Parliament - Origins and development of Parliament Flashcards
when was the first collection of individuals who made up Parliament?
Simon De Montfort who was a powerful aristocrat, built on what King John agreed to - he called in on representatives from all around the country to meet in Westminster to discuss national issues in 1265.
What is parliament made up of?
the Monarch - the Queen is the head of state.
House of Lords.
House of Commons.
Members of Parliament, majorities, cabinets
650 members of Parliament - 326 MPs are required for a majority.
PM creates a cabinet made up of 20 senior ministers.
each department has a minister e.g. Health, Education.
All ministers either have to be a member of the Commons or a Peer in the Lords - in the USA, anybody can be appointed.
we have 22 ministers currently, only 2-3 are Lords.
Monarchs meet weekly with the PM to discuss political issues, and offers Royal Assent.
What about the Lords features?
there are approximately 792 members at the moment - 92 hereditary peers. They scrutinise the government, Life Peers are appointed based on expertise or success within their field.
687 life peers
what are the forms of scrutiny?
PMQT, ministerial questions, parliamentary debates, select committees.
What is a Bill?
What is a Green Paper?
What is a White Paper?
A Bill is a proposal for a new law… it is presented to Parliament in the first reading. The Commons then debate and reshape the Bill to make it as agreeable as possible - it must be agreed by both chambers.
A Green Paper is a consulting document in which people are invited to give their ideas on the proposed law.
A White Paper is a firmer proposal where it is more or less furthered… cabinet members Kinda have to support it.
Government ministers in Parliament
PM leads the government of the Cabinet and ministers, all of whom must be MPs or Peers. No separation of powers.
1 PM, 22 cabinet ministers, 95 other ministers –> 118 members of the Conservative party ministers in total.
Government is accountable for Parliament - laws proposed must be debated and agreed.
the calculation of the current majority
There are 533 English seats in the Commons, 59 are Scottish, 40 are Welsh, and 18 are Northern Irish.
current CONS majority = 79
Frontbenchers and Backbenchers
frontbenchers = sit on the front bench mostly by being in the cabinet as a minister/shadow minister
all members of the government are expected to support + vote in line with the government.
shadow cabinet = the official opposition, they are also expected to support their party’s policies.
ALL OTHER MPS ARE BACKBENCHERS.
Whips
Each party appoints Whips to maintain discipline and encouraged party members to vote accordingly.
MPs are told by the Whips about how the party wants them to vote - instructions are underlined 1, 2, even 3 times to show just how strongly the Whips want them to vote –> three-line whip.
Boris Johnson removed 21 Conservative MPs who opposed the EU Withdrawal Bill 2019 because those MPs ignored the three-line whip - they were removed from the Parliamentary Party as a sanction. The 21 MPs were remainers, so they did not want to rush the Withdrawal Bill.
2021 Nov - Owen Paterson 30-day suspension whip
Speaker
There are Deputy Speakers who sometimes stand in.
They are elected as MPs and must themselves be an MP.
John Bercow was speaker for 10 years as a Conservative. Lindsay Hoyle is the current speaker and he is a Labour MP.
They chair debates and proceedings in the House.
Broken the code of conduct? The Speaker can suspend them for an appropriate period of time - dodgy Dave incident 2016, Dennis Skinner
Has to remain impartial because they cannot vote on debates unless there is a tie in which their vote would decide the result.
Most parties tend not to oppose the speaker in their seat in the GEs because it symbolises their impartiality.
Roles in the Lords
The Lords are far less partisan than the Commons - there are Party Whips, not everybody associates with a party.
A large group of peers form what is known as the cross-benchers.
Those who aren’t even associated with the cross bench group are known as non-affiliated.
The Lords has its own speaker… Current speaker is Lord Fowler.
What types of peers do we have?
Lords Temporal –> 687 life peers.
Lords Spiritual –> 26 Bishops of the Church of England.
Hereditary Lords –> 92
Party representation in the Lords
1999 Lords reform = majorities have to be constructed by decision and agreement. There has not yet been a single majority. The Conservatives have the largest number of Peers, they do not have an overall majority.
265 CONS
181 CROSSBENCH
177 LAB
51 NON-AFFIL
Monarch
Monarch MUST give Royal Assent.
Constitutionally obliged to agree to Parliament’s decisions and does so by signing each Act of Parliament.
Monarchs open each yearly session in Parliament by reading the Queen’s speech explaining the programme for the year.
Meets weekly with the PM for confidential discussions about current concerns and events.
