The
House of Commons and the House of Lords
The British system of government consists of the monarch -
nowadays this is Queen Elizabeth II - the government and
Parliament, which consists of two chambers: the House of
Lords (Upper House) and the House of Commons (Lower House).
The
House of Lords is formed by about 1 100 members, the number
isn't fixed. Many members are politically conservative and
divided into three groups: the Lords Spiritual (archbishops
and bishops), the Lords Temporal and the Law Lords. The
Lords Temporal are splitted up again: There are the Life
Peers, who are appointed by the Queen, and the Hereditary
Peers, who inherited their position.
The Lord Chancellor is the head of Britain's judiciary.
Together with the Law Lords he's the third and final
instance, the highest court of appeal. He's also a Cabinet
Minister.
The 651 Members of Parliament, called MPs, who represent
the same number of constituencies, form the House of
Commons. The MPs are elected by all men and women over 18
years who are eligible to vote. After five years,
Parliament is dissolved and new elections take place.
"The members with the most influence in the House of
Commons are the Prime Minister, the Speaker and the Leader
of the Opposition"1.
The Prime Minister, at the moment Tony Blair, is appointed
by the monarch. Normally he's the leader of the strongest
party in the House of Commons and the head of government.
He chooses the Cabinet Ministers out of the MPs of the
Lower House. This is why the government is part of the
House of Commons, its equivalent is the Shadow Cabinet with
the Leader of the opposition as the most important
position. The House of Commons passes bills which have to
be signed by the monarch before they become laws. The House
of Lords checks the bills before they are signed. It has
the possibility to modify them.
To sum up its functions, Parliament "pass[es] laws,
control[s the] government [... and] debate[s] controversial
political topics"2
in
general.
A
question which is often discussed is, whether the House of
Lords is up to date anymore.
People who are in favour of the House of Lords argue, that
it functions as a moderator, because it can "make
amendments to a bill and return it to the [House of]
Commons"2
which
has to go over them again before they can be signed. Except
money bills, the Lords can also "delay bills for a
year"2
if there
isn't an agreement between the Lords and the Commons.
Third, it can "initiate non-controversial
bills"2.
These points show, that the Upper House "is of great value
as a revising chamber"2
that
controls its equivalent. An other often-mentioned argument
is, that "in certain circumstances, the Lords can be a more
effective opposition to the government than the House of
Commons"2,
because the Cabinet is part of the Lower House and the
House of Lords can "inflict[ing] defeats on the
government"2,
which is dominated by the Cabinet.
The opponents of the House of Lords reply, that it doesn't
"represent the electorate"2
and
therefore it's "out of place in a
democracy"2.
Because "most of the Lords are members by [inheritance and]
not by merit"2,
some people argue, that the Upper House "preserves class
distinction"2.
And, an other point which is often mentioned: Many Lords
have a too conservative attitude.
To
sum up the functions of the Parliament one could say that
there are positive and negative arguments. But in Britain
the system with two Houses seems to work.
1: "Words in context -Thematischer Oberstufenwortschatz",
Bernhard Knop und
Corienne Naumann - Breeze, Ernst Klett Schulbuchverlag
GmbH, Stuttgart 1991,
2. Auflage, Seite 8
2: "Abiturwissen Landeskunde Great Britain, United States
of America", Ekkehard
Spann, Klett, Verlag für Wissen und Bildung, Stuttgart
1996, 7. Auflage, Seite 9 f.