The House of Commons

The House of Commons today is an elected House with a nation-wide representation. Of its 650 Members 523 represent constituencies in England, 38 in Wales, 72 in Scotland and 17 in Northern Ireland. When speaking about British Parliament the House of Commons is usually meant. «MP» is addressed only to the members of the House of Commons. When speaking about Parliamentary (or General) election, election to the House of Commons is meant. So this House is the centre of real political power and activity, most of its members being professional politicians, lawyers, economists, etc.

The party that has won the general election makes up the majority in the House of Commons, and forms the Government. The party with the next largest number of members in the House, or sometimes a combination of other parties, forms the official Opposition, and Leader of the Opposition is a recognised post in the House of Commons.

The MPs sit on two sides of the hall, one side for the governing party and the other for the opposition. There are seats for only 437 MPs. One of the most important members in the House of Commons is the Speaker who despite his name is the one who actually never speaks. The Speaker is the Chairman or presiding MP of the House of Commons. He is elected by a vote of the House at the beginning of each new Parliament to preside over the House and enforce the rules of order. He cannot debate or vote. He votes only in case of a tie, i. e. when voting is equal and, in this case he votes with Government. The main job of the Speaker is to maintain strict control over debates, to keep fair play between the parties, the government and opposition, between back-benchers and front-benchers. The Speaker is responsible for the orderly conduct of business, and is required to act with scrupulous impartiality between Members in the House. He insists that MPs call each other «Honourable Members>>, address the Ministers as «Right Honourable Member», bow to him on entering and leaving, address all the speeches to him «Dear Speaker, Sir». He must forbid grossly insulting language.*It is Speaker who selects MPs to speak and when an MP is about to finish his speech several MPs bob up trying to catch the Speaker's eyes and get his permission to talk. The order of speakers is not arranged in advance. So the tradition of «catching the Speakers eye» affords him enormous powers either to restrict or to widen criticism of a bill by selecting the «right kind» of MP. The Speaker is assisted by three deputy speakers.

40000 words are said on every working day of the House. But most of the speeches are not intended to influence thought or action because most important decisions are nowadays made behind the scenes, behind the Speaker's Chair, in Smoking Room or in the Cabinet. And when the time comes the Speaker and the whips will see to the fact that the vote should go with the government. The whips are party func-tioneers, party managers, who receive special salaries for their duties. They arrange each day programme in Parliament and tell MPs when they must attend debates. They inform, instruct, dictate and enforce the views of the front-benchers (the Government) on the back-benchers. The strict party discipline obliges them to follow the instructions of the whips. A backbencher is an ordinary MP who is not expected to display talents of an orator, wisdom of a statesman or initiate something in legislature. His only duty is to follow the whips' instructions. Each leading party has officially recognized whips as well as the Chief Whip of the Government and the Chief Whip of the Opposition.

The Commons usually meet in the afternoon, «sitting» until about 10.30 p.m. and sometimes beyond midnight. On Fridays they sit from 9.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. They finish work early so as to be able to return to their constituency for the weekend to busy themselves with local matters, complaints and other formal duties.

In the Commons debating chamber there are seats for only 370 members and except on matters of great interest and importance the presence of all members is not necessary. 40 MPs is enough to secure (make up) a quorum.

MPs are paid salaries, approximately twice the av­erage national wage but substantially less than most MPs could earn outside the House of Commons.

Дата добавления: 2015-05-26