Parliment Flashcards
All about UK Parliament?
Created due to Magna Carta
650 MPs
Includes HOL HoC and monarch
What is parliament?
Our Uk parliament is made up of 2 chambers making it a Bicameral legislature.
What are the 2 chambers in parliment?
House of Lords- upper house
House of Commons- dominant
Positives of our parliament being bicameral?
-The upper house (HoL) can do checks and balances for greater scrutiny and revisions of legislature. e.g. go home theresa may or hostile environment david cameron
-Representation of different interests
Negatives of our parliament being bicameral?
-Can create gridlock
-Unelected upper house causing frustrate the will of democracy
In the house of commons where does the government and opposition sit?
Government sit on the right and opposition on the left
What are the people at the front called and who are they in the house of commons?
Frontbenchers, these are the ministers
The opposition do have front benchers but they are called shadow ministers
Who are backbenchers and what do they do?
Backbenchers are people that sit on the back benches who are MPs but have no ministerial responsibility’s
What is the leader of the house of commons?
Someone who determines what happens and when it will happen. This means they will be responsible for delivery of the government’s legislative programme and chairs the Parliamentary Business and Legislation Cabinet Committee
Works closely with the governments whip
Who are the government whip?
Keep all the MPs in order, do this by convincing MPs to vote in the same way as the party leaders
What’s a three line whip?
Indicates MPs to vote a certain way that aligns with the party leader if they don’t they have the authority to sacked or fired
What happens if MP have their whip withdrawn, give an example?
They will be suspended from the party
Example is Boris Johnsons government the whip removed 21 tory rebels who didn’t support the motion to take control of businesses
Who is the prime minister?
Ultimately the most important person within parliament, head of the largest party and have control over business and outcomes within the commons
E.g. Rishi Sunak
Who is the speaker?
The chair of commons who tries to keep order and ensure many MPs from a range of parties get the oppertunity to talk within debatr
Powers of the speaker?
Suspend MPs and administer the rules e.g. Dodgy Dave scandal
Who is the current speaker of the HoC?
Lindsay Hoyle, won after a vote.
Micheal Martin used to be a speaker but was forced to resign due to his suspected favouritism towards remain MPs
What are the 3 different peers within the house of lords?
*Peer- member of HoL
*Hereditary Peer- A member since 1999, selected from those who inherited their title
*Life Peer- member of HoL whos been appointed to the chan=mber for the rest of their lifetime
What happend to hereditary peers in the house of lord act in 1999?
Due to Tony Blairs New labour government all but 92 peers got removed before this their were 750 h peers
Now we have elected hereditary peers