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A level politics > Parliament (1) - unit 2 > Flashcards

Parliament (1) - unit 2 Flashcards

1
Q

What is a ‘fusion’ of power?

A

When the executive branch and legislature branches intermingle

  • Legislature - an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entry
  • Executive branch - responsible for the implementation of laws and policies adopted by the legislature

stops electoral dictatorship

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2
Q

How to calculate a majority?

A
  • Winning party - Opposition = Majority
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3
Q

Functions of Parliament

A
  • Making government accountable to maintaining it in power
  • Coalition government - 2 parties merge, compromise
  • Confidence and Supply agreement - occasionally counting on another party’s vote
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4
Q

Sovereignty

A

A power that cannot be overruled
The authority of a state to govern itself or another state

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5
Q

Parliamentary sovereignty

A
  • A principle of the UK Constitution
  • Supreme legal authority of a state to govern itself or another state
  • Courts cannot overrule legislation
  • No Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments can change
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6
Q

Difference between legal and political sovereignty?

A
  • Legal - THEORETICAL right to excercise laws
  • Political - power is PRACTICED - more in the face of public opinion
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6
Q

A prominent lord

A
  • Robert Winston
  • Developed IVF - allowed symptoms to be diagnosed
  • Labour
  • Communicated science
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7
Q

Parliament;s reserve powers

A
  • Veto/block (Vote down) legislature - Done by the HOL - proves that leg is over - ‘held in reserve’
  • Vote of no confidence - can dismiss a government in lost confidence - sovereignty elects a confident representative

General facts - 650 MPs, each MP (usually in a party) represents constituencies, most MPs are back-benchers, proceedings led by a Speaker elected by MPs, all parties have whips

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8
Q

Legislative powers of the House of Lords

A
  • They don’t legitimise legislation - ‘no consent’ - the bill must be passed through to be scrutinised for the Commons so it is amended and improved
  • Can delay legislation for a year - Commons can vote to bypass laws from the Lords without approval - EG War Powers Act 1991 - they are ‘ping-ponged’ till there is an agreement
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9
Q

Scrutiny of secondary legislature - Lords

A

Any lawmaking or change made to law made by any member of government without the necessary parliamentary procedures

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10
Q

Scrutiny of government - Lords

A

Limited - all senior ministers, especially cabinet ministers sit in the HOC
- Lords have knowledge in the field
- Commitee stage - debates the details of proposed legislature and table and propose amendments
- More legislature, more clauses, removes ineffecient sections

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11
Q

Representation - Lords

A
  • No single party has a majority
  • Don’t need to focus on being re-elected - power of whips weaker, no electoral pressure
  • Larger range of political opinions
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12
Q

National debate - Lords

A
  • Debates on important national issues - specialise in moral and ethicality
    such as
  • assisted suicide
  • pornography
  • refugees
  • stem cell research
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13
Q

Role of the monarchy

A
  • Appointing a government - by convention appointing the individual most likely of commanding the majority
  • Opening and dismissing Parliament - may dissolve it
  • The King’s Speech - reads out in the Lord’s chamber and is the state opening of Parliament
  • Royal assent - 1st step for a royal parlimentary with the bill to become law - they can delay through reserve powers
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14
Q

Parlimentary ping pong

A
  • When the bill is sent back and forth between the HOC and the HOL as they try to resolve disagreements over a text
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15
Q

Influence of the HOL

A
  • Three main functions - making law, investigating public policy (justice, home affairs, sustainability of the NHS, holding the gov to account
  • They have a one year delay
  • Considering draft government bills before they become law , ‘a revising chamber’ - they produce reports which can often directly or indirectly influence the formulation of government policy (cannot pass, and rarely overrule)
  • Lords Secondary legislation committee - examines statutory instruments and delegated legislation - laws passed by ministers with little commons scrutiny
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16
Q

Evidence of HOL influence

A
  • 128 government defeats in the HOL in 2021-22 when Johnson suffered no HOC defeats
  • Bills with the most gov defeats between 1999 and 2023 - Environment Bill, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill, Health and Care Bill
  • Concerns over the civil liberties during the passage of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Many appears opposed the high range of controversial provisions - criminalising certain protest tactics and expanding stop and search powers - gov accepted lord amendments removing restrictions on the noise level of protest
  • Only 41% of Lord defeats were completely overturned in the Commons - 59% of cases had the Lord’s input in the final outcome
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17
Q

Lords lack of power

A
  • Lack of power to compel change - the Public Order Bill 2023 - Suffered a number of setbacks, and a tense showdown, the lords amendment would’ve meant serious disruption stricter definition preventing groups like just stop oil

commons won
minor changes rejected by conserv dom commons

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18
Q

Bicameralism and the Salisbury Convention

A
  • You have 2 chambers in Parliament
  • Because HOL are unelected, cannot obstruct anything in the gov’s manifesto bc of gov’s democratic mandate
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19
Q

