2020-04-07
596
The voting arrangements in Britain have always tended to produce two major parties. In the 18th century, it was Tory versus Whig, then Tory versus Liberal, and in modern times, Conservative versus Labour. This fact is reflected in the constitution itself. The second biggest party in the House of Commons becomes the Official Opposition: its leader is paid a salary from the public purse and given an office.
As in the legal system, the parties confront each other and argue. The House of Commons is built for confrontation; two sets of seats face each other across a neutral no – men’s land. In fact, the space between two sides is two swords’ lengths and one foot, to prevent fights! This theoretical way of doing things has some advantages. For one it is easy for the public to understand. Also, it means that the government is always being publically challenged, which is good for democracy.
It is significant, however, that the new Scottish parliament Chamber is built on a different model – a horse-shoe shape around a central Speaker’s platform. This reflects the new voting system for Scotland, a form of proportional representation. If the rest of the UK moves away from the current first-past-the-post system, there will be more parties in Westminster, and there is likely to be a profound change in the way politics is done.
BRITISH PARLIAMENT
Like the Monarchy, Parliament in Britain is an ancient institution dating from the beginning of the 13th century, though officially it was established in 1265 by Simon Monfort. It is the third oldest Parliament in the world in action (it was preceded by Althing of Iceland and the Parliament of the Isle of Man).
Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom. The overriding function of Parliament is legislating bills, making bills lawful. But Parliament is not only law-making body, it is also a law-enforcing body, i.e. it has judicial functions. British Parliament is free to make any law it wishes. It could even prolong its own life if it chose to do so. The only guarantee against parliamentary tyranny is the sense of tradition and reasonableness of its members.
Other functions of Parliament are to raise money through taxation so as to enable the government to function, to question and examine government policy and administration, particularly its financial program, and debate or discuss important political issues.
History knew “short” lasted 2 weeks, and “long” lasted 19 years Parliaments but since 1911 every parliament is limited to a five-year term of work. The work of Parliament is divided into sessions. Every session begins at the end of October or beginning of November and lasts 36 weeks up to late August. Annual opening of Parliament by the Queen is a traditional ceremony, very beautiful and pompous.
British Parliament is composed of two Houses – the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords appeared first as King’s council of the nobility. The House of Commons originated later, in the second half of the 14th century, and “Commons” were representatives of different local communities who were summoned to provide the King with money. The more money a King demanded, the more the Commons questioned its use. Because its financial powers, its ability to raise or withhold money, the House of Commons gained power not only in matters of finance but also legislation over the monarch and also the lords. So the dynamic power of Parliament lies in the House of Commons.
The Houses work in different places, in the opposite parts of the Westminster Palace, but their debating Chambers are shaped in the same way which is vitally important. The arrangement of seats in both Houses is of great significance, reflects and maintains the two-party system of Britain.
Both Houses are rectangular (not semicircular as most European Chambers) in shape with rows of benches on both sides and a raised platform for the throne, which is a joint present of Australia and Canada, and the Speaker’s Chair.
To the right of the Speaker are the seats for the Government and its supporters, to his left – for the Opposition. So the debates are face to face, debates not figuratively. There are facing the Speaker cross benches for Independent members, for those who do not belong to either of the two leading political parties.
There are 5 rows of benches in the House of Commons (4 in Lords’) on both sides of the House. Front benches on either sides are the seats of the Government (Cabinet members) and Opposition (“Shadow Cabinet” members). Hence the division of MPs into front-benchers and back-benchers.
Each House enjoys certain rights and immunities to protect them in carrying out their duties. They are freedom of speech in debates, freedom from arrest, the right of access to the crown (collective privilege for the Commons and individual for peers). The Commons have the right to exclude (disqualify) an MP and declare his seat vacant.
The proceedings in both Houses are public and visitors are admitted into the “strangers’ gallery”. The number of visitors is limited to about 200, no cards or passes are required, but mental-control check is necessary. “First come, first go” principle works in both galleries. Since 1803 the proceeding of Parliament have been published the following day as “Hansard”. Luke Hansard was the first to publish reports on Parliamentary procedures. His name first appeared on papers in 1943. Since then the paper carries the name. Proceedings of both Houses are also now televised, the Lords since 1984 and the Commons since 1989.
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
The House of Commons today is an elected House with a nation-wide representation. Of its 650 Members 523 represent constituencies in England, 38 in Wales, 72 in Scotland and 17 in Northern Ireland. When speaking about British Parliament the House of Commons is usually meant. When speaking about Parliamentary (or General) election, election to the House of Commons is meant. So this House is the center of real political power and activity, most of its members being professional politicians, lawyers, economists, etc.
The party that has won the general election makes up the majority in the House of Commons and forms the Government. The party with the next largest number of members in the House, or sometimes a combination of other parties, forms the official Opposition, and Leader of the Opposition is recognized post in the House of Commons.
