Сочинения по Великобритании.


                           The British Parliament

The British Parliament is the oldest in the world. It  originated in the
12th century as Witenagemot, the body of  wise  councellers whom the King
needed to consult pursuing his policy. The  British Parliament consists of
the  House  of  Lords  and  the  House  of Commons and the Queen as its
head. The House of Commons plays the major role in law-making. It consists
of  Members  of  Parliament (called MPs for short).  Each  of  them
represents  an  area  in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. MPs are
elected either at a general election or at  a  by-election  following  the
death  or retirement. Parliamentary elections are held every 5 years and it
is the Prime Minister  who  decides  on  the  exact  day  of  the election.
The minimum voting age is 18. And the voting  is  taken by secret ballot.
The election campaign lasts about 3 weeks,  The British parliamentary
system depends on politicals  parties.  The party which wins the majority
of seats forms  the  goverment  and its leader usually becomes Prime
Minister.  The  Prime  Minister chooses about 20 MPs from his party  to
become  the  cabinet  of ministers. Each minister is responsible for a
particular area  in the goverment. The second  largest  party  becomes  the
 official opposition with its own leader and "shadow cabinet".  The  leader
of the opposition is a recognized post in the House  of  Commons. The
parliament and  the  monarch  have  different  roles  in  the goverment and
they only meet together on symbolic occasions, such as coronation of a new
monarch or the opening of the  parliament. In reality, the House of Commons
is the one of  three  which  has true power. The House of Commons is made
up of  six  hundred  and fifty elected members, it is presided  over  by
the  speaker,  a member acceptable to the whole house. MPs sit on two sides
of the hall, one side for the governing party  and  the  other  for  the
opposition. The first 2 rows of seats are occupied by the leading members
of both parties (called "front benches") The back benches belong to the
rank-and-life MPs. Each session  of  the  House  of
Commons lasts for 160-175 days. Parliament has  intervals  during his work.
MPs are paid for their parliamentary work and  have  to attend the
sittings. As mention above, the House of Commons plays the major role in
law making. The procedure is the  following:  a proposed law ("a bill") has
to go through three stages  in  order to become an act of parliament, these
are called "readings".  The first reading is a formality and is simply the
publication of the proposal. The second reading involves debate on the
principles of the bill, it is examination by parliamentary  committy.  And
the third reading is a report stage, when the work of the committy is
reported on to the house. This  is  usually  the  most  important stage in
the process. When the bill passes through the  House  of Commons, it is
sent to the House of Lords  for  discussion,  when the Lords agree it, the
bill is taken  to  the  Queen  for  royal assent, when the Queen sings the
bill,  it  becomes  act  of  the Parliament and the Law of the Land. The
House of Lords  has  more than 1000 members, although only about 250 take
an active part in the work in the house.  Members  of  this  Upper  House
are  not elected, they sit there because of their rank,  the  chairman  of
the House of Lords is the Lord  Chancellor.  And  he  sits  on  a special
seat, called "WoolSack" The members of the House of Lords debate the bill
after it has been passed by the House of Commons. Some changes may be
recommended and the agreement between the two houses is reached by
negotiations.

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