Parliamentary Acts of 1911 and 1949

A

They have no control over financial business and they can only refute to pass a piece of legislature once - they can be bypassed if commons releases it the following year

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20
Q

Controversial appointments for the HOL

A

Zac Goldsmith - accused of racial profiling voters in the London mayoral campaign

Jo Johnson - accused of having links to the manipulation of share prices of companies controlled by billionaire Galtam Adari via overseas investment payments

27 members of the HOL donated a total of £50M to the Conservative Party, including Sir Peter Cruddas who donated £3M - he was a Conservative party treasurer and his appointment was not approved by the HOL appointments commission, Johnson appointed anyway

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21
Q

HOL reform - Fully appointed support

A
  • Helps maintain the current broad range of membership of the HOL rather than creating more professional politicians - Lord Sugar or Baroness Grey-Thompson stand for election
  • Doesn’t threaten the democratic supremacy of the HOC but could act as a counterbalance to an overly dominant executive
  • Appointment is more cost effective than election
  • Without fear of deselection at re-election, members can be more independent minded
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22
Q

HOL reform - Fully elected support

A
  • Addresses current democratic deficit, giving HOL a full mandate to amend and initiate legislation
  • Counterbalance to an overly dominant executive - proportional rep makes votes cast and seats won fairer
  • More people and parties given the opportunity to stand for Parliament - greater range of rep, especially under PR, smaller parties benefit from
  • More young people in the HOL - only 29 peers under 50, sit in the lords the rest of our lives - female rep recently 24% - London and South East massively over represented
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23
Q

HOL reform - Hybrid support

A
  • Combines the fully appointed and fully elected systems - addresses the democratic deficit while retaining individuals with expertise and experience
  • HOC retain democratic supremacy as it would be more democratically legitimate
  • Straightforward system to introduce
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24
Q

HOL reform - Abolition support

A
  • New Zeal and Denmark and other countries function without a second chamber, so can we
  • Save money with one
  • Scrutiny can be carried out in different ways through strengthened committee system - eg select committee, liason, public accounts
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25
Q

Shared powers and functions between both houses

A
  • Proposing amendments to legislation
  • Private message may also introduce legislation of their own private members bill + 10 minute rule
  • Calling gov and individual ministers to account
  • Debating legisl and voting on proposals, debating key issues
26
Q

HOC powers and functions

A
  • Final approv for amendments to legisl
  • Complete veto for legisl in certain circumstances
  • Elected MPs from each constituency enters the HOC
  • Select committe examinations of gov departments
  • Examination and approval of financial affairs of the gov
  • Dismissal of gov by vote of no confidence
27
Q

HOL powers and functions

A
  • Examines secondary legisl and makes recommendations for further considerations - ‘revise chamber’
  • Delaying primary legisl - one for up to a year
  • PMs appoint people with expertise - rep issues
  • Scrutiny legisl and makes recomm
  • Debates over amendment
28
Q

HOL has more influence than Commons - Lords is dominated by independent minded crossbench experts who don’t have to toe the party line

A
  • Robert Winston - developed IVF symptoms and communicate science- not politically inclined
29
Q

HOL has less influence than Commons - Common Select Committees powerful

A

MPs elect - not appointed - 11 members
Scrutinise a sector/depart
Amber Rudd

30
Q

Passage of a bill

A

1st, 2nd reading
Committee stage
Report stage
3rd reading
Royal assent

31
Q

Public Bills

A

Bills proposed the gov to become law - a year before, relevant gov department will draw a white proposal on an area they want to change - if accepted, becomes a bill

most are gov backed if there is an in built majority

31
Q

Private member bill

A

Bills introduced by individual MPs according to the ballot system - rarely pass as they run out of parliamentary time

EG The Voting Age (reduction) 2008

32
Q

Positive features of the legislative process

A
  • Private member Bills - members of the public/interested committees are able to give evidence, input, rep/argue legislation important to them
  • Public Bill Committees - allows HOC to scrutinise a bill line for line meticulously
  • Passage through the Commons - allows all MPs to be rep, actively participate, scrutinise
33
Q

Problems with the legislative process

A
  • Private member bills never usually considered, doesn’t attract media attention
34
Q

What is scrutiny

A

The close examination and investigation of government policies, actions and spending that is carried out by the HOL, the HOC and the committees

35
Q

Public Bill Committees

A

A committee set up by the HOC to examine the details of a particular bill - all bills other than money bills are sent in following their second reading unless committed to a committe of the whole house - where its debated in the commons chamber

18 members chosen by whips and in proportion to the house so a gov majority always guaranteed - electoral dictatorship - need bills passed quickly, loyal viewpoints, less scrutiny, temporary, government will will prevail - opposition low - cant amend legislation without approval from gov

