Tài liệu Part 9- Britain docx

The organizationof loca lgovernment 1995 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT Cities and large towns in England and Wales The rest of England and Wales and all of Scotland Respons iblefor: hou sing local

Questions and suggestions 89

The organizationof loca lgovernment (1995)

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

Cities and large towns in

England and Wales

The rest of England and Wales and all of Scotland

Respons iblefor:

hou sing local planning

collectionof rubbish leisur e and rec reation safetyinpublicplace s

10 Regions (Scotland)

47 Counties (England andWales) Respo nsible fo r:

collectionofcounciltax planning

roads and safety disposal of rubbish education social services libraries police force firebrigade

36 Metropolitan District s

32 London Bo r o ugh s

Responsiblefor:

collectionof council tax

planning

roads and traffic

housing

buildingregulations

safety in public places

collection of rubbish

disposal of rubbish

education

social services

libraries

leisure and recreation

Inthese areas some services such

as transport, thepol ice force and

thefirebrigade are run by spec ial

authorities,someof whose

members are councillors

J.

Pa r ish e s (Eng land)

Communities(S cotlandand Wa les)

Thesehavenolegal powe rsbutare recognizedas neighbourhoodor

village-level forums of discussion

QUESTIO NS

Do youthin k thetheor y ofcollective rcspon

sib-ilityis a goodone?Doesit existin your c un try?

2 Whatwo uld be the eq uiv alent titlesin your

country for:Chancellor,Home Secretary,

Fo reign Secretary?

3 ABritishPrimeMinisterhasnostatusin law

which put shimor her aboveotherpoliticians

So whyare modernBritish PMs sopo wer ful?

4 Ho wdoesthe relationsh ipbetweencentral and

lo al governm entin Britain compare withthat

inyo urco untry?

5 Localgovernment inBritainis respo ns iblefor

mostof the thingsthat affectpeoplein everyday life.So why do yo thinkso few peoplebothe r

to vote inlocalelectio ns in Britain ?

SU G G ESTI ON S

9

Parliament

The activiti e sof Parliamentin Britain are mor e or l ess the s am e a s

tho se o f the Parliament in any western democra cy It make s n ew law s, gi ves author ity fo r the gove rnment to rai se and s pend mone y.

k ee ps a cl o s e eye on governmen t a ctivitie s and di scusses tho se

activities

The Bri tishParliament works inalarge building calledthe Palace

of Westminster(popu larly kno wn as'th e Housesof'Parliarnent')

Thi s co ntain s office s com m ittee rooms , restaurant s, bar s , librarie s

and e ven s o me place s o f residence It also conta in s two large r ro om s.

O neofthese i s w here t he H o useofLor dsm eets , the o t her i s w here the Ho u s eofCommo nsmeets The British Par liam ent is divided into

tw o'hou ses' , and its memb ers belong to one or ot he r ofthe m , althou gh onlymembersoftheCommo sareno rmally knownas

MPs(Members of Parliam ent).TheCommonsisb farthe more important of t he t w o h o uses.

