Parliament-Key Topic 2

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  • Created by: 11rsims
  • Created on: 06-06-17 12:36
What was the composition of the house of commons like in 2010?
commons had 650 seats which was 4 more than years previous as broundary commisions had been reworked, C had 306 seats, L had 258, LD had 57
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Does the composition of MP's reflect the pouplaition?
youngest MP in 2010 election was 25 year old Pamela Nash, the average age of MP's was 50,2010=22% were women increasing from 19% in 2005, in 2010 only 4% of MP's were ethnic minorities
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Is resemblance in the house of commons important?
YES=MP's will be able to understand issues facing minorities better, minorities will have more faith in the legislature NO=some constituent will always be represented by people who are unlike them, a good MP will represent well no matter what
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What is the composition of the lords like?
before the 1999 Lords reform act C had 471 peers and L had 179, critics stated that many of these peers attended only to block radical legislation, so there was an appointment of large numbers of L peers
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How did New Labour appoint peers?
Usually the monarch that picks life peerages but PM has free reigh but is bound by convention to pick members from other parties,rapid increase of labour peers was called "cronyism" which was attempted to be solved by peoples peers
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how can you use your power to appoint peers?
power to appoint peers can be used to= bring people in to cabinet without a comons by-election, getting rid of troublesome backbenchers, a reward for political service
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What are the roles and function of parliament?
represent constituents,legislation is passed through both chambers but can be enacted through the parliament act,scrutinise the gov, legitimise, provide a recruting pool which members of the Gov are drawn from
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what are the different types of bill?
public bills effect the entire population, government bills seeks to fufill manifesto commitments, private members bills are introduced by an MP but barely succeed without gov support (1967 abortion act)
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What is the normal passage of legislation?
first reading (formal introduction),second readin (principle of bills outlined,debate), third readin (passed or rejected), house of lords (same process of the commons, send the bill back to the commons) Royal assent
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How can you short cut the legislative process?
Whip ensures speedy passage, limit time for commons debate, make concessions to backbenchers,threaten the use of parliament act, 2005=prevention of terrorism bill longest day in parliament (28 hours)
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What are the parliament acts of 1911 and 1949?
1911=came from the lords attempts to block the 1909 budget,replaced the lords right to veto bills with the right to delay bills for two years, 1949=reduced the power of delay to 1 parliamentry session (only used on 4 occassions)
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What is the salisbury doctorine?
1945the lords should not oppose bills at a second reading where the government had established a clear electoral mandate, this provides real checks on the lords but the lords can still hold Gov to account
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What is the first stage of lords reform?
upper chamber had 759 hereditary peers, the 1997 manifesto and house of lords act 1999 wanted to remove the right of hereditary peers to vote-weatherhill amendment allowed 92 herediataries to stay in transitional house
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what is the second stage of lords reform?
Labours 2001 white paper proposed a second chamber consisting of 600 members, 20% of whom were elected, opposition party wanted 80% elected commons was presented with 8 models, all of them were rejected in 2003
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what were the highlights of the 2005 Labour general election manifesto?
house of commons to retain its primacy of legislation, upper chamber split 50:50 between appointed an elected members for a fixed term, elections to be held on a partially open regional list system, a chamber where no single party has a majority
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Why is it hard to introduce the second stage of lords reform?
they had no clear idea where it was leading, there is no real consensus about the best way foward, no general sense that the transitional chamber has performed its functions well
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What are commons committees?
play an important role in scrutinising legislature and holding the givernment to account,however congressional committeeshave better resources and additional power to command that evidence is made available and witnesses are brought forward
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what are standing committees?
they are ad hoc, formed to consider specific pieces of legislation and disband when work is complete, they have 15-25 members reflecting the composition of the house, they are passed to this committee after the second reading an consider each clause
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what are select committees?
play a vital role in holding the gov to account, departmental committees scrutinise the work of specific departmental committees, Public accounts committee makes departments accountable for their spending
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What are PMQ's?
evry wednesday for 30 minutes instead of 15 min slots of Tue and Thu, allows backbenchers and opposition party to raise issues that concern constituents, this is more theatrical
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What is the vote of no-confidence?
a formal vote taken in the commons in response to the tabling of the motion that the commons has no confidence in the gov of the day (more likely to occur in a minority gov)- 1979 vote of no cofidence in callaghans Government
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what are early day motions and topical debates?
calls for commons to debate on named issues, MPs can propise to raise concerns with Giv, little time for these issues to be debated formally but they do allow another way for constituents to express their views,opposition parties have time to debate
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what is the commons liason committee?
They do not have the ablity to force witnesses before them but Blair did agree to appear before the committee twice a year, they provide a genuine oppurtunity for MP's to question PM
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What is a frontbencher?
they hold seniour positions, spokesperson of other parties or shadow ministers of official opposition, they occupy the front benches of the commons, they are heavily involved in minsters questions, PMQ's or introducing and debating policy
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What is the official opposition?
the party that secures the second highest number of seats, shadow cabinet is drawn from the leading figures of that parties front bench, they are given £6 million to hold the gov of the day to account, it has 20 opposition days (choose debate topic)
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Who are backbenchers?
refers to MP's that sit on the backbench, do not hold the same responsibility as frontbenches, so they have more time to focus on representing consituents
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what is the four roles of an MP?
representing the interest of constituents, maintaining loyalty to a party, holding gov to account, they are a legislator and have the power to kill legislation
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What is the rise of Career politicians?
MP's today will serve for a much longer time of 15 or 20 years as pay has become better (£65,000), working hours have become more sociable, many MP's work in comfortable offices
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What is the role and influence of party whips?
whips ensure that gov maintains a majority of votes in parliament, they can offer promotion or threats of a backbench, whips ulimate sanction is to remove a whip from an mp which leads them vulnerable to deselection of a constituency (8 in 1994)
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What can an MP do if they dont like a party whip?
resign the whip or cross the floor to join another party by taking that parties whip, this can happen without re-election as people vote for the candidate not the party
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Card 2

Front

Does the composition of MP's reflect the pouplaition?

Back

youngest MP in 2010 election was 25 year old Pamela Nash, the average age of MP's was 50,2010=22% were women increasing from 19% in 2005, in 2010 only 4% of MP's were ethnic minorities

Card 3

Front

Is resemblance in the house of commons important?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What is the composition of the lords like?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

How did New Labour appoint peers?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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