UK Parliament Language
The Parliament has a variety of roles in helping the UK to
run efficiently as a country. The primary job of
parliament is to make laws, debate topical issues and look at how our taxes are
spent to help run the country.
Parliament consist of
two parts:
The House of Lords – these are made up
of people with inherited family titles and who have been given titles due to
their outstanding work in one field or another. This consists of 675 members. The
main job of the House of Lords is to double check new laws to make sure they
are fair and will work.
The House of Commons – these have 659 members who
have been elected by local residents in order to represent an area of the
country in parliament; called MP’s. Each MP represents one of 659 constituencies
(areas) in the UK and is a member of a political party. This is the most
important place for discussing policies and making laws.
Parliamentary
language
Here
are examples of parliamentary language:
Act – a law made by
Parliament
Cabinet – the group of
senior ministers in a Government –the cabinet meets regularly to make important
decisions
Constituency – the electorate or
area, or the people n it represented by an MP
Deregulation order – an order to alter or cancel a
provision in primary legislation that is considered to impose a burden on
business or others.
Enfranchise – to give a person the right to vote
Hansard – a
full report of what was said in parliament (including written questions and
their answers) is published in the official report.
Judicial power – the power to interpret or apply the law in
particular cases
Money bill – a bill setting a tax or proposing the spending
of money for a particular purpose
Non-Partisan – not aligned to a political party; not biased
or one sided; neutral
Parliamentary counsel – responsible for
drafting government bills and amendments to bills, and advising government departments
on all aspects of parliamentary procedure
Points of order – a method where members bring supposed
breaches of the House's rules of order to the Speaker's attention. Members may
seek to raise them at any time, but the Speaker has discretion as to when to
hear them and will not normally do so during Question Time.
Select committee – a group of members from either House or
both Houses, appointed to inquire into and report on a certain subject. A
select committee ceases to exist when it has made its final report to the House
or Houses
Unconstitutional – contrary to or inconsistent with the Constitution
or the recognized principles of the constitutional law of a country
Writs – formal orders issued by the Governor, requiring that
an election be held.
Unparliamentary
language
Unparliamentary
language breaks the rules of politeness in the House of Commons Chamber. Part
of the speaker’s role is to make sure that MP's don’t use insulting or rude
language, don’t accuse eachother of lying, being drunk or misrepresent each
other’s words and suggest that another MP has false motives. If an MP uses
Unparliamentary language during debates, the speaker will ask the concerned
member to withdraw what has been said. An MP may be asked to leave the house
and is suspended for five sitting days if they don’t withdraw a comment. The
Speaker has objected words such as blackguard, coward, git, guttersnipe,
hooligan, rat, swine, stoolpigeon and traitor. Sometimes MP's will use a large
amount of resourcefulness to get around the rules – e.g. Winston Churchill used
the phrase ‘terminological inexactitude’ to mean
‘lie’.
Criticism and accusations are allowed (often under
the cover of parliamentary privilege) but certain types of language are
considered too abusive.