Committee named after relevant bill
Have the power to recieve written evidence from outside organisations and members of public, and oral evidence from interested parties

36
Q

Select Committees

A

Scrutinises the work of each gov department - examining spending, policy and admin - sends report to gov
11 members who deicde upon the line of inquiry and then gather written and oral evidence
First set up in the Commons in 1979

MPs elects in their party in proportion of the parties for the people on Committee - Chair gets the best MPs and high salary, decides a topic, calls a draft of questions which are published - press releases seen as powerful - gets a range of evidence
Hunt 2019 - chaired as Health Select Committee 2019 after losing leadership race

Ministers have to give answers for everything

37
Q

Foreign Affairs Select Committee

A

Examines the expenditure, administration and policy of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Chaired by Alicia Kearns, Con MP
12th Oct 2022

  • Enquired into UK’s engagement with the Middle East and NA
  • UK’s international counter terrorism policy

Recent reports - Guns for Gold - Wagner Network exposed - 7th report

38
Q

Liason Committee

A

Made in 2002, 34 members, Made up of chairs of Select Committees, Bernard Jenkins is the Liason Committee Chair

  • Take evidence from PM on policy x3 a year
  • Considers general scrutiny of gov
  • Debates reports from various committees
  • Oversees work from Select Committees

Ineffective - before 2019 - chairsperson chosen amongst the ranks not partisan - johnson gov - insisted con mp - sympathetic chairsperson

Effective - scrutiny has foused more but members tend to ask questions but members tend to ask questions focused in their area
Sunak 2022 confronted for failure to attend PMQs, evasive on boat policies and inflation halving, defensive

39
Q

Public Accounts Committee

A

Established in 1861
Chaired by Meg Helia

  • Examines public finances
  • High profile in media - can call witnesses who HAVE to do
  • Anonymous profile

Professor Lord Peter Hennessy - ‘the queen of select committees…which by its very existence exudes a cleansing effect of all departments!’

Current Affairs and Reports - HS2 and Euston - 4B of unusable PPE burnt for power - worthless, 2010 BBC use of public fundstax affirs of Google 2016

40
Q

Backbench business Committee

A

Part of the Wrights reform 2010 - made of elected backbench MPs - main role is to determine what issues should be debated on the one day a week allocated to backbench business - before this, most parliamentary agenda was controlled by gov and the main opposition party leadership

Subject matter of these debates come from several sources:
- 100K signature e petition
- Inittaive of departmental select committee
- Request from MP or group of MPs
- Requests from local or national campaigns

Debates 2014-2015 parl session included:
- Human slaughter of animals for food (e petition)
- Future of the BBC (Culture, Media and Sport Select C)
- March 2017 - civil war in Yemen - gov was not focusing suffeciently on the issue (MP suggestion)

41
Q

PMQs and ministerial questions

A

Take place for an hour, monday to thursday, after preliminary proceedings and private business - questions must relate to gov department concerned

Main reasons for questions:
- Press for an action on an issue
- To give publicity to the aims or interest of a pressure group or a constituency
- Embarrass/attempt to show gov actions in a favourable light

Most recent PMQ - Oct 2023 raised things like:
- Storm babet official engagements
- Israel v Palestine crisis - humanitaraian ceasefire needed - depriving 2M civillians of basic human needs
- Parole review double child rapist and murderer Colin Pitchfork should remain in prisons most of natural lives

42
Q

Urgent questions

A

When an MP believes to require an immediate answer from a government minister - they can apply to ask an urgent question
MPs request the Speaker considers their application and must recieve an oral answer on the same day

Relevant gov minister has to come to the chamber to explain what gov is doing on issue raised
Bercow’s speakership (2009-14) reveals he approved 159 of them, markedly more than his predessecor Michael Martin, who granted 42
In the 2017-19 extended parl, there were 307!

43
Q

The role of the official opposition

A
  • a gov in waiting - ready to fight for the next election
  • hold gov to account
  • defend the interest of sections of society

Opposition days - can propose legislation - allocated in hoc in each session for the discussion of subjects - 17/20 (3 days for smaller parties) days at disposal of largest opposition party
Major weakness of these is he recent pms such as May and Johnson have whipped their MPs not to attend the debate or final vote so rendering them almost meaningless

Labour Party March 2022 on the cost of living crisis
House is concerned that older people and pensioners risk being at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis as a result of spiralling inflation, a lack of Government action on household energy bills, a poorly thought-through tax rise on older people in work and a real-terms reduction to the state pension

44
Q

The Trustee Model

A

Allowed freedom to make choices and respond in situations as he or she sees fit - trusted to know best

