Class Notes - Feb 12

The House of Lords: The House of Lords is the older of the two houses parliament – (Discuss Bicameral) Second chambers of the House has a two advantages – it provides a forum for discussion and reconsideration of Bills that go through the first house, as well as a provides for a diffusion of the concentration of powers within parliament- even though this is somewhat limited in the UK system. It typically plays a vital role in the revision of legislation which has passed through the lower house. In the UK system, an upper house is particularly relevant where the lower house is dominated by a single party, an upper chamber becomes important for providing a second look at the legislation that goes through the house.

There are number of different kinds of Lords, or peers in the House: these are:

·        Hereditary Peers – which are created by royal prerogative and give a title as well as membership of the house, which can devolve to one’s success in a manner prescribed by the sovereign.

·        Life Peers – introduced in 1958, these were conferred on distinguished citizens on the advice of the sitting prime minister at the dissolution of each parliament or on special occasions – e.g. new years day or the queen’s birthday. A number of ministers and former prime ministers have have received life peerages. They cannot be transferred to one’s heirs on the death of the peer.

·        Judicial Peers – these are peerages that are conferred upon retired or sitting judges of the supreme court of the United Kingdom.

·        Lords Spiritual – A number of Anglican Bishops and Archbishops are also members of the House of Lords.

The House of Lords is in a state of flux. It is currently undergoing a series of reforms. These include reforms that are designed to convert it from a chamber that is primarily unelected (i.e. a chamber consisting of mostly hereditary and a few appointed members, and no elected members). The Chamber has therefore been criticized as Anachronistic and Undemocratic. Allow me to quote from the Guardian an article I came across when I was preparing for this class.

Name me the country in which more than 50 new members of parliament have just been appointed for life. Most of them have been nominated by a political party, without any vote. No secret is made of the fact that for several of the appointees, as has long been the custom in that country, this life membership of the legislature is a reward for their generous financial contributions to one or other party. And, unlike for prisoners, "life" means until they die. As a result, one in three members of the existing chamber is over 75 years old.

Turkmenistan? Zimbabwe? Transnistria? No, that country is Britain, one of the oldest parliamentary democracies in the world.

Today, most members of the House of Lords are appointed, and as the quotation shows, often they are appointed because they have been lifelong donors or supporters of various political parties. Furthermore, the heridatary peers in the House of Lords disproportionally support the conservative party over the labour party as a number. This informed the first stage of reforms which Tony Blair undertook in 1999, which reduced the number of hereditary peers from several hundred to 92. These reforms also allowed for the labor government to appoint a number of “life” peers which had a more favourable political disposition. 

Today's Tutorial

For Today's Tutorial, we shall conduct an exercise testing our ability to read, understand and properly apply cases to principles we have been learning.

Please read your favorite case before coming to class.

Thanks you.

Prime Ministers Question Time 3rd June after Resigiinations of Hazel Blears and Jacqui Smith 2

Gordon Brown does a little better in this one...

Prime Ministers Question Time

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown versus former leader of the opposition David Cameron. You can see why Brown lost the election...

Topics for February

This month, we are going to focus on the Houses of Parliament - namely, the House of Lords, House of Commons, Electoral Laws and Parliamentary privileges. The topics for Feb 12, 19, 25th will be the House of Lords, Parliamentary Privelege and Electoral Laws. Kindly read the relevant chapters in the Study Guide and Burnetts before you come to class. PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE RELEVANT CASE LAW.

Thanks.

Notes: Lecture 10 - Sat Feb 5, 2010

 

Scrutiny of the Executive By Parliament:

One of the most important functions of a legislature is to scrutinize the activities of the executive. The legislature scrutinizes legislative proposals from the executive through the committee system. The day to day policies of the executive is scrutinized by parliament in a number ways, especially by posing questions to specific ministers about various activities that are taking place in their ministries. The best know of all these processes is the Prime Minister’s question time.

Question Time

This is the principle means by which the public and the parliament obtains information of and inputs into actions by the executive.

Three times a week, for about an hour a day, Ministers from several departments are asked to answer questions at least once every three or four weeks. Members wishing to answer questions about governmental action must submit the questions three days before hand. This will give adequate notice to the minister to prepare their answers. The answers may be put to the minister for an oral or a written response. Currently about 15-20 questions are answered orally each day.

Prime Minister’s Questions

This takes place on Wednesday’s for 30 minutes. Ministers that wish to ask questions have the questions put on the order paper for the day. They can be as many as 100 questions. Members are allowed 2 supplementary questions on any matter under which the prime minister has responsibility. The supplementary questions are not publicized and they provide an opportunity for the minister to ask difficult or potentially embarrassing questions which the prime minister has to demonstrate his mastery of the various issues facing his government. The questions tend to focus on broader issues of government policy in relation to the economy or foreign affairs. Questions that are two specific are better answered by the sector ministers The leader of the opposition does not table questions, but is allowed up to six questions to the prime minister on virtually any aspect of government policy. It is televised. Thus there is often a direct confrontation between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.

One commentator describes the confrontation as follows:

“...here is experienced the direct confrontation of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in its most concentrated and highly charged form. It is an opportunity no leader of the opposition can afford to neglect. It is also the occasion when the prime minister can be most critically tested, and various commentators or experienced observers have testified to how carefully the prime minister has to prep for this ordeal. Success or failure on these occasions can greatly strengthen or seriously weaken the political standing of the two protagonists.

There are certain kinds of questions that are typically not allowed to be asked when the minister or the prime minister is being questioned. These include questions on the following items.

Questions on the queen, or on matters in which the prime minister has given advice to the crown, and questions concerning the exercise of some of the queen’s prerogative powers.

Questions on local authorities, the internal affairs of other countries, questions aiming to criticize judges, questions concerning cases that are currently being heard, and questions posed in “unparliamentary language”. E.g. if you call another member of parliament “ a liar”, that is unparliamentary language and the speaker may ask you to withdraw the expression and or apologize. Also, a member cannot mention another member by name when he is speaking, only by constituency. It is also not permitted to comment on the absence of a member of the parliament from the house.

How Did it Go?

Please leave your comments about the examination here!

Please remember that next semester we will be moving very fast so we can finish the syllabus and start full preparations for the examinations.