Civil List is the money paid to the Queen and some of the family members by the Parliament for their public duties.

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C. The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth of Nations is an association of sovereign states that have been ruled or are still being “ruled” by Britain.

Number of members: 54 countries (e.g. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, South Africa, Uganda, ect.)

Population: ~ 1.7 billion

Head: Queen Elizabeth II

Governing Body: the Commonwealth Secretariat, headed by a Secretary-General

Diplomatic representatives: High Commissioners

Meetings: Heads of Government meet every 2 years

Work: The main function of the association is to give needed consultations to the developing countries within the alliance, to promote cooperation between member states. The Secretariat promotes and organizes consultations, meetings and conferences. The meetings of the Heads of Government are usually held in private, in an informal setting. The decisions on the matters are formulated in a special document issued after the meeting.

Commonwealth Day: 2^nd Monday in March

Topic: The British Parliament

A. Parliament and Legislative Proceedings

Official Residence: Westminster Palace known as the Houses of Parliament

Elections: every 5 years

Sessions: The life of the Parliament is divided into sessions, each lasting for a year, beginning in October and November. The average number of sitting days for each house differs. Thus, for the HofC – 175 days, divided into periods:

November till Christmas (~40 days);

January to Easter (~50 days);

Beg. of June till late July/early August (40-50 days);

For the HofL the average is 140 days.

The periods when the Parliament isn’t sitting are known as adjournments (‘recesses’).

NB! The State Opening of Parliament is an official ceremony that marks the beginning of the Parliamentary session. It’s usually held in November. It’s an event when the Queen delivers her Speech in presence of both Houses. For this occasion the MPs from the HofC are asked into the HofL by a special person the ‘Usher of the Black Rod’. The Speech contains the government’s policies and legislative programme for the session. After that the Speech is debated.

Structure and Functions of Parliament:

NB! The Speaker is the chief officer of the HofC. There no special requirements for him/her to be a member of governing party. He is elected at the beginning of each session. When elected he/she had to abandon the party.

There is a tradition of “forcefully dragging of the Speaker” to his seat (in the middle of the chamber). This tradition goes back to the times when the position wasn’t popular, as he was the ones to pass the decisions of the Government onto the monarch. Well, the consequences might have been unpredictable.

Functions of the Speaker:

Á Preside over the House, watching the observance of the rules

Á Represent the House in its relations with the Crown, the HofL and other authorities

Á Direct the voting and announce its result to the House

Catching the Speaker's eye To participate in a debate in the House of Commons or at question time, MPs have to be called by the Speaker. MPs usually rise or half-rise from their seats in a bid to get the Speaker's attention - this is known as 'catching the Speaker's eye'.

Question Time – is a period of time from 2.30 to 3.30 pm each afternoon from Monday till Thursday MPs may question any minister and the PM on their work. The questions and answers are not spontaneous. The questions have to be ‘tabled’ (written down and placed on the table below the Speaker’s Chair) two days in advance, so that the ministers can prepare the answers.

NB! The Lord Chancellor is the chief officer of the HofL. He sits on a special seat called Woolsack. His main function is to preside over the House, but he can’t control the debates.

In the Lords, the House questions government ministers at the start of each day's business, but there are no set days for government departments.

The Woolsack is a symbol surviving from the 14^th century. It is a seat stuffed with wool on which the Lord Chancellor sits. Wool used to be England’s traditional source of wealth. Nowadays it is stuffed with wool from several countries of the Commonwealth to symbolize unity.

Passing a bill:

Bills (projects of a law) can be introduced in both houses, but the HofL has got some limitations. The laws dealing with taxation and finance cannot be introduced there. Actually there exist 2 types of bills: public and private. The public ones are related to the public policy and introduced by a Government minister or a private member, while the private ones deal with the matters of individual, corporate or local interest and introduced by a member of either House who isn’t from the Government.

Select committees examine some aspects of administration and report their results to the House.

Standing committees of the HofC examine public bills at the committee stage and smts at the second reading and report stage.

Joint committees include members from both Houses and consider a particular issue or a particular Bill or all Bills of a particular description, besides the proposal should come from the House where the Bill was introduced.

B. General Elections and Political Parties

The General Elections are held every 5 years and select members to the HofC. The UK is divided into 646 electoral districts (‘constituencies’) of about equal population (~60,000). Each district elects one member of the HofC. Voting is usually held on the same day in all constituencies (usu. Thursday). Voting stations are opened from 7am till 9pm. The election is by secret ballot (тайное голосование). The citizen is eligible to vote since 18 years.

The simple majority electoral system is a practice of choosing a candidate, who wins the most votes even if he doesn’t get as many as the combined votes of other candidates. This system is often being criticized for being unfair because smaller parties can’t send their candidate to the House.

There are many parties in the UK, but during the elections the main struggle is between 3 of them.

Topic: The British Government

A. The Prime Minister

Current PM: David Cameron (Conservative Party)

NB! The previous PM, Gordon Brown, was greatly criticized for his policy. Before him was Anthony Blair, who has served 2 terms. The most well known PM of the UK are Winston Churchill (PM during WWII) and Margaret Thatcher (the only female PM in the UK, nicknamed “The Iron Lady” for her tough policy and measures taken during the severe economic crises in the country).

Official Residence: No. 10 Downing Street + official country residence to the west of London

The PM is a leader of the majority party in Parliament chosen by the Queen. He is the leader of the executive branch, yet at the same time an active member of legislation.

By tradition the PM is the First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. He always sits in the HofC.

B. The Cabinet and the Shadow Cabinet

The Cabinet is a conventional organ of the Government composed of 20 most important ministers (Secretary of State for Home Department, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Secretary of State for Defence, etc.).

Meetings: for 2 hours once or twice a week during parliamentary sessions at PM’s residence

The Cabinet Reshuffle – is the practice of the PM to change his/her Cabinet. A few cabinet members are dropped and a few new members are brought in. But mostly the existing members are shuffled around, each getting a department to look after.

The Cabinet Office – is an organization within the Cabinet, which coordinates the work of the network, ministers and some committees, draws agendas for the cabinet meetings.

Cabinet Committees – are groups of experts (not necessarily politicians) appointed by the cabinet to look into various matters in more detail.

The Shadow Cabinet – is a coalition formed by the minority party members (the Opposition) soon after the elections. Its main function is to monitor the work of the Government for any faults.

The Privy Council – is a body of a hundred or more people directly responsible to the monarch (but not to each other). It used to be very influential, but nowadays is a merely ceremonial organization with no power, composed of all important present ministers and the most important past ones.

C. Local Government

Unlike the USA or Canada the local authorities (“councils”) only have powers because the central government has given them powers. The system of local government is essentially the same as the national one. There are elected representatives (“counselors”) that meet at the Town or County Hall where they make policy implemented by local government officers. Local councils usually manage nearly all public services and employ three times as many members as the national does. Local councils are partially paid by the central government and some income comes from taxation.

Actually they can take only one kind of tax, based on property. It’s called “council tax”, based on the estimated value of property and the number of people living in it. The local councils are also responsible for the provision of numerous services (libraries, swimming pools, parks, cleaning of streets, etc.). They usually do it in advance on payment.

But there is a tendency for greater control of the local councils by the central government even though some attempts are being made to achieve the balance of local and central powers.

The Final Scheme