45
Q

The Delegate Model

A

Expected to do exactly as the voter requires - like a puppet

46
Q

The Mandate Model

A

Expected to do only what they promised and obtained consent from the voters for

47
Q

HOL fully appointed opponents

A
  • undemocratic to have unelected members of the lords involved in drafting and passing legislation - obsteucts elected commons
  • UK only country in the world with an unelected second chamber
  • Non-active members who don’t attend - Lord Sugar
  • Cost is huge - between Feb 2014-Jan 2015 - £21M spent on HOL allowances and expenses, with the average peer receiving £25,826
  • Could result in cronyism - Sir Peter Cruddas
  • Democratic system more investment
48
Q

HOL fully elected opponents

A
  • Causes more problems than solves - two elected chambers, HOC no longer supreme
  • The chamber would be full of professional politicians rather than attracting individuals with a wealth of knowledge and experience in a vast range of fields - vote with party not principle
  • Isn’t clear how often elections should be and additional elections would cause additional costs
49
Q

HOL hybrid opponents

A
  • Undemocratic to retain any unelected members of the lords
  • Create a two tier HOL of elected and non elected members causing friction
  • System would cause additional confusion both within and without Parliament as to where power should lie
50
Q

Abolition HOL opponents

A
  • Standard of scrutiny of legislation would drop in a unicameral system as Commons wouldn’t have time to scrutinise every bill in detail
  • HOC too much power without revising second chamber
  • Bicameral system is ingrained in British political culture and has historically worked well
51
Q

HOL has more influence than Commons - Lack of gov maj means less whipping

A

More independence, government is frequently dominated by Lords

128 defeats 2021-22
2270 successful amendments to gov bills 2016-17

52
Q

HOL has more influence than Commons - Common Public Bill Committee weak

A

Lords scrutiny of second legislation is strong
All MPs whipped, rarely amend gov legislature without gov approval, temporary - named after the bill
PUBLIC BILL WEAKNESSES

53
Q

HOL has less influence than Commons - no democratic legitimacy

A

Exemplified by Salisbury Convention and Parliament Acts (1911 and 1949)
Commons has exclusive power to raise taxes and set budgets
Lords cannot amend/delay money bills - lords do not answer to the taxpayer
EG C&S agreement with DUP and May 2017-19 support for a maj - 1B for NI

54
Q

HOL has less influence than Commons - commons extensive power

A

‘Revising chamber’
Requires the Lords consider gov legislation in reasonable time and should aim to vote on it by the end of the parl session
Lords are limited by ‘reasonable time convention’
Cannot obstruct winning mandate

55
Q

Sarah Champion

A

MP for Rotherham tried to tackle child sexual exploitation - amend Justice Bill - prosecution after 1 contact
She was told it was impossible for opposition backbencher to change law
Criminal Justice and Courts Bill Committee trying to convince
Did not accept the way she worded it - amendment got published 3 months later through the gov, not the opposition

56
Q

Amber Rudd 2018 Windrush scandal

A

Home sec denied removal targets during a Home Affairs Select Committee questioning. Rudd said she asked for more removals of illegal immigrants, but was not made aware of the regional removal targets put in place - she was forced to resign

57
Q

BAD SC

A

Weget Mills MP - Work and Pensions Select Committee played candy crush for 2 and a half hours

All suffer from the same weakness - they do not have the power to enforce their recommendations or decisions, rely on gov to listen - all they can do is publicly highlight issues and call gov to account
2011 research from UCL Constitution Unit estimated 40% of reccommendations are accepted , 1/3 of which consisted policy changes - 2009 smoking ban in public places - BUT did highlight committee contribution to wider debate, drawing togerther evidence, throwing spotlight onto issues - becoming increasingly important

No power to force witnesses for evidence - Dominic Cummings - the chair of Vote Leave (2016 ref) flat out refused to give evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport SC May 2018 (earned him parl censure)

58
Q

Jacqui Smith

A

Allows the opposition to say the statesmanlike thing about issues of national significance or on international policy issues

When she was Chief Whip, we placed whips around the chamber to ensure there was sufficient supportive noise for our man

Judged the event on what it acheived for morale and standing of the leader, not on how much light was shed on the important issues of the day

59
Q

PMQ’s BAD

A
  • Is the PM relieved that the Mid-Bedforshire and Tamworth constituencies are no longer burdened with the defeated conservative MP that told them to ‘F off’ over the standard of living?

‘punch and judy politics’
Much more about political showcase, define their political positions, challenge the other and ‘rally their troops’ with a robust performance

60
Q

HOL has less influence - Commons Select Committee powerful

A

Commons Select Committee powerful
Not appointed, elected 11 members, consensual, effective, in proportion to party
Scrutinise sector/department
Amber Rudd Windrush scandal 2018

61
Q

HOL has more influence - Lords is dominated by independent minded crossbenchers

A

Don’t have to toe the party line
Robert Winston - developed IVF, allowed symptoms to be diagnosed, communicates science
Not politically inclined despite him being Lab

A level politics (32 decks)

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