T he H ouse of Commons

I Speake r'sch air

2 gov ernme nt be nches

3 op position b enches

4 ga lleries for v isito rs

S" press ga llery

Th e atmos phere of Pa r li ament

Lookat the picture of the inside of the meetingroom ofth eHo use of

Commons(e-TheHouseof Commons) Its design andlayo u tdiffer from

the interior of the parliamentbu ild ings in mostothercountries Th ese

differencescan tell us lot abou twha tis distinc tiveabouttheBritish

Parliam ent

First,notice thesealin garran gements Th ere arcjust two row s of

benches facing each other On theleft ofthepictureare the govern

-mentbench es,where theMPs ofthego vernin gparty sit Ontheright

arethe oppo sitionben ches.Thereisno opportu n ityin thislayout

forareflectionofall thevarious shades ofpoliticalo inion (asther e

iswitha sem i-ci rcle).Accord ing to wh eretheysi MPs reseen to be

either'for'the government (su pport ing it) oragainstit.Thisph ysical

division isemphasizedbythetableo thefloo r oftheHousebetw een

thetworows of benches.The Speaker 'schair ,whichisraised some

wayoff the floor,isalsohere Fromthi s command ing posit ion ,th e

Speaker chairs (that is,controls) thedeba tes(e- T eSpeoker) The

arrangememof the benchesencou ragesconfronta tion betw een go

v-ernment andopposition It also rein forcespsych ol ogicallythe reality

ofthe British two-partysystem (seechap ter6) Therearen 'cro s

s-benche s' forMPswho belong neither tothegoverningpartyn r th e

mainoppositio n part y.In practice.theseMPs si o th e oppositio

bench es furthes tfrom the Spe aker'schair (atthebottomrightof

thepicture)

Plan o f t he P alace o f Wes tminster (p rinci pal f loor )

;d.~ ~ _ ~ _ IM::J :L

u

1 C lock - tow er (Big Ben )

2 ' No' Division lobby

3 ' A ye' Di vision lobby

The atmosphereof Parliament 9I .TheSpea ker

Any body wh o happen ed to be watching the live broadcast o f Parliament o 27 April 1992 was able to wi mess an extrao rdi nary spectacle A fem ale MP was phy sic

-a lly dragged , apparent l y again st he r will, out of her seat on the back

b enches b f e ll ow MP s nd wa s force d (Q sit i ll t he la rge c h ai r in t he mid d le o f t he H ouse of Commons.

W hat the House o f Commons was actua lly doi ng was appo inting a n ew Spea ker The Spea ker is th e person

w ho chairs and cont ro ls discus sion

in the Hous e, decides wh ich MP is going to speak next and makes sure that the rule s of procedure are fol-lowed (If they are n t the Spea ker has the po wer to demand a public apology from an MP or even to ban

an MP from the House for a number ofda ys) It is a very Impo rtan t posi -tion I n fact, the Speaker is, officially the s econd most i mportant

'com-mo ne r' (non -ari stocrat) in t he

k ingdom af ter the Prime Minis ter.

H undre ds of years ago, i t was the Spea ker 's job to com m un icate the

d ecisions of the Co m mons to the

K ing (t hat is where the title 'Speake r' com es from) As the king

wa s often ver y displeased with what the Commons ha d ecid ed this was not a pleasant task As result, nobody wanted the job They had to

be forced to take n These days,the

po sition is a mu ch safer one, bur the trad ition of dragging an unwilling Speaker to the chair has remaine d The occas io n in 1992 was t he first time t hat a wo man had been appo in ted S peaker, so tha t MPs h ad

t o g et use d to addressi ng not ' Mr

S p eaker ' , a s t hey had a lways d on e i n

th e pas t, bu t ' Madam Speaker'

i ns t e d O nce a Speaker has been app oi nte d , he or s he agree s (Q give

up a ll p any polit i es and rem ain s

in the job for as long as he or she want s it.

9 9 Parliam ent

Seco nd , t he Commo ns has n o 'front' , no ob viou s pla ce from which

an MPc naddresseverybodythere MPssimply stand up and speak from whereverthey happentobe sitting.Third, noticethat thereare

n desksfor theMPs.The bencheswhere they sit areexactly andonly that- benche s,justas in a church Thismakesit physically easy for

them todrift in and out of the room,which is some thing thatthey

freq uentl yd during debates.Fourth, noti ce thatthe Hou seis very

sm all In fact ,thereisn'tenough roomforall theMPs.Thereare morethan 6 5 0of them ,but thereis seating for lessthan40 0. A

c andidate at an e lectio n i s s aid to have w on 'a se at' in t he Co mmons , but thi s ' seat ' s imaginar y MPs do not hav e t he ir ' o w n ' pl ace to s it.

