  • class and occupational background seems to not vary amongst MPs most come from business and middle/upper class roots
48
Q

What is an example of where the Commons can exercise its power?

A

confidence and supply

49
Q

What is the idea of ‘confidence and supply’?

A
  • a more flexible and less stable coalition agreement
  • in the event of a minority government, for example, the governing party relies on a limited agreement with another party to keep itself in office
  • the supporting government therefore provides backing on a vote of no confidence and will vote through the government’s budget
  • in return the smaller party will receive certain concessions
50
Q

Give an example of ‘confidence and supply’ in use

A

Conservative arrangement with the DUP following the June 2017 General Election
Conservatives were short of a majority by eight seats

51
Q

How has the reformed House of Lords increased its importance?

A
  • removal of most hereditary peers in 1999 means the Lords is mostly dominated by life peers
  • this has increased the Lords’ sense of legitimacy
  • life peers play a greater part in the workings of the House in ways hereditary peers did not (as they hardly appeared at Westminster)
  • more inclined to challenge the government
  • no one party now dominates
52
Q

Number of defeats in the House of Lords in 1979-97

A

241

53
Q

Number of defeats in the House of Lords in 2015-16

A

60

54
Q

How do crossbench peers play a more important role in holding the government to account?

A

as neutral figures they are more likely to asses a bill on its merits

55
Q

How does the Commons maintains its supremacy?

A
  • the government can usually make use of its majority in the Commons to overturn critical Lords amendments
  • in practise the Lords will usually drop its opposition after making its points recognising that it lacks the democratic legitimacy needed to push its case further
56
Q

How can we argue the Commons is more powerful than the Lords?

A
  • Lords can only delay bills and suggest amendments that the Commons have the power to overturn
  • Commons can vote down legislation
  • Commons has a vote of no confidence option
  • Commons is democratically legitimate and have more of a right to challenge government
  • Committees and PMQs are used to scrutinise government (PM does not appear before the Lords to be challenged)
57
Q

How can we argue that the Lords is more powerful than the Commons?

A
  • more political balance in the Lords as no one party dominates
  • more expertise/specialist knowledge
  • peers are from a range of backgrounds so represent different groups and interests in society which gives some level of legitimacy
  • ## measures in Commons such as PMQs are ineffective at properly challenging the government

Politics Paper 2 (13 decks)

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