Questions and suggestions 89
The
org
anization
of
loc
al
government
(1995)
CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT
Cities and large
towns
in
Englandand Wa les
The
rest
of England and
Wal es and all of Scotland
Responsible for:
housing
local planning
collection of rubbish
leisure and recreation
safety in public places
10 R
egions
(Scotland)
47
Counti
es
(England and Wa les)
Responsiblefor:
collection of counciltax
planning
roads and safety
disposal of rubbish
education
social services
libraries
police force
fire brigade
36
Metropo
litan
Dis
tr
ict s
32
Londo
n Borough s
Responsible for:
collection of council tax
planning
roads and traffic
housing
buildingregulations
safety inpublic places
collection of rubbish
disposal of rubbish
education
social services
libraries
leisure and recreation
Inthese areas
some
services. such
as transport, the police force and
the fire brigade. are run by special
authori ties, some of whose
members are counci llors.
J.
Parishes (Engl
an
d)
Commun
itie
s (S
cotla
nd
an
d W al
es
)
These have no legalpowe rs but are recog nized as neighbourhood
or
villa
ge-level foru ms of discussion.
QUE
STIO
NS
Do you think the theory of collective rcsponsib-
ility is a
goo
d one? Does it exist in your country?
2
What
would be the equivalent titles in your
country for: Chancellor,
Home
Secretary,
Foreign Secretary?
3 A British Prime Minister has
no
status in law
which puts
him
or her above other politicians.
So why are
moder
n British PMs so powerful?
4 How does the relationship between central and
local governm
ent
in Britain
compare
with that
in your country?
5 Local governm ent in Britain is responsible for
most of the things that affect people in everyday
life. So why do you think so few people bother
to vote in local elections in Britain ?
SU GG ES
TI
ON
S
• Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990) has been the subject
of
several biog raphical studies which offer insights into the work ings
of
government. For example.
On
eofU5 by Hugo Young (Pan Books).
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9°
9
Parliament
The activiti es
of
Parliament in Britain are
mor
e or less the same as
those of the Parliament in any western democracy.
It make s n
ew
laws, gives authority for the government to raise and spend
mone
y.
keeps a close eye on government activities and discusses those
activities.
The
British Parliament
works
in a large
building
called the Palace
of
We
stmin
ster
(pop
ularly kno
wn
as 'the
Hou
ses of'Parl
iarnent').
This co ntains
of
fices.
com
mittee
roo
ms , restaurants, bars, libraries
and even some places of residence. It also contains
two
larger ro
om
s.
One
of
these is where the House of Lords meets, the other is where
the House of Commons meets. The British Parliament is divided into
two
'ho
uses' , and its m
emb
ers b
elong
to
one
or other
of
them ,
although only me
mb
ers of the
Comm
ons are normally k
nown
as
MPs (M
ember
s of Parliam
ent
). The
Comm
on
s is by far the m
or
e
impor
tant
of
the tw o houses.
The H
ous
e
of
Commons
I Speaker'schair
2 gov ernment benches
3 op position benches
4 galleries for visitors
.
S"
press gallery
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The atmosphere
of
Parliam
ent
Look at the pi
cture
of
the
inside
of
the
meet
ing
room
of
the House
of
Common
s (
e-
The
Hou
seof
Commons)
. Its
design
and
layout differ
from
the
interior
of
the
par
liame
nt buildi
ngs
in
mos
t o
the
r
count
ries. These
differences can tell us a lot
abo
ut w hat is distinctive ab
ou
t t
he
British
Parliament .
First, notice the sealing arr ange
me
nts. There arc just two rows
of
benches facing each ot her. On the left
of
the pic ture are the govern-
ment benches,
wh
ere the MPs of the gov
ern
in g party sit.
On
the righ t
are the oppo sition benches. There is no op
por
tunity in this layout
for a reflection of all the vari
ou
s shades of
po
litical opinion (as there
is wit h a semi-circle). According to where they sit. MPs are seen to be
either
'for
' the
gove
rnment
(sup
po
rting it) or aga inst it. Thi s physical
division is
emphasized
by the table on t
he
floor
of
the Ho use between
the
two
rows
of
b
enche
s.
The
Speaker 's cha ir,
which
is raised some
way
off
the floor, is also here.
