The Houses of Parliament

Great Britain is a monarchy, but the powers of the Queen are limited by the Parliament, which consists of two Chambers, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

Everything in the country officially is done in the name of the Queen (or King), but, in reality, the Prime Minister is responsible for the policy conducted by the Parliament. Peers sit in the House of Lords; in the House of Commons representatives of the people of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland take their seats.

The focal point in the Chamber of the House of Lords is the gilded Throne. The Queen enters the Palace of Westminster only on the day of the State Opening of Parliament at the beginning of a session. Crowned and wearing many of the finest Crown Jewels, she makes her peech from the Throne in the House of Lords.

Before the Throne in the House of Lords, and dividing the benches, is the Woolsack upon which the Lord Chancellor presides over the lords. By tradition the Woolsack is stuffed with wool from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and from Commonwealth countries. The Peers' benches, covered in red leather, are arranged in five rows on either side of the House. Members of the Government and their supporters arc to the right of the Throne, and those of the Opposition to the left. The galleries are reserved for diplomats and distinguished strangers or guests, and reporters.

Before every sitting of the House of Commons, the Speaker wearing wig and gown walks in procession to the Chamber from his residence within the Royal Palace. The benches in the House of Commons are covered in green leather. The floor of the House is covered by a green carpet bearing on either side a red stripe, over which no Member may cross when addressing the House. The front bench on the Speaker's right is for the Prime Minister and the leading members of the Government. The Leader of Opposition and his supporters are on the Speaker's left.

The Party which obtains the majority of seats in the House is called the Government and the others the Opposition. The Opposition criticize the bills introduced by the Government.

The two leading parties in Great Britain are the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.

The Houses of Parliament are among the most admired buildings in Europe. They are also called the Palace of Westminster. The Palace of Westminster includes the House of Lords, the House of Commons, Westminster Hall, the Clock Tower, the Victoria Tower, various committee rooms, residences, offices, etc.

The famous clock Tower houses «Big Ben» - the clock named after Sir Benjamin Hall under whose direction the construction of the clock was conducted. People call the clock Big Ben, but the паше really belongs to the bell on which the clock strikes the hours. A light at the top of the clock Tower shows when Parliament is sitting at night.

The most important part of a Prime Minister's job is Cabinet-making. The Prime Minister has considerable individual power to introduce and control policies and to change the Cabinet by appointing new ministers.

The Prime Minister lives and works in the official residence, No. 10 Downing Street, London. This is a large house in a small street, where many of the departments have their offices, a very short distance from the Houses of Parliament.

 

SCHOOLING IN GREAT BRITAIN

State Schools

English children must go to school when they arc five, first to infant schools'where they learn the first steps in reading, writing and using numbers. Young children are divided into two groups according to their mental abilities. The curriculum for «strong» and «weak» groups is different, which is the beginning of future education contrasts.

When children leave infant school, at the аgе of seven, they go to junior schools until they are about eleven years of age. Their school subjects include English, arithmetic, history, geography, nature study, swimming, music, art, religious instruction and organized games.

The junior classroom often looks rather like a workshop, especially when the pupils arc working in groups making models or doing other practical work.

When pupils come, to the junior school for the first time, they are often divided into three «streams» - А, В and C- on the basis of their infant-school marks or sometimes after a special test. The brightest children go to the A-stream and the least gifted to the C-stream.

Towards the end of their fourth year in the junior school, a certain percentage of English schoolchildren still have to write their Eleven Plus Examinations, on the results of which they will go the following September to a secondary school of a certain type. Usually these examinations should reveal not so much what a child has learned at school, but his mental ability.

About 5 % of elementary school - leavers in Britain go to secondary modern schools. Modern schools do'-not provide complete secondary education. As the pupils are considered to be interested in «practical» knowledge only, study programmes are rather limited in comparison with other secondary schools. Some modern schools do not teach foreign languages. In modern schools pupils are also streamed according to their «intelligence».

The secondary technical school, in spite of its name, is not a specialized school. It teaches many general subjects. Boys and girls in technical schools study such practical subjects as woodwork, metalwork, needlework, shorthand (stenography) and typing. Not more than two per cent of schoolchildren in Britain go to technical schools.

The grammar school is a secondary school taking about 3% of children offering a full theoretical secondary education including foreign languages] and students can choose which subjects and languages they wish to study. In most of them there are food, chemistry and physics laboratories. The majority (80 or 85%) of grammar school students, mainly children of poorer famine's, leave the school after taking a five-year course. Then they may take the General Certificate of Secondary Education at the ordinary level. The others continue their studies for another two or three years toobtain the General Certificate of Secondary Education at the advanced level, which allows them to enter university.

The comprehensive school combines in one school the courses of all three types of secondary schools:so the pupils can study any subject which is taught in these schools. Their number is growing; there are more than two thousand of them now. They are of different types; all of them preserve some form of streaming, but pupils may be moved from one stream to another. Comprehensive schools take over 90 % of schoolchildren in Great Britain. ^!

