British Parliament: An insight.
A quick look into the Houses and the Membership.
With an extra look into the way the Scottish Parliament works.
By Ciaran Sneddon
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the democratically elected house of the UK
parliament, which is responsible for making laws and checking the work of
the Government.
How are the MPs Elected?
The British Political party system is based on groups of politicians with similar
ideas and views on how our country should be run. The party’s’ aim is to get as
many of their candidates as possible to be elected into political power.
Each of the UK’s 646 constituencies votes for a candidate to represent them in
Parliament. The candidate with the largest number of votes in each constituency
is elected as an MP. The leader of the party that wins the most seats is asked, by
the sovereign, to form Government. The party with the second largest number of
votes forms the official opposition with its own leader and ‘shadow cabinet’.
Did you know?
The only ever Prime Minister to be
assassinated was Spencer Perceval
who was shot in the lobby of the
House of Commons on 11 May
1812.
This is a map showing the UK’s constituencies.
Parties The Labour Party
The Conservative Party
In the United Kingdom, there are over 250
The Liberal Democrats
political parties, and yet only 13 parties
The Scottish National Party (SNP)
have members in the Houses of Commons
Plaid Cymru – The party of Wales
or Lords. These parties are:
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
Sinn Féin
Social Democratic and Labour Party
Ulster Unionist Party
Respect
UK independence party (UKIP)
Independence Labour
Independence Conservative
What do MPs do?
The UK public elects their MP to represent their interests and concerns in the House of
Commons. MPs are involved in proposing and considering new laws, and can use their
position to ask government ministers about current issues. When parliament is sitting, MPs
mostly spend their time in the House of Commons. Here, they can raise issues affecting their
constituents, attend debates and vote on new laws.
Prime Ministers and Governing Parties.
The system of political parties has been around since at least the 1700s. Britain’s first Prime
Minister was Sir Robert Walpole who served from 1721-1742.
The graph below shows the number of times that Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal
Democrats have been in Government. It also shows the number of Hung Parliaments* (see
below).
Did you know?
Number of times that The First Woman elected to the
Political parties have been House of Commons was Countess
in power since 1900. Constance Markievicz in 1918.
12
Did you know?
8
4 Members of Parliament were first
2
paid a salary in 1911. It was set at
£400. On 1st November 2007 the
Conservatives Labour Lib. Democrats Hung
salary of MPs was £61,820.
In the last 65 years, only Labour and Conservative have held power. The Highest electorate
turnout at a general election was 86.8% in 1910.
*Hung Parliament is where there is no majority winner, so two parties form the Government
Today’s Government.
Labour stands for “Fairness, fair rules, fair chances and a fair say for everyone.” Clause IV of
their constitution states “The labour party is a democratic socialist party”
It believes that by “the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we
achieve alone, so as to create for each us the means to realise our true potential and for all of
us a community I which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of many and not
few.”
House of Lords.
The House of Lords makes laws, holds the Government to account,
investigates policy issues and provides a forum of independent expertise.
Members
As of October 2009, there are 724 Lords in the House of Lords, 78 more than the
646-seat House of Commons.
Membership of the House was once a right of birth to hereditary peers, Did you know?
but following a series of reforms, these now only form a portion of the
Membership. The average age of
members of the House of
Members in the House of Lords currently belong to: Lords is 68 years old.
Labour Party
Conservative Party Did you know?
Cross-benchers
Liberal Democrats The largest constituency is Ross,
Lords Spiritual Skye and Lochaber – which
United Kingdom Independence party (UKIP) measures 12,000 square kilometres.
In contrast, the smallest
There are also 11 non-affiliated peers. constituency, Islington North,
measures only 727 hectares.
What do they do?
The Lords debate legislation, and has some power to amend or reject bills. However, the
Lord’s power to reject a bill passed by the House of Commons is severely restricted by the
parliament acts. Under those acts, certain bill types may be presented for Royal Assent
without the House of Lord’s consent. In other words, the Commons can override the Lord’s
Veto.
The House of Lords may also not delay a money bill for more than one month.
Did you know?
The longest ever debate in one
sitting in the House of Commons
lasted for 41 hours and 30 minutes.
The debate started at 4pm on 31
January 1881, and didn’t finish until
9.30am on 2 February 1881!
The Scottish Parliament.
As well as Westminster Palace, there are three other parliamentary buildings
in the UK. One of these is the Scottish Parliament which has the power to
make laws for Scotland and change the way Scotland is governed.
The building is estimated to have cost £414 million pounds to build, but it is a vital part of
the UK’s parliamentary system.
What does the Scottish Parliament do?
The Scottish Parliament ensures that the Scottish Executive makes fair laws. The
Executive is made up of MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament) from the party
or parties who have won the most seats in parliament. They decide the laws on
Scottish Schools, Hospitals, the Police, Transport, Sport, the Environment and
Gaelic.
What is the difference between MSPs and MPs from Scotland?
As well as being represented at the British Parliament by MPs, Scottish
Constituencies are represented at the Scottish Parliament by MSPs. The MPs from
Scotland cover issues such as Defence, Foreign Affairs, National Security and
Employment, and other things that the Scottish Parliament cannot make laws
on.
How MSPs are elected to the Scottish Parliament
Elections are held every four years. In each election, everyone who is eligible to vote
has two votes, one to elect a local MSP for their constituency, and another to vote
for their region.
The Constituency Vote
The constituency vote is used to elect a single person to represent a constituency
in Scottish Parliament. There are 73 constituencies in Scotland, so naturally there
are 73 MSPs elected in this way. In a general election for the British Parliament,
the number of constituencies goes down to 59.
The Regional Vote
In the Regional vote, you do not vote for a single person, but for an entire party.
7 MSPs are then elected from 8 regions across Scotland (West of Scotland,
Lothians,
South Scotland, Central Scotland, Mid Scotland and Fife, Glasgow, North East
Scotland and Highlands and Islands). Political parties make a list of people for
each region, and then a formula is used to work out how many MSPs each party
gets. This is based on the number of votes each party has received. Each party
then takes that number of MSPS of their list e.g. Labour win 3 regional places so
the first three people on their list become MSPs. There are 56 MSPs elected in this
way.
I hope you have found this insight helpful and educational and have
hopefully increased your knowledge of the parliamentary system of Scotland
and the UK parliament.