From
this
comma
nding positi
on
, the
Speaker chairs
(that
is,
contro
ls) the debates (
e-
The
Speo
ker). The
arrang
emem
of
the benches e
nco
urages
confro
nta t
ion
between gov-
ernment
a
nd
o
pp
ositio
n. It also reinf
or
ces psychol
ogic
ally the reality
of
the British
two
-party
system (see chapter
6).
There are no 'cro ss-
benches' for MPs w ho belong neither to the gov
erning
party nor the
main opposition party. In practice. these MPs sit on the
op
position
benches f
ur
thes t fro m the Spe aker's chair (at the b
ott
om
ri
ght
of
the pict
ure).
Plan of the Palace of
Wes
tmins
ter (principal floor)
;d.~
~
_
~
_ I
M::J
:L
u
1 Clock-tower (Big Ben)
2 'No' Division
lobby
3 'Aye' Division
lobby
The
atmo
sphere
of
Parliament 9 I
Th
e Sp eak
er
Anybody who happened
to
be
watching the live broadcast of
Parliament on 27 April 1992 was
able
to
wi mess an extraordinary
spectacle. A female MP was physic-
ally dragged ,
app
arent ly again st her
will, out
of
her seat on the back
benches by fellow MPs and was
force d
(Q
sit ill the large chair in the
mid
dle of the House
of
Commons
.
What the House of
Commons
was
actually doi ng was
appo
inting a new
Speaker. The Speaker is the pers
on
who chairs and controls discussion
in the Hous e, decides wh ich MP is
g
oing
to
speak next and makes sure
that the rule s
of
procedure are fol-
l
owed
. (Ifthey are not. the Speaker
has the po
wer
to
demand
a public
apology f
rom
an MP or even to ban
an MP from the House for a
num
ber
of
days). It is a very Important posi-
tion . In fact, the Speaker is,officially.
the s
econd
most i
mportan
t '
com-
moner' (non-aristocrat) in the
k
ingdom
after the Prime Minis ter.
Hundreds
of
years ago, it was the
Speaker 's job to comm unicate the
decisions of the Com
mons
to the
King (that is
where
the title
'Speaker' comes from) . As the king
was often very displeased with
what
the
Commo
ns had decided. this was
not a pleasant task. As a result,
nobod
y
want
ed the job. They had to
be f
orced
to
take n. These days, the
position is a mu ch safer one, bur the
tradition
of
dragging an unwilling
Speaker
to
the chair has remained.
The occasion in 1992 was the first
time that a wo man had been
appo
inted Speaker, so that MPs had
to get used to addressing not 'Mr
Speaker', as they had always don e in
the past, bu t 'Madam Speaker'
instead. Once a Speaker has been
appointed, he or she agree s
(Q
give
up all p
any
polit ies and rem ains
in the job for as l
ong
as he or she
want s it.
Betty B
oo
throyd, thefirst woman
Speokerof the Houseof
Commons
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92 9
Parliam
ent
Second, the
Commo
ns has no 'front' , no obvious place from which
an MP can address everybody there. MPs simply stand up and speak
from wherever they happen
to
be sitting. Third, notice that there are
no desks for the MPs. The benches where they sit are exactly and only
that-
benches, just as in a church. This makes it physically easy for
them to drift in and
out
of
the room, which is some thing that they
frequently do during debates. Fourth, notice that the House is very
small. In fact, there i
sn't
enough
ro
om
for all the MPs.There are
mor
e than 6 50
of
them ,
but
there is seating for less than
40
0. A
candidate at an election is said
to
have won 'a seat' in the Com
mo
ns,
but this 'seat' is imaginary. MPs do not have their 'own' place
to
sit.
No names are marked on the benches. MPs just sit d
own
wherever
(on
'th
eir' side
of
the House) they can find
roo
m.
Allthese features result in a fairly informal atmos phere. Individual
MPs,
wit
hout
theirown 'territory' (\\rhich a personal seat and desk
would
give them), are encouraged to c
o-op
erate. Moreover, the small
size of the House, together
with
the lack of a p
odium
or dais from
which to address it, means that MPs do not normally speak in the
way that they
wou
ld at a large public rally. MPs
norma
lly speak in a
conversational tone, and because they have n
owh
ere to place their
notes while speaking, they do not normally speak for very long
either! It is only on particularly important occasion s,
when
all the
MPs are present, that passionate oratory is sometimes used.