N o nam es ar e mark ed on the benche s MP s j ust s it d own w herever

(on 'their' side of the House) they can findroom

All thesefeaturesresultin a fairlyinformalatmos phe re Individual

MP s ,withoutth e ir o w n 'terri tor y' (\\rh ich a p ersonal se at a nd d esk would give them), are e nco uraged to c o-operate Mor eo ver, t he s mall

size oftheHouse, togetherwiththelack ofa podiumor dais fro m

which to addressit, meansthatMPs do not normall y speakin the way thatthey wouldat alargepublicrally MPsnormally speak in a conversationaltone, an d because th ey have n owhere to plac e th e ir

noteswhilespeaking,theyd notnor mally speak for verylong

e i ther ! I t i s o nly on part icular ly i mportant occ a s ion s , when a ll t he

MP s a re p r s ent , th at p assion ate o rator y i s somet ime s u se d

Onemore thing should ben ted about thedesig of the Ho se of

-eval times,t h e Co mmons me t i n a c hurch and c hurchesofthattime

oftenhadrows ofbenc hesfacing each other Butafterthe House was badly dama gedby bombingin 194 I,i was delib erately rebuil t to

th e ol d p attern (witho ne o r t w o mo dern comfort s s uc h a s ent ral

heating added).Thiswas because of a belief inthe two-way'for and

again s t' t ra d i t ion , an d also because of a mor e g eneral d es ire for con tinu ity

The ancient habitsare preserved todayin themanycustomsand detailedrulesof procedure which all new MPsfind that theyhaveto learn Themostnoticeableof these isthe rulethat forbidsMPsto addressoneanotherdirectlyor use personalnames All remarksand

question smust go 'thro ugh the Chair' An MP who is speaking refers

toor asksa question of ' the honourable Memberfor Winchester'or 'myright honourablefriend' The MP for Winc hester maybe sitting directlyopposite, but the MP neversays'you' These anc ient rules were originallyformulatedtotake the 'heat ' outofdeb ateand

decreasethe possibilit ythat violence mightbreakout Toda y,they

lend a touch offormalitywhich balancestheinformal aspects of the Commonsandfurther increasesthe feeling ofMPsthat theybelong

to aspecial group of people

An M P' s li f e

The comparativeinformalityoftheComm onsmaypartlyresultfrom

theBritish beliefin amateuri sm Traditionally, MPswere nots

up-posedtobe specialist politi cian s.Theywere suppos ed to be ordina ry

peoplegiving someoftheirtime torepr esentin g the peop le Ideally,

they came fro mallwalksoflife , bring ing theirexperienceofthe

everyday world into Parliam ent with them.TliisiswliyMPs were

noteven paiduntiltheearly twentieth cen tury Trad itionally,they

were s upposed to b e d o ing a pub lic s ervic e , n o t ma king a car eer f or

themselves of course, thistraditionmeant that onlyrichpeople

could affor dtobe MPs sothat , althoug h theydid indeedcome from

a wide varietyof backgrounds,these were alwaysbackgroundsof

powerandwealtli.Even now ,BritishMPsdo notget paidverymuch

i n c o mpa riso n w ith ma ny of t he ir E ur o p ea n co un t e parts M o r eo ve r,

by European standards,theyhave incredibly poor facilities.MostMPs

have to sha re a n office and a sec retary with t w o o r mor e o t her MP s

Theideal of the talented amateur doesn t,ofcourse , reflect

modernreality.Poli ticsin Britain in thelastforty yearshasbecome

profession al.Most MPsare full-timepoliticians,and doanother job ,

ifata ll, on ly part -t im e Bu t t h e a m ateur tr adit ion i s s till reflec t ed i n

thehour s ofbusiness of theCommons.Theyare'gentleman's liours'

Th e H ouse do es n o t i t i n t h e m orn in g Thi s i s w he n , in th e t raditi o n a l

ideal,MPswouldbedoingtheirordinary wor kor pursuin gother

i ntere st s ou t ide P arliamen t Fr om Mond ay to Th ursday, the H ous e

doe s n ot s tart i t bu s in ess un t il 1 4.3 0 ( on Fr iday it s tarts i n t he

morning,but thenfin islies inthe earlyafternoon for the weekend)

It alsogives itselfIongliolidays:four weeksatChristmas, twoeachat

Easter and Whit sun (Pentecost),and abou televen weeksinthe

sum mer (fro m thebeginning of Augustuntil themiddleof October)

But thisapparent ly easylifeismisleadin g.In fact, the average

modern MPspe nds mor etime at work than any other professional

inthe country Fro m MondaytoThursday,theCommonsnever'rises'

(i.e finishesworkfor theday) before 2 2 3 0 andsometmesi c

on-tinuessitting for severalliourslonger Occasionally,it debates

thro uglimostoftheuight TheCommons,in fact, spendsa greater

tota l amou ntoftimes i ttin g e ach year t h a n an y o t h er P arliam e nt

i n E urop e.

