Parliament

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What is the structure of Parliament?
Queen in Parliament
House of Commons - the Lower house
House of Lords - the upper house
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What does the Queen do?
Conducts the ceremonial state opening of Parliament
Deliver her annual speech in the House of Lords
This sets out the proposed legislation of the Government
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What does the Royal Assent do?
The monarch is required to provide her signature for all Acts of Parliament
In 1708 Queen Anne refused to sign the Scottish Militia Bill
The Bill became an Act of Parliament in any event
No monarch has refused since
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What happens in the House of Commons?
650 MPs
Each MP represents a constituency and is elected by their constituents to office under the FPTP electoral system
Number of parties are represented in Parliament, the party that gets the majority of seats forms the Government, some MPs will have du
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What are the MPs?
MPs may be front benchers or back benchers, front benchers are either members of the cabinet or members of the shadown cabinet, back benchers consist of all other MPs, MPs recieve an annual salary of £81,932
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What happened following 2019 election?
220 female MPs, 442 male MPs
45 MPs define themselves as being LGBT
65 MPs of ethnic minority
The youngest MP is Mhairi Black, Scottish National Party MP for Pailsey and Renfrewshire South ages 20 when elected in May 2015
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What is about women in the Commons firsts?
The first women to be elected and to take her seat was Viscountess Nancy Astor in 1919

Margaret Bondfield - first women minister appointed under secretary in the Ministry of labour in 1924
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What is the speakers role?
the speakers role is to oversee the debates, select speakers and arrange business of the House with party leaders
Speaker is senior MP elected by the house
expected to be neutral and therefore must be prepared to retire form party politics
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What are appointments?
Members of the house of lords are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister
Non party political members are recommended by an independant body, the House of Lords Appointments Commission
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What may a party nominate?
may nominate life peers each year to replace those who have died

may nominate new peers in proportion to their representation in the Commons

Most nominations are retired politicians
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What happens with life peer appointments - non political?
A number of life peers with no political allegiance are nominated each year to become cross benchers for their life achievements

these cross benchers can be nominated by anyone - normally this is through existing peers
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What are hereditary peers?
Membership of the Lords is linked to parentage
The first born son to a hereditary peer will inherit the title
House of Lords Act 1999 reduced the number of hereditary peers to max 92
Prior to this hereditary peers dominated the HofL
if one of 92 dies othe
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What do the bishops and archbishops do?
only represent the Church of England
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What do law lords do?
could sit in the HofL until 2009, infringed the Seperation of Powers, members of judiciary had dual function of being part of legislature, constitutional reform act 2005 made provision for new SC to replace HofL, could no longer sit in the HofL, many memb
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What is the government prevented from doing?
is prevented from enjoying the absolute majority
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What do peers with part allegiance have compared to MPs?
party allegiance have more independance then MPs
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What do peers have?
have a wider variety of experience and represent a wide range of interests
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Who are strongly represented?
The Church of England, legal professsion and judiciary
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What is the greater significance of the lords?
greater legitimacy since reduction of hereditary peers, lack of power of MPs in opposition parties, government enjoyed majorities of over 100 seats but this meant opposition was weak, lack of electoral mandate during the coalition, lords contains many law
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What does the Queen do?

Back

Conducts the ceremonial state opening of Parliament
Deliver her annual speech in the House of Lords
This sets out the proposed legislation of the Government

Card 3

Front

What does the Royal Assent do?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What happens in the House of Commons?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What are the MPs?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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