One mo re thing should be noted about the design
of
the House of
Co
mmo
ns. It is deliberate. Historically, it was an accident: in medi-
eval times, the Co
mmons
met in a church and churches
of
that time
often had rows of benches facing each other. But after the House was
badly damaged by
bom
bing in
194
I,
it was deliberately rebuilt to
the old pattern
(wit
h one or two
mo
dern comforts such as central
heating added). This was because
of
a beliefin the two-way 'for and
against' tradition , and also because
of
a more general desire for
continuity.
The ancient habits are preserved today in the man y cust
om
s and
detailed rules
of
procedure
which
all
new
MPs find that they have
to
learn. The most no ticeable
of
these is the rule that forbids MPs
to
address one another directly or use personal names. All remarks and
questions must go 'through the Chair '. An MP
who
is speaking r
ef
ers
to
or asks a question of 'the honourable Member for Winchest
er'
or
'my right honourable friend'. The MP for Winchester may be sitting
directly
opp
osite,
but
the MP never says
'yo
u'.
These ancient rules
were
originally formulated
to
take the
'h
eat'
ou
t
of
debate and
decrease the possibilit y that violence
mig
ht break out. Today, they
lend a touch
offormalit
y which balances the
inf
ormal aspects
of
the
Common
s and further increases the feeling o
fMP
s that they belong
to a special
group
of
people.
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AnMP's life
The comparative informality
of
the Co
mm
ons may partly result f
rom
the British belie
fin
amateurism. Traditionally, MPs were not sup-
posed to be specialist politicians. They were supposed to be
ord
inary
people giving some
of
their time to representing the people. Ideally,
they came from all walks of life, bringing their experience of the
everyday world into Parliament with them .Tliis is wliy MPswere
not even paid unt il the early twentieth century.Traditionally, they
were sup
pos
ed to be doing a
pub
lic service, not making a career for
themselves. o f course, this tradition meant that only rich people
could afford to be MPs so that, alth
oug
h they did indeed come from
a wide variety of backgr
ou
nds, these
were
always backgrounds
of
power and wealtli. Even now, British MPs do not get paid very much
in comparison w ith many
of
their European
co
unterparts. Moreover,
by European standards, they have incredibly p
oor
facilities. Most MPs
have to share an
office
and a
sec
retary
with
tw o or
mor
e other MPs.
The ideal
of
the talented amateur do es not, of course , reflect
modern reality. Politics in Britain in the last forty years has be
com
e
professional. Most MPs are full-time politicians, and do ano ther job,
ifat all,
on
ly part-t
im
e. But the amateur traditi
on
is still reflected in
the hours
of
business of the Co
mmo
ns. They ar
e'
gentleman's liours' .
The H
ou
se
do
es not sit in the mornin g.Thi s is w hen, in the traditional
ideal, MPs w
ou
ld be doing their ordinary work or
pur
suin g
oth
er
interests
ou
tside Parliamen t. Fr
om
Mond
ay
to
Thursday, the H
ou
se
doe
s not start its business until 1
4.3
0 (
on
Friday it starts in the
morning , but then finislies in the early afternoon for the weekend).
It also gives itselfIong liolidays: four wee ks at Christmas, two each at
Ea
ster and Whitsun (Pentecos
t),
and abou t eleven weeks in the
summer (from the beginning ofAugust until the middle
of
October).
But this apparently easy
lif
e is misleading. In fact, the average
modern MP spends more time at
work
than any other professional
in the country. From Monday to
Thur
sday, the Commonsnever 'rises'
(i.e. finishes
wor
k for the day)
bef
ore 2 2. 30 and sometimes it con-
tinues sitting for several liours l
on
ger. Occasionally, it debates
througli most of the uight. The
Commo
ns, in fact, spends a greater
total
amou
nt
of
time sitting each year than any o ther Parliament
in Europe.
MPs'
mo
rnings are taken up
wit
h co
mmittee
wo
rk, research , pre-
paring speeches and dealing with the
prob
lems of constituents (the
people they represent). Weekends are not free for MPs either. They
are ex
pec
ted to visit their constituenc ies (the areas t
hey
repres
ent
)
and listen
to
the problems
of
anybody who
wan
ts to see them. It is
an ext
rem
ely busy
lif
e that leaves little time for pursuing another
career. It does not leave MPs
much
tim e for their familie s either.
Politicians have a higher rate of divorce thau the (already high)
national average.
