B)The UK Political System.

Words and expressions

1. 3 branches of a power

2. chamber

3. to be elected

4. constituencies

5. a voter (to vote)

6. to make laws

7. the Royal Assent

8. the bill becomes law.

9. to be responsible for

10. no written constitution

11. hereditary sovereign

12. to dissolve

13. no clear majority

14. reigns but does not rule

Great Britain is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, as head of State. There are 3 branches of a power in the UK: the legislative, the executive and the judicial.

The legislative, Parliament, consists of 2 chambers – the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The members of the House of Lords are not elected; they are hereditary peers, spiritual peers and life peers. The members of the House of Commons are elected by the people every 5 years. It is the real governing body of the UK. The main function of Parliament is to make laws.

The executive consists of the central Government – that is the Prime Minister and Cabinet and other ministers, who are responsible for initiating and directing the national policy, government departments, local authorities and public corporations. The government is usually formed by the political party, which is supported by the majority in the House of Commons. The party’s leader is appointed Prime Minister by the Queen. He chooses a team of ministers and 20 of them are in his Cabinet. The second largest party becomes the Official Opposition with its own leader and “Shadow Cabinet”. The executive power is divided into 3 parts: the Privy Council, the Ministry and Government Departments. The functions of the Prime Minister are: leading the party, running the Government, appointing Cabinet of Ministers and other ministers, representing the nation in political matters. All the ministers must be members of Parliament. (Tony Blair, the Labour Party).

The judicial branch determines common law and interprets statutes and is independent of both the legislature and the executive.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchyand it means that the government is by a hereditary sovereign, but the powers of the monarch are limited by the country’s constitution. In theory the constitution safeguards the separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. In Great Britain there is no written constitution, only customs, traditions and precedents.

The sovereign has the title of King (or Queen). The Queen is Elizabeth II.

She is the official Head of State and a symbol of the nation.

The division of powers:

Legislature

Executive

Judiciary

Parliament.

Words and expressions

1. the House of Commons and the House of Lords

2. the Lords Temporal and the Lords Spiritual

3. senior bishops

4. to be appointed by

5. life peers

6. must be approved

7. providing money through taxation

Parliament of the UK is the supreme legislative authority and it has two parts: The House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Members of the House of Commons are elected by the voters of 650 constituencies every five years. They are known as MPs, or Members of Parliament. The chief officer of the House of Commons is the Speaker.

Members of the House of Lords are not elected. The House of Lords consists of the Lords Temporal and the Lords Spiritual. The Lords Spiritual are the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, together with twenty-four senior bishops of the Church of England. The Lords Temporal consist of hereditary peers who have inherited their titles; life peers who are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Government for various services to the nation; and the Lords of Appeal who become life peers on their judicial appointments. The House is presided over by the Lord Chancellor, who sits on the woolsack and controls the procedure.

The main function of Parliament is to make laws. In order to become a law, a new bill must be approved by both houses of Parliament and must get the Royal Assent, the Queen must sign it and the bill becomes law.

There are some other functions of British Parliament, such as: debating political questions, examining government policy, and providing money through taxation. Every year Parliament passes about a hundred laws directly, by making Acts of Parliament