The comprehensive school is the most popular type of school, for it provides education for children from all strata.

Private Schools

There are many schools in Britain which are not controlled financially by the state. They are private schools, separate for boys and girls, and the biggest and most important of them are public schools charging high fees and training young people for political, diplomatic, military and religious service.

The doors of Oxford and Cambridge, the best English universities, are open to the public school -leavers.

Other non-state schools which charge fees are independent and preparatory schools. Many of the independent schools belong to the churches. Schools of this type prepare their pupils for public schools.

Some Aspects of British University Life.

Of the full-time students now attending English Universities three quarters are men, and one quarter women. Nearly half of them are engaged in the study of arts subjects such as history, languages, economics or law, the others are studying pure or applied sciences such as medicine, dentistry, technology, or agriculture.

The University of London, for instance, includes internal and external students, the latter coming to London only to sit for their examinations. Actually most external students at London University are living in London. The colleges in the University of London are essentially teaching institutions, providing instruction chiefly by means of lectures, which are attended mainly by day students. The colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, however, are essentially residential institutions and they mainly use a tutorial method which brings the tutor into close and personal contact with the student. These colleges, being residential, are necessarily far smaller than most of the colleges of the University of London.

Education of University standard is also given in other institutions such as colleges of technology and agricultural colleges, which prepare their students for degrees or diplomas in their own fields.

The three terms into which the British University year is divided are roughly eight to ten weeks. Each term is crowded with activity, and the vacations between the terms - a month at Christmas, a month at Easter, and three or four months in summer - are mainly periods of intellectual digestion and private study.

A person studying for a degree at a British University is called a graduate.

B. A. or B. Sc. stands for Bachelor of Arts, or of Science, the first degree. M. A. or M. Sc. Denotes Masters of Arts, or of Science. One can become B. A. after three years of hard study, and М. A. at the end of five years.

 

ENGLISH TRADITIONS

London has preserved its old ceremonies and traditions to a greater extent than any other city in England. Most of these traditions have been kept up without interruption since the thirteenth century.

Foreigners coming to London arc impressed by quite a number of ceremonies, which seem to be incompatible with the modem traffic and technical conditions of a highly developed country. Uniforms are rather characteristic of this fact. When one sees the warders at the Tower of London with their funny hats and unusual dresses with royal monograms, one feels carried back to the age of Queen Elizabeth I.

Even in the unromantic everyday life of English businessmen we can see the same formal traditions. In the City of London there may be seen a number of men in top-hats. These are the bank messengers who had to put on these hats according to traditions. The same tradition makes; the Eton boys (the boys of Eton College which was founded in 1440 by Henry VI) put on a silk hat, a very short jacket and long trousers.

All of you, of course, have seen English films and noticed official black dresses and white wigs of judges and advocates, though wigs have not been used for nearly two hundred years in other countries.

One of the most impressive and popular ceremonies is «Changing the Guard», which takes place at Buckingham Palace every day, including Sunday, at 11.30. The uniform of the guards is extremely coloured - red tunics, blue trousers and bearskin caps, and they always attract London sightseers.

Another formal display is the «Ceremony of Keys» which takes place every night at 9. 53 p. m. when the Chief Warder of (he Tower of London lights a candle lantern and carrying the keys makes his way with the Escort to the gates of the Tower and locks them. This ceremony takes place every night without interruption. It is said that on the night of April 16. 1941 air bombing stopped the ceremony, knocking out members of the Escort. Despite this the duty was completed.

Strange as they may seem to a modern European or American, nobody in London sees anything remarkable in these old traditions which mix harmoniously with the city everyday life.

English Character

One of the most striking features of English life is the self-discipline and courtesy of people of all classes. There is little noisy behaviour, and practically no loud disputing in the street. People do not rush excitedly for seats in buses or trains, but take their seats in queues at bus stop in a quiet and orderly manner.

Englishmen are naturally polite and are never tired in saying «Thank you», «I'm sorry», « I beg yourpardon». If you follow anyone who is entering a building or a room, he will hold a door open for you. Many foreigners have commented on a remarkable politeness of the English people.

English people don't like displaying their emotions.even in dangerous and tragic situations, and ordinary people seem to remain good-tempered and cheerful under difficulties.

The Englishman does not like any boasting or showing off in manners, dress or speech. Sometimes he conceals his knowledge: a linguist, for example, may not mention his understanding of a foreigner's language.

The Englishman prefers his own house to an apartment in a block of flats, because he doesn't wish his doing to be overlooked by his neighbours. «An Englishman's house is his castle».

Many Englishmen help their wives at home in many ways. They clean the windows on Saturday afternoon, they often wash up the dishes after supper in the evening.

Sunday is a very quiet day in London. All the shops are closed, and so are the theatres and most of the cinemas.

Londoners like to get out of town on Sundays. The sea is not far -only fifty or sixty miles away and people like to go down to the sea in summer or somewhere to the country for skiing in winter.