An MP'slife 93
IIlo
Hansard
This is the name given
to
the daily
verbatim repo rts of everyt
hing
that
has
been
said in the
Commo
ns. They
are published
within
f
on
y
-eig
ht
hoursof theday the}'cover.
The parli
am
ent
ary day in
the
Commons
from Mondays
to
Thursdays
14.3
0
Prayers
14·35
Que stion time
15.3
0
Any miscellaneo us business, such as
a stat
ement
from a
mini
ster. after
,v-hich the main business of the day
begins. On
mor
e than half
of
the
days, thismeansadebate on a pro-
posal for a n
ew
law. kn
own
as a
'bill'. Most o f these bills are intr
o-
duced by the government but s
ome
days in each year are reserved for
'private members' bills';
that is,
proposals for laws
made
by indi -
vidu al MPs. NOl many of
these
becom e law ,
bec
ause there is not
enough interest
among
other MPs
and no t
eno
ugh lime for proper
discus
sio
n
of
them .
22.
00
Mot
ion
on the adjournment: the
main
bu
sine
ss of the day stops and
MPs are
allowed
1O bring up another
matter for general discussi
on
.
2 2 . 3
0
The Hou se rises (usually) .
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94
9 Parl
iament
Frontbenchers
and
backb
encher
s
Although MPs do not have their
own
personal seats in the Com
mons,
there
are
two
seating areas reserved for
particular MPs. These areas are the
front benches on either side
of
the
House. These benches arc whe re the
leading
members
of
the governing
party
(Le. ministers)
and
the leading
membe
rs
of
the main opposition
party sit. These people are thus
known
as 'frontbcnchcrs'. MPs who
do not hold a government post or a
post in the sh
adow
cabinet (sec
chapter 8) are
known
as 'back-
benchers'.
Parlia
me
ntary
bu
siness
The
basic procedure for business in the Co
mm
ons is a deba te on a
particular
propo
sal, followed by a resolution which either accepts
or rejects this proposal. Sometimes the resolution just expresses a
viewpoint, bu t
11
10St often it is a
matt
er of fra
ming
a new law or of
appro
ving (or no t approving ) go
vernm
ent plans to raise taxes or
sp
end
money in certain ways. Occasi
on
ally,
there
is no n
eed
to take
a vote,
but
there usually is,
and
at such
tim
es there is a 'divis
ion'.
That is, MPs have to vote for or against a part icular proposal. They
do this by walking through one of
two
corridors at the side
of
the
House - one is for the 'Ayes' (those who agree wi th the proposal)
and the other is f
or
the 'Noes' (those
who
disagree).
But the resolutions
of
the Com
mons
are only part
of
its activities.
There are also the
commi
tlees. Some
com
mittees are ap
poi
nted to
examin
e particular pr
op
osals for laws, but there are also permanent
committees
wh
ose job is to investigate the activities of
gover
n
ment
in a particular field. These
committ
ees
com
pr
ise a
bou
t fon y
mem
bers
and are f
orme
d to refle ct the relative strengths of the
par
ties in the
Comm
ons as a
who
le. They have the
po
wer to call cert ain
peo
ple,
such as civil servants, to com e
and
answer their questi
on
s. They are
becoming a
mo
re
and
m
ore
im
porta
nt part of t
he
bu siness of the
C
omm
ons,
The party system in Parlia
ment
Most div isions take place al
on
g party lines. MPs know tha t they
owe
their positi
on
to their party, so they nearly always vote the
way
that
their party tells t
hem
to. The people
who
make sure that MPs do this
are called the
Whips
. Each
of
the
two
major parties has several MPs
who
p
erf
orm
this role. It is their job to inform all MPs in their party
how they s
ho
uld
vote. By traditi
on
, if the
gover
nment
loses a vote
in Parliament on a very
impo
rtant
matt
er, it has to resign. Therefore,
when there is a division on such a
matter
, MPs are expected to go to
the House and vote even
if
they have not been there
dur
ing the de bate.
The W
hip
s act as i
nter
mediaries between the backbenchers and
the frontbench (
0)
F
ro
nt
be
nc
hers
and
bc
ck
ben
ch
ers)
of
a party. They keep
the party leadership informed about backbench
opi
nion . They are
po
werf
ul people. Because they 'have
the
ear'
of
the party leaders,
they can have an effect
on
which
backbenchers get pro
moted
to the
front bench
and
wh
ich do not. F
or
reason s such as this,
'rebe
llions'
among
a
gro
up
of
a party's MPs (in which they vote agai nst t
heir
party) are very rare.
