Parliamentary procedure

Each parliamentary session begins with the ‘State Opening of Parliament’, a ceremonial occasion in which the Queen proceeds from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster where she delivers the Queen’s Speech from her throne in the House of Lords. Her speech is drafted by her government, and describes what the government intends to implement during the forthcoming session. Leading members of the Commons may hear it from the far end of the chamber. Then the government and the Opposition debate the aspects of the Queen’s Speech in the Commons and vote on the amendments which the Opposition proposes. Since the speech is a statement of policy, defeat on any such vote would oblige the government to resign.

QUESTIONS:

1. What are the functions of Parliament?

2. Where does Parliament work? What name is Parliament usually referred to?

3. What chambers does Parliament consist of?

4. What is the shape of the Commons debating chamber?

5. What does the layout of the chamber reflect?

6. In what ways do the seating arrangements, general facilities and pay for British MPs differ from those of parliamentary representatives in other countries?

7. Who are frontbenchers and backbenchers?

8. What is Question Time?

9. What is ‘Division”? How is voting arranged?

10. Who are the Whips?

11. How does a bill become a law?

12. What is the function of the House of Lords?

13. Who are the members of the House of Lords?

14. How does each parliamentary session begin?

Unit twelve elections

Unlike any other country in the world, the system of political representation that is used in Britain evolved before the coming of democracy. It also evolved before national issues became more important to people than local ones. In theory, the House of Commons is simply a gathering of people who each represent a particular place in the kingdom. Originally, it was not the concern of anybody in government as to how each representative was chosen. That was matter for each town or county to decide for itself. Not until the nineteenth century were laws passed about how elections were to be conducted.

• 1832 – The Great Reform Bill is passed. The franchise (the right to vote) is made uniform throughout the country, although differences between rural and urban areas remain. It depends on the value of property owned. About five per cent of the adult population is now enfranchised.

• 1867 – The franchise is extended to include most of the male workers in towns.

• 1872 – Secret Ballot is introduced. (Until now, voting has been by a show of hands.)

• 1884 – The franchise is extended to include male rural labourers.

• 1918 – Women over the age of thirty are given the right to vote.

• 1928 – Women are given the franchise on the same basis as men. All adults over twenty-one now have the right to vote.

• 1969 – The minimum voting age is lowered to eighteen, and candidates are now allowed to enter a ‘political description’ of themselves next to their name on the ballot paper. Until now, the only information about candidates that has been allowed on the ballot paper was their addresses.

These days nearly everybody votes for a candidate because he or she belongs to a particular party. But the tradition remains that an MP is first and foremost a representative of a particular locality. The result of this tradition is that the electoral system is remarkably simple. It goes like this: the country is divided into a number of areas of roughly equal population (about 90,000), known as constituencies. Anybody who wants to be an MP must declare himself or herself as a candidate in one of these constituencies. On polling day (the day of the election), voters go to the poling stations and are each given a sing piece of paper (ballot paper) with the names of the candidates for that constituency on it. Each voter then puts a cross next to the name of one candidate. After the polls have closed, the ballot papers are counted. The candidate with the largest number of crosses next to his or her name is the winner and becomes the MP for the constituency. It is coming first that matters. In fact the system is known as the ‘first-past-the-post’ system (an allusion to horse racing).

Formal arrangements

In practice, it is the government which decides when to hold an election. The law says that an election has to take place at least every five years. However the interval between elections is usually a bit shorter than this. A party in power does not normally wait until the last possible moment.

After the date of an election has been fixed, people who want to be candidates in a constituency have to deposit £500 with the Returning Officer (the person responsible for the conduct of the election in each constituency). They get this money back if they get 5% of the votes or more. The local associations of the major parties will have already chosen their candidates and will pay the deposits for them. However, it is not necessary to belong to a party to be a candidate. The law allows candidates, if they wish, to include a short ‘political description of themselves on the ballot paper. In practice, most of these descriptions simply state ‘Conservative’, ‘Labour’ or ‘Liberal Democrat’.

To be eligible to vote, a person must be at least eighteen years old and be on the electoral register. People who have moved house and have not had time to get their names on the electoral register of their new constituency can arrange to vote by post. Nobody, however, is obliged to vote.

The campaign

British elections are comparatively quiet affairs. There is no tradition of large rallies or parades as there is in the USA. The campaign reflects the contrast between the formal arrangements and the political reality. Formally, a different campaign takes place in each constituency. The candidates hold meetings, there is local newspaper coverage, party supporters stick up posters in their windows and some wear party rosettes and spend their time canvassing. The amount of money that candidates are allowed to spend on their campaigns is strictly limited and they have to submit detailed accounts for inspection. Any attempt at improperly influencing voters is outlawed. At meetings, for example, it is illegal for candidates to offer a voter even a cup of tea.

But the reality is that all these activities and regulations do not usually make much difference. Nearly everybody votes for a candidate on the basis of the party which he or she represents, not because of his or her individual qualities or political opinions. Few people attend candidates’ meetings; most people do not read local newspapers. In any case, the size of constituencies means that candidates cannot meet most voters, however energetically they go from door to door.

It is at a national level that the real campaign takes place. At this level too, party spending is legally controlled. Nevertheless, the big parties spend millions of pounds advertising on hoardings and newspapers. Each party is given a strictly limited ‘party election broadcasts’. There are also extended editions of the television news every night and each party holds a daily news conference. All of this puts the emphasis on national party personalities rather than on local candidates.

Polling day and election night

Since 1931, general elections have always taken place on a Thursday. They are not public holidays. People have to work as usual, so poling stations keep long hours (from seven in the morning until ten at night) to give everybody the opportunity to vote.

After the polls close, the marked ballot papers are taken in boxes to a central place in the constituency – somewhere with a really big hall – where the boxes are opened and the votes for each candidate are counted. The count is a very public event. Representatives of all candidates are allowed to roam around freely and in many cases members of the public can watch from a distance. TV cameras may be there as well. When all the votes have been counted, the Returning Officer, together with the candidates, gets up onto a stage and announces the votes cast for each candidate and who, therefore, the MP for the constituency is. This declaration is one of the few occasions during the election process when shouting and cheering may be heard.

The phenomenon of ‘recounts’ is a clear demonstration of the ironies of the British system. In most constituencies it would not make any difference to the result if several thousand ballot papers were lost. But in a few, the result depends on a handful of votes. In these cases, candidates are entitled to demand as many recounts as they want until the result is beyond doubt. The record number of recounts is seven (and the record margin of victory is just one vote).

By-elections

Whenever a sitting MP can no longer fulfill his or her duties, there has to be a special election in the constituency which he or she represents. (There is no system of ready substitutes.) These are called by-elections and can take place at any time. They do not affect who runs the government, but they are watched closely by the media and the parties as indicators of the present level of popularity (or unpopularity) of the government.