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THE PALACE OF WESTMINSTER

Britain is administered from the Palace of Westminster in London. This is also known as the Houses of Parliament. Parliament is made up of two chambers - the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

The House of Commons has 646 seats which are occupied byMembers of Parliament (MPs) who are elected by the British public. The United Kingdom is divided intoconstituencies, each of which has an elected MP in the House of Commons.

Each of the major political parties appoints a representative(candidate) to compete for each seat. Smaller parties may have a candidate in only a few constituencies, There may be five or more parties fighting for one seat, but only one person – the candidate who gets the greatest number ofvotes - can win. Some parties win a lot of seats and some win very few. or none at all.

TheQueen, who is the Head of State, opens and closes Parliament. All new laws are debated (discussed) by MPs in the Commons, then debated in the Lords, and finally signed by the Queen. All three are part of Parliament in Britain.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

There are 646 MPs in Britain, but the Chamber of the House of Commons is quite small; it has seats for only 437, so when there is something important to discuss it can become very crowded and MPs squeeze on to the benches or sit on the steps.

The House of Commons has a chairman, called theSpeaker, whose job is to keep the House in order, a little like a referee at a football match. He or she shouts 'Order! Order!' when MPs start shouting at each other, or when the discussion gets out of control. The Speaker sits in the centre at the back, on a chair, and can see the whole Chamber from this position. The office of Speaker is neutral, i.e. he or she is not a member of a political party.

There arered lines running along each side of the Chamber. This means that the Chamber is divided in two. Since Britain traditionally has two main political parties, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, each party can have its own side. The party which is in government (i.e. has the most MPs elected) sits on the right. The two red lines on the floor must not be crossed, to prevent either side attacking the other during a debate. MPs in Britain do not normally use physical violence, but the red lines are a historical tradition; in the past, MPs used to carry swords into the Chamber and the distance between the two lines is too wide for a sword fight!

The most important MPs sit on thefront benches and are therefore called frontbenchers. Younger and less experienced MPs sit on the back benches and are known as backbenchers. The ministers of theGovernment sit on the front bench to the right, whilst theOppositionfrontbenchers sit on the left. When the Prime Minister (the leader of the party in government) or any other leading politician makes a speech, they stand at thetable in the centre, below the Speaker's chair. These seating arrangements have existed for hundreds of years.


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1340


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