UK The Structure And Role Of Parliament : The Role And Signifcane Of The Oppostion In Parliament Flashcards
What’s the purpose of opposition in parliament ?
Is to offer scrutiny and potentially a check on government, must also offer viable and practical alternative solutions
In order to oppose legislation what do they have to plan ?
They must offer viable and practical alternative solutions, for example those whose opposed to a no deal Brexit had to come up with better alternative such as staying within the custom union or putting the future of Brexit to a second vote.
How can the opposition challenge the government ?
-the leader of the official opposition has special privileges in debate and common business, at PMQs they always ask the opening questions plus up to five more and are the only MP allowed to respond to the prime minister with further questions
-receive additional salary
How many days do opposition have each year in which they can choose the topic for debate ?
20 days
What do this day allow opposition to do and example ?
This is a chance for the opposition to raise topics they wish to publicise and to expose government failings, for example in 2018 labour raised the issues of school funding the Grenfell tower fire and NHS privatisation
Name an example when the procedures of debate had an impact ?
In 2009 during Gordon brown leadership an opposition motion to allow Gurkhas (Nepalese solder who serve in the British army ) to settle in the Uk was passed when 27 labour MPs rebelled and supported the opposition parties and supported the opposition parties.
During the Brexit saga what was the role of oppositions ?
They effective prevented the various version of Theresa mays deal from going through
What enable opposition to be more powerful ?
A government with small or non existent majority
Name an example when the mere existence of opposition parties influence a PM
The multimillion plan to safeguard many workers job and wages during the COVID-19 outbreak was perhaps partly influenced by an awareness of the political flashbacks if the government was not seen to be reacting on a huge scale
Under normal circumstances who dominates who ?
Under normal circumstances the executive dominates the legislature but in exceptional circumstances such as a hung parliament or deeply divided governing party parliament had the ability to be a powerful player
