Government and politics
The U.K. is a constitutional monarchy, a member nation of European
Union and one of the independent members of Commonwealth.
The British Constitution is not contained in
one single document therefore Britain
have not a written Constitution. It is formed partly
by statute law, partly by common law and partly by convention, it can be
al 919i85j tered.
The Monarchy is the most
secular institution in the country, going back at least to 9th
century. For several centuries the monarch personally exercised supreme
legislative, executive and judicial power.
Today the British sovereign(
Queen Elisabeth II since 1952) reign but she has not real powers, the
only body with power to make laws is Parliament.
Parliament is the supreme legislative
authority* which main functions are to pass law, vote taxation
and control of Government. A Parliament has a maximum duration of five years.
It consists of three bodies:
- The Queen, which summons and
dissolves Parliament, appoints Prime Minister and gives royal assent by
signing all laws before they can take effect;(she also appoints judges,
she is the temporal Head of the Church of England, the commander in chief
of all armed forces and in international affaires she has the function of
Head of State and Head of Commonwealth… For British people she is the
symbol of their nation’s unity).
- The House of Lords
- The House of Commons
The House of Lords is made up
of hereditary peers, life peers, judges of High Courts in office, the two
Anglican Archbishops and other bishops.
The House of Lords is
presided over by the Lord Chancellor. He is the chief judge
because the House of Lords also has function of acting as the supreme court of
appeal.
The House of Lords has very limited powers. It debates the Bills which
have been passed by the House of Commons, but it cannot reject them or
introduce new legislation.
The House of Commons is
elected by universal adult suffrage and consists of 650 members of Parliament(MPs).
The president of the House of Commons is
the Speaker, elected by MPs to preside over the House.
The MP cannot sit anywhere he
likes. If his party is government party he must sit on the right side of the
house; if he doesn’t belong to the government party he must sit opposite, on
the left side.
Only Minister can sit on the front seat,
called a “bench”. All other members, who are not ministers, sit on
the back benchers, and are called “backbenchers”.
All legislation and major bills are always
presented first to the House of Commons, the Lords
only have power to delay a bill if no agreement is reached between the two
Houses.
*The centre of executive power
is Government which responsible for the administration of public affairs.
*The judicial power is
exercised by the Law Courts which determines common laws and interprets
statutes. It is therefore concerned with the administration of justice and it is independent of
both the legislature(Parliament) and executive branch(Government).