Sometimes the
major
parties allow a
'free
vote'
,
whe
n MPs vote
ac
cor
ding to their own beliefs and not acco
rding
to
party
policy.
Some quite
importa
nt decisi
on
s, such as the
abolition
of
the
death
penalty and the decis
ion
to allow television
cam
eras into the
Comm
on
s, have been made in this way.
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II>
How
a bill
bec
om
es
a law
Before a
propo
sal for a new law starts
its progress
through
Parliament.
there will have been much discus-
sion. If
it is a gov
ernment
proposal.
Green and White Papers will
probably have been published.
explaining the ideas behind the pro-
posal. After this. lawyers draft the
proposal into a bill,
Most bills begin life in the House
of Commons, where they go
through a
number
of stages.
First
reading
This is a formal announcement only,
with no
debate
Second
reading
The
house
debates
the
general prin-
ciples of
the
billand, in
most
cases,
takes a vote.
+
, ~
Committee
stage
A
committee
of MPs examines
the
details of the billand votes on
amendments (changes)
to
parts
of it.
~"';
+
'
Report
stage
The
House considers the amend-
ments.
+
~-
Third
reading
The
amended billis debated as a
whole.
+
:-
_ -
The billis
sent
to the
House
of
lords,
where
it goes through
the
same stages . (Ifthe Lords make new
amendments, these will be consid-
ered
by the Commons.), _
+
~-
-
After both Houses have reached
agreement,
the
billreceives the
royal
assent
and becomes an Act
of Parliament which can be applied
as p'a
rt
of the law.
The party system in Parliam
ent
9S"
Tony
Blair,
Prim
e
Min
ister
from
'997, an
swering
qu
esti
ons
in the
H
ou
se
of C
omm
on
s
II>
Question
tim
e
This is the most well-attended, and
usually the noisiest. part of the
parliamentaryday For about an
hour
there is no sub ject for debate.
Instead. MPs arc allowed
to
ask
questions
of
government ministers.
In this way they can. in th
eor
y at
least. force the govern
ment
to make
certain facts public and to make its
intentions clear. Opposition MPs in
particul ar have an o
pportu
nity to
make government ministers look
incompetent or perhapsdishonest.
The questions and answers,
however, are not spontaneous.
Questions
to
ministers have to be
'tab
led' (written d
own
and placed
on the table below the Speaker's
chair) two days in advance, so that
ministers have time
to
prepare their
an
swer
s. In this way the govern-
ment
can usually avoid major
embarrassment. The trick, though, is
to ask an unexpected
'supplemen
-
tary' question. After the minister has
answered the tabled question, the
MP \
-ho originally tabled it is
all
owed
to
ask a furthe r question
relating
to
the minister's answer. In
this way,
it
is sometimes possible for
MPs
to
catch a minister unprepared.
Question time has been widely
copied around the world.
It is also
probably the aspect of Parliament
most well -kn
own
among the
general public. The vast majority
of
television
~e
ws
excerpts of Parlia-
ment
are taken from this period of
its day. Especially com
mon
is for the
new
s to show an excerpt from the
half
-hour
on Wednesdays
when
it is
the Prime Minister's (Urn to answer
questions.
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96
9 Parliam ent
Lords legal and spiritual
As well as life peers, there arc t
wo
other
kinds
of
peer in the House of
L
ord
s
who
do not have seats there by
hereditary right, but because
of
their position. First, there are the
t
wenty
-six bishops of the Church of
England. Second, there are the Lords
of
Appeal (
known
as the 'Law
Lords') , the twenty or so most senior
judges in the land . By tradition, the
House
of
Lords is the final court of
appeal in the coumry. In fact,
however, when the Lords acts in this
role, it is only the Law Lords
who
vote on the matter.
Reforming the House
of
Lords
In
1910
the Liberal gov
ernment
pro
-
posed heavy taxes on the rich. The
House
of
Lords rejected the pro-
posal. This rejection
went
agains t a
long-standing tradition that the
Hou se of Com
mons
had control
of
financial matters.
The government then asked the
king for an election and
won
it.
Again, it passed its tax
pro
posals
through the
Commons,
and
also a
bill limiting the
pow
er
of
the Lords.