M Ps 'morn in gsar e ta k en up wit hcommitteewo rk , rese ar c h , pr e

-paring speeches and dealing with the problems of constituent s(the

peopletheyrepr esent).Weekends arenot freefor MPs either They

a re e xpecte d to vi si t t h ei r c o nst ituenc ie s (the area s hey r ep re sent)

andlistentothepro blems of anybodywho wantstosee them.It is

anextremely busylifethat leaveslittle timeforpursuing another

caree r It d o es n ot l ea ve M Ps much tim e f o r th eir f am ilie s e ithe r.

Politicianshavea high errate of divorce thau the (already high)

AnMP'slife 93

IIlo H ansard

T his i s the nam e g ive n to t he dail y

v erbatim repo rts o f ev eryt hing t hat has been s aid i n the Commo ns Th ey

are publi she d within f on y-eight

hours of the day the} ' cover.

Thursday s 14.3 0

P rayers

1 4 ·3 5

1 5 3 0

A ny m iscellane o us bu sin ess, such a s

a stat ement from a mini s ter after ,v- hicht he main business of the day begins On mor e tha n hal f of t he days, this means a debate on a pr o-posa l for a n ew law kn own a s a

' bill' Most o f hes e bill s are i ntro-duced by t he government but some days i n ea ch y ear ar e re served for

p rop o sa l s fo r law s made by indi

-vidu al M Ps NOl m any o ft hese

b ec om e law , bec ause t he re i s not

di scussio n of them

22 00 Mot ion on the adjournment : the main bu siness o fth eda y s to ps and

M Ps a re allowed 1O b r ing up another

matterfor general di scussion.

2 3 0

94 9 Parl iament

Frontbenchers and backb enchers

Although MPs do not have t heir own personal seats in the Co m mons, t here are two seating areas reserved for particular MPs These areas are the front benches on either side of the House These benches ar c whe re the leading members of the governi ng

party (Le ministers) and the l eadin g membe rs of the main opposition party sit These people ar e thus known as 'frontbcnchcrs' MPs w ho

d o not hold a government post or a post in the sh adow cabinet (s ec

chapter 8) are known as 'back-benchers'.

P arliament ary bu si n e s

The basicprocedu re forbusin essin the Commo ns isa deba te on a

part icular proposal,follow ed by a resolution whic heithe raccepts

or rejectsthis proposal.So m et im es theresol u tio n justexpresses a

view poin t, but1110St often it isa matter of raminganewlaw orof approving (or notapp roving ) governm ent plans to raisetaxes or

spendmo eyincert ainways Occasion ally, thereisn needto take

a vote, butthereusua lly is, and atsuc h timesth er eis a 'divis ion' That is, MPs haveto vo te for or against a particularproposal.They

do thi s bywalkingthro ughoneoftwo corridorsatthe side of the

Hou se - oneisforthe 'Ayes ' (thosewho agree with the proposal) and the otheris for the'Noes' (thosewhodisagree)

But the reso lutio s ofthe Co m mons are only part ofitsact iviti es

There arealsothe commitlees Some comm ittees areap pointedto examineparticularproposalsforlaw s ,but there arealsoperm an ent

com m ittees who sejo b isto investiga teth eactiviti es ofgovern ment

ina particu lar field Thesecommittees compriseaboutfon y members

andareformedtoreflecttherelat ive stre ng thsofthe partiesin the Commo sas a whole Theyhavethepow erto callcertainpeople,

su cha civil servan ts , to com eand answ erthei rque stions They are

becom ing a moreand moreimportan tpart ofthe busin ess of th e

The p arty s ys t em in Pa rliament Most divisionstakeplace alon g party lin es MPsknow that h ey owe

