3. Government

The British Parliamentary system depends on political parties. Most members of the government comprise representatives of the party which wins a majority of the seats in the House of Commons at a general election. The leader of the majority party becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister forms the government which usually consists of 60 or 70 ministers. Each minister is responsible for a particular area in the government. From these 60 or 70 ministers the Prime Minister chooses a small group of 20 representatives. This group i9s called the Cabinet of Ministers or just the Cabinet. The Cabinet is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Cabinet Ministers are the holders of the most important offices, for example, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Health.

The Cabinet defines the main trends of the British Government policy. The Cabinet works under the head of the Prime Minister. Frequent Cabinet meetings take place in the Prime Minister’s residence of (10, Downing Street). The power of the Cabinet is controlled by Parliament, for no bill which a minister prepares can become law until it is passed by an Act of Parliament.

4. House of Commons

The House of Commons comprises 650 elected members, who are known as Members of Parliament (MPs). Members of the Parliament are the representatives of local communities. At a general election held every five years, ordinary people elect one person from their constituency to be their Member of Parliament. That is why Lower Chamber of Parliament is called the House of Commons. The House of Commons hold sessions which last for 160-170 days. MPs are paid for their parliamentary work and they have to attend the sittings.

The House of Commons is presided by the Speaker. The speaker is elected by the House of Commons. Although the Speaker belongs to one of the parties he has to be unprejudiced. His function is to keep order. He controls who speaks and for how long. The speaker wears a long wig and sits in the Speaker’s Chair in the Hall of the House of Commons.

Speaker’s Chair stands at the North end. In front of it there stands the Table of the House which is occupied by the Clerk of the House and two Clerk assistants. There are benches for the Government and its supporters to the right of the Speaker. To the left of the Speaker there are benches occupied by the Opposition. There are also Cross benches at the South end of the Hall which is occupied by the members of any other parties. The front bench of the Government is called the Treasury Bench and used by the Prime Minister and other ministers. The front benches of the Opposition are occupied by its leaders. Those who sit on the front benches of both parties are called front benchers. The back benches belong to the rank-and-file MPs (back benchers).

The House of Commons plays the major part in law making. A Bill may be introduced by any MP, in practice it is generally introduced by a Minister. In order to become a law a bill has to go through three stages of reading in the House of Commons, then have the Agreement of the House of Lords and the Royal assent.

The first reading is just publication and distribution of the proposal among the MPs. There is no debate or discussion. The second reading includes debate, discussion and criticizing. The Speaker asks the House to vote. If bill passes the second reading it goes to a committee. The third reading is called a report stage. The Bill is discussed in detail and many alterations may be made. Then the Speaker receives the report of the Committee and asks the House to vote again. If the Bill gets a majority vote, it goes to the House of Lords.