The Members of Parliament (MP) sit on two sides of the hall, one side for the governing party and other for the opposition. There are for only 437 Members of Parliament (MP). One of the most important members in the House of Commons is the Speaker who despite his name is the one who actually never speaks. The Speaker is the Chairman or presiding MP of the House of Commons. He is elected by a vote of the House at the beginning of each new Parliament to preside over the House and enforce the rules of order. He cannot debate or vote. He votes only in case of a tie, i.e. when voting is equal and, in this case he votes with Government. The main job of the Speaker is to maintain strict control over debates, to keep fair play between parties, the government and opposition, between back-benchers and front-benchers.
The Speaker is responsible for the orderly conduct of business, and is required to act with scrupulous impartiality between Members in the House. He insists that MPs call each other “Honourable Member”, address the Ministers as “Right Honourable Member” bow to him on entering and leaving, address all the speeches to him “Dear Speaker, Sir”. He must forbid grossly insulting language. It is Speaker who selects MPs to speak and when MP is about to finish his speech several MPs bob up trying to catch the Speakers eyes and get his permission to talk. The order of speakers is not arranged in advance. So the tradition of “catching the Speaker’s eye” affords him enormous powers either to restrict or to widen criticism of a bill by selecting the “right kind” of MP. The Speaker is assisted by three deputy speakers.
40000 words are said on every working day of the House. But most of the speeches are not intended to influence thought or action because most important decisions are nowadays made behind the scenes, behind the Speaker’s Chair, in Smoking Room or in the Cabinet. And when the time comes the Speaker and the whips will see to the fact that the vote should go with the government. The whips are party functioneers, party managers, who receive special salaries for their duties. They arrange each day program in Parliament and tell MPs when they must attend debates. They inform, instruct, dictate and enforce the views of the front-benchers (the Government) on the back-benchers. The strict party discipline obliges them to follow the instructions of the whips. A back-bencher is an ordinary MP who is not expected to display talents of an orator, wisdom of a statesman or initiate something in legislature. His only duty is to follow the whips’ instructions. Each leading party has officially recognized whips as well as the Chief Whip of the Government and the Chief Whip of Opposition
The Commons usuallymeet in the afternoon “sitting” until about 10.30. p.m. and sometimes beyond midnight. On Fridays they sit from 9.30. a.m. to 3 p.m. They finish work early so as to be able to return to their constituency for the weekend to busy themselves with local matters, complaints and other formal duties.
In the Commons debating chamber there are seats for only 370 members and except on matters of great interest and importance the presence of all members is not necessary. 40 MPs is enough to secure (make up) quorum.
MPs are paid salaries, approximately twice the average national wage but substantially less than most MPs could earn outside the House of Commons.
THE HOUSE OF LORDS
There may be other constitutional monarchs around the world, but nowhere is there anything quite like the upper Chamber of the British Parliament, the House of Lords. In fact, it is difficult to talk about it in the present tense, as it is in the process of being radically changed. In the 1997 election, part of Labour’s manifesto was a promise to reform it – hardly surprising if you look at the extraordinary nature of the House of Lords before these reforms began.
The function of the upper Chamber is to act as a brake on the government of the day. Its members take a long, cool look at a new legislation prepared by the Commons. They discuss it, revise it and sometimes send it back to be reconsidered. Their power has for a long time been very limited. Even before the 20th century it was accepted that the Commons was the real seat of power; but from time to time the Lords tried to take control.
The problem was that the permanent Conservative majority in the Lords opposed the Commons when it was in the hands of its enemies, the Liberals.
In 1909, the Liberals tried to introduce a radical People’s Budget increasing taxes and benefits. The House of Lords did its best to stop the budget going through, and the Commons lost its patience. A law was passed to limit the powers of the upper Chamber: the Parliament Act of 1911. From then on, it could only delay new laws for a fixed period, and it could not alter budgets (normally the most important of government measures).
The problem of the Conservative majority did not however, go away. It was still the main reason for Tony Blair’s promise to reform the Lords in 1997. The origin of this built-in, permanent Conservative majority was the bizarre and medieval composition of the House of Lords. Most members were from the ancient aristocracy: dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts and barons. These hereditary titles, like the monarchy, passed on from father to son through the generations.
In recent years, it has been the practice to create new lords, known as life peers. Senior politicians such as ex-Prime Ministers, and other important public figures were given these titles (for example Baroness Thatcher) and a seat in the House of Lords. But the relics of feudalism were still in the majority; and they were joined by many more Conservatives among the life peers. In the 1990s, the Lords consisted of about 750 hereditary peers, 26 bishops of the Church of England (2 of which are archbishops of Canterbury and York), nine senior judges and about 500 life peers. You can see from the figures that another problem was the size of the membership; luckily, only a small portion of them ever came in to work.
The House of Lords appeared first as King’s council consisting of lords and barons. The House is decorated with coats of arms of peers, with 6 large frescos and 18 bronze statues of the barons who forced King John to sign Magna Carta (Great Charter) in 1215.
Queen (Monarch) belongs to the House of Lords so there is a throne in the Lords’ Chamber which is joint present of Canada and Australia and from where the Queen makes her State Opening Speech.
There is also a woolsack – the seat of the Lord Chancellor who presides in the House of Lords.