theirpositiontoth eir party,sotheynearl y alwaysvoteth e waythat

theirparty tells them to The people who make surethat MPs do this are called the Whips.Eachofthe twomajo r parties has several MPs who perform this role Itistheir jo toinfor mall MPs in theirparty

h w they shouldvo te.By tradition , if th egovernmentloses a vote

in Parliam ent on avery import an t matter,it hastoresign.Therefore,

whenth ereisa divisiono suc hamatter,MPs areexpec tedto goto

theHouse and vo te evenifth eyhavenot been there during thedebate

TheWhips actas interme diaries betw een thebackb en ch er s and

the fron tbenc (0)Frontbenchers and bcckbenchers) of aparty.They keep

th party lead ershipinfor m ed about backb ench opinion.They are

powerfulpeople.Becaus e they'havethe ear' ofth party leaders,

th eycan haveaneffecton whichbackben ch er s get pro motedto the front ben ch and which donot For reason s suchasth is , 'rebellio ns' among a grou of a party'sMPs (inwhich they vote againsttheir party) are veryrare

Sometimesthemajor partiesallow a 'free vote',whenMPsvote

accord ing to theirow nbeliefs andno taccording to party policy

Some quite importan t decisions, suchas the abolition of the death

penaltyand th e decisiontoallo w television cameras intothe

Comm ons ,have beenmadein this way

II> How a bill becomes alaw

Bef ore a propo sal for a n ew law s tarts

it s progre ss through Parliament

t here will have been mu ch di

scus-s ion If it i s a g overnment proposa l.

Green a nd White Paper s w ill

pr obabl y have been publi she d.

explaining t he i deas beh ind t he p ro

-p osal Aft er t his l aw yer s draft t he

pro posal i n to a b ill ,

M ost b ills be gin lif e i n t he H ouse

o f Com mons, where they go

through a number o f s tages.

First reading

with no debate

Second reading The house debates the general

takes a vote.

Committee stage

A committee of MPs examines

amendments (changes) to parts

ofi

~"';Report stage

amend-ments.

Third reading

whole.

lords,where it goes through the

amendments, these will be

~ After both Houses have reached

royal assentand becomes an Act

of Parliament which can be applied

Th e p art y syste m in Parliam ent 9S"

TonyBlair, PrimeMinisterfrom '997,answeringquesti ons in the

House of Commons

II> Question time

This i s the mo st w ell -attended, and

u sua ll y the n oi siest p art o f the parliamentar y ay For about a n hour the re is n o s ub ject for de bate.

I nstead M Ps a rc allo wed to a sk questions of governme nt m inister s.

I n t h is w ay t he y can in t heory a t

le ast force t he govern ment t o make

c ertai n facts p ublic and t o m ake its

i nt entio ns clear Oppos ition MP s i n particul ar ha ve a n o pportunity to make go vernm en t m inisters l ook incom pet ent or perhap s di shon est.

The qu est i on s and a nsw ers,

h owever , are n ot s po ntaneous.

Questions to m ini ster s have to be 'tab led' (written d own and plac ed

on th e tabl e b elow the S peaker's chair ) tw o da ys i n adva nce, s o t hat minister s h ave t ime to pr epare t heir

an swers In t his way t he go vern

-ment can usu ally avo id maj or

e mba rrassment The t rick, though, i s

to a sk an unexpec ted 'supplemen

-t ary' question After the ministe r has ans we red t he t abled quest ion, t he

MP \ - h o or igina lly t abled it is all owed to as k a fu rthe r q uestion

r elating to t h e m inist er 's an swer I n this wa y, it is s o m etimes p oss ibl e f or

MP s to cat ch a mini ster u nprepared.

Q u estio n t im e ha s been w idely

co pied a round t he world It is also probably t he a spec t o f P arliam en t most well -kn own a m ong the general publi c Th e va st ma jority of

te levisi on ~ews exce rpts o f Parlia-ment ar e take n f ro m t his peri od o f

it s da y E specially com mon is for t he new s t o s ho w a n exce rpt f rom the

h alf -hour o Wednesdays when it is

96 9 P ar li am e n t

Lords legal and sp iritu al

A s w e l a s life peers, there a rc t wo

other kinds of peer in the H ou se o f

L ords who do not hav e seat s