In 2008-2009 a compromise was reached. The old hours are used for Mondays and

Tuesdays and the new ones for Wednesdays and Thursdays, as follows:

Monday 2.30 p.m. - 10.30 p.m.

Tuesday 2.30 p.m. - 10.30 p.m.

Wednesday 11.30 a.m. - 7.30 p.m.

Thursday 10.30 a.m. - 6.30 p.m.

Friday 9.30 a.m. - 3 p.m. (the House does nor 'sit' every Friday)

The state opening of Parliament

The annual state opening of Parliament is an example of a traditional ceremony

which reminds MPs of their special status and of their togetherness. Traditionally

'Black Rod', a servant of the Queen, knocks on the door of the House of Commons

and demands that the MPs let the Queen come in and tell them what 'her'

government is going to do in the coming year. However, the Commons refuses her

entry. In the seventeenth century, Charles I once burst in and tried to arrest some

MPs. Ever since then, the monarch has not been allowed to enter the Commons.

Instead, the MPs agree to come through to the House of Lords and listen to the

monarch in there. By tradition, they always come through in pairs, each pair

comprising an MP from two different parties.

ELECTIONS

1.The system

2.Formal arrangements

3.The campaign

4.Polling day and election night

Read the words and phrases. Consult the dictionary for their pronunciation!

Hoarding – (Brit) рекламний щит вздовж дороги

Give names/ definitions/ explanations for the notions/ descriptions in the right

column of the table

a constituency

Polling station

Polling day

Returning Officer

Canvassing

the turnout

Read the text and find the answers to the following questions

How often are general elections held in Britain? What is a by-election? When does a byelection

happen?

What day of the week do the British have their election?

In what ways is political campaigning in Ukraine different from that in Britain?

The system

As is often the case with British institutions, Elections in Britain are the result of

history. 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 a

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

This system was in place before the development of modern political parties. These

days, of course, 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 polling stations and are each given a single piece of paper (the 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. This way

the general election is held. In 2005 election, there were 646 constituencies and

646 MPs were elected. In fact the system is also known as the ‘first-past-the-post’

system (an allusion to horse racing).