Again, the Lords rejected
both
bills,
and again the government
won
an
oth
er electi
on
. It was a constitu-
tional crisis.
Wha t was to happen? Revolution?
No. Wha t
happened
was that the
king let it be k
nown
that if the Lords
rejected the same bills again, he
would appoint
hundreds
of new
peers w ho
would
vote for the bills -
enough for the government
to
have
a majority in the L
ord
s. So, in 191
I,
rather than have the prestige of their
House destroyed in this way, the
Lords agreed to both bills, including
the
one
that limited their
own
pow
ers. From that time, a bill whi ch
had been agreed in the C
omm
ons
for three years in a
row
could
become law
withou
t the agreement
of the Lords. This
period
of time was
further reduced in 1949.
The
Hou
se
of
Lords
A uni
qu
e feat
ure
of the British parliamentary system is its heredi tary
elem ent. Unlike MPs.
membe
rs
of
the House ofLords (k
no
wn as
'peers') are
no
t elected .They are
member
s as
of
right. In the case
of
some of t
hem,
this
'righ
t' is the result of their being the holder
of
an
inh
erited aristocratic title.The
Hou
se of Lords is ther
ef
or
e a
relic of earlier, u
nd
em
ocratic, t
ime
s. The fact that it still exists is
p
erh
aps typically British. It has been all
ow
ed to surv ive but it has
had
to c
hange
, losing
mo
st
of
its po
wer
and
altering its c
ompo
sition in
the process.
Tli
eHouse
ofLord
s (like the
mona
rchy) has little,
if
any, real
p
owe
r any
mor
e. Allpro
po
sals must have the agreement
of
the Lords
befo
rethey
can become law. But the power of the L
or
ds to refuse a
pr
opos
al for a law which has been agreed by the Co
mmo
ns is now
lim ited. After a period which can be as shaft as six mon ths the pro-
posal becomes law
anyw
ay,
wheth
er
or
not the Lords agree.
The
com
position
of
the Lords has changed since 1958, when it
became possible to a
war
d 'life peerages'
thro
ugh the
ho
nours system
(see chapter 7). Entitlem
ent
to sit in the Lords does not pass to the
children
of
l
if
e peers. The life peerage system has establis
hed
itselfas
a means
of
finding a place in public life for distinguished retired
politicians
who
nu
y no longer wish to be as busy as MPs in the
Co
mmon
s, but who still wish to voice their opinions in a public
forum. At the time
of
writing, four of the last five Pri
me
Ministers,
as well as about
.300
past
min
isters and other respected politicians,
have accepted the
of
fer
of
a life peerage. Political parti es are, in fact,
especially keen to send their
older
m
embe
rs
who
once belonged to
the leadership
of
the
par
ty to the House ofL
or
ds. It is a way of
rewarding th
em
with prestige while at the s
ame
t
ime
getting them
out
of
the way
of
the present party leaders in the
Comm
ons, where
th
eir
status and reputation mi ght
otherw
ise create trouble for party
unity. Informally, this practice has be
come
kno
wn
as being 'kicked
upstairs'. Asa resu lt of the life peerage system there are
mor
e than
.3
00
people in the Hou se of Lords who are
no
t aristocrats
and
who
have expertise in political life:In fact, as a result
of
recent refo
rm
s,
these
lif
e peers now
for
m a majority at its sittings.
The
mo
dern House
of
Lords is a foru m for
pub
lic discussion.
Because its
me
mbers do
not
d
epe
nd on party
po
litics for their posi-
tion, it is some times able to bring important matters that the
Commons has been ign oring into the open. More importantly, it is
the place where pr
opos
als for
new
laws are discussed in great detail -
much
1110
re detail t
han
the busy C
om
mo
ns has time for - and in this
way irregularities or inconsistencies in these
prop
osals can be
removed before they bec
ome
law. M
ore
im
po
rtant still, it is argued,
the Lords is a check on a government that, through its control
of
the
Commons, could
po
ssibly beco
me
too dictatorial. Few
peop
le in
politics are perfectly happy wi th the pres
ent
arr
ang
ement. Most
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. British
two
-party
system (see chapter
6).
There are no 'cro ss-
benches' for MPs w ho belong neither to the gov
erning
party nor the
main opposition party a
mo
re
and
m
ore
im
porta
nt part of t
he
bu siness of the
C
omm
ons,
The party system in Parlia
ment
Most div isions take place al
on
g party lines. MPs know