Unlike the Speaker in the House of Commons the Lord Chancellor is not impartial, as he is a government officer, responsible for the administration of justice and automatic member of the Cabinet. Although he presides over the House he is not concerned with order. Any peer has the power to rise in his place and move thus demonstrating his disapproval to a fellow peer having the floor. No one calls to order.
Woolsack was introduced at the beginning of the 14th century by Edward III as a symbol of prosperity and commodity; it is packed with wool from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Almost a century ago the Lords had the power of absolute veto over any legislation passed by the House of Commons. After a great struggle this was finally abolished by the Parliament Act of 1911. But it left the Lords with the power to delay a bill for 2 years and since 1949 the period reduced to one year. After one year the bill is passed without the Lords agreement.
The House of Lords was usually of Tory majority composed largely of company directors, landlords, bankers, steel and oil magnates, and newspaper proprietors and so on. Its main function was to defend the interests of the propertied people, to criticize the Labour Government, to delay, amend or bury altogether the bills which go contrary to their interests. For its utterly conservative character it is often called the House of obstruction or hangover from a past age. That’s why Labour Governments and working people demand abolition of the House of Lords as an undemocratic anachronism.
The power of delaying a bill for a year is still great privilege of the Lords. During a year the political situation may change in favour of the Conservatives, the propaganda work divert the attention from the uneasy bill; it may be forgotten or amended unrecognizably leaving nothing of its essence.
Of all the parliaments in the world, the lowest quorum needed to adopt a decision is the British House of Lords. Three Lords present will make a quorum and will capable to take any decision.
Lords are far freer to vote according their own convictions rather than party policy than are Members of the Common.
A peer who attends a debate receives salary in addition to travelling expenses. Average daily attendance is only about 300 and most of these are life peers, who retain interest in the affairs of state.
In 1998 the government as part of its reform of the House of Lords, introduced legislation to deprive hereditary peers (by then numbering 750) of their 700-year-old right to sit and vote in the upper Chamber. A compromise, however allowed 92 of them – who were elected by their fellow peers – to remain as temporary members. The legislation went into effect in late 1999.
8. ELECTORAL SYSTEM
The British people have always prided themselves on their electoral system believing it to be one of the most democratic. It is known as a majority system, now often called “first-past-the-post” one. The foundation of the British electoral system is the single-member constituency. The United Kingdom is divided into 650 parliamentary constituencies, each one of which elects a Member of Parliament (MP) to sit in the House of Commons. Each MP represents 66000 electors. A person may represent a constituency even if he does not live there.
Any number of candidates can stand for election in each constituency. The winner is the candidate who gets more votes than any other single candidate, even if the difference is only one vote. This “first-past-the-post” system is simple, clear and familiar, but it means that sometimes the elected candidate, who comes second, even very close to the winner, gets nothing.
The weakness of the electoral system was revealed in the 1980s when the conservatives enjoyed a large majority in the commons although at the elections of 1979, 1983 and 1987 more people voted against the conservative Party than for it. In 1987 the Liberal/ SDP Alliance received 23.1 per cent of the total vote but won only 22 seats (3,5 per cent) in Parliament.
General Elections in Britain are held every 5 years, as every Parliament (and Government accordingly) is elected for this term. The Prime Minister chooses the date of the next General Elections, but does not have to wait until the end of the five years. A time is chosen which will give as much advantage as possible to the political party in power.
About a month before the election the Prime Minister meets a small group of close advisors to discuss the date, which would best suit the party. The date is announced to the cabinet. The prime Minister asks the Queen to dissolve the Parliament. Once Parliament is dissolved, all MPs are unemployed.
Party manifestos are published and campaigning begins throughout the country lasting for about three weeks with large scale press, radio and television coverage.
Voting takes place on Polling Day (usually a Thursday). MPs are elected by direct and secret ballots. Citizens of 18 and over have the right to vote (except prisoners, lords and mentally ill). Vote is not compulsory and about 75 per cent of the electorate take part in general elections. On Election Day, the voters go to the polling station and record their votes by placing records against their candidate’s name on the list and place the paper in a ballot-box. Some people vote by proxy. The election officials count up the number of votes and the Returning Officer announces the elected candidate. The candidate in a constituency who gains most votes is returned as member to the Commons.
If an MP resigns, dies or is made a peer during lifetime of a Parliament, a by-election must be held in the constituency (which he represents) to elect a new member.
No candidate requires the backing of a political party in order to stand for election, but today no independent candidates succeed in being elected. MPs are chosen by the constituency branch of the party from a list of suitable candidates issued by the headquarters.
The two party dominance has existed since 18th century and both dominating parties have constant supporters. About 1/3 of the people vote for Labour Party candidates all the time, another third for the Conservatives. The first-past-the post electoral system in Britain promotes and maintains the dominance of the leading parties at the expense of the small ones.
The Liberal Democrats, a center party, are against the current first-past-the post electoral system. This is because, though they come second in many constituencies, they cannot win many seats in parliament. They campaign for a system of proportional representation, in which the number of MPs is based on the number of people who vote for a party in the whole country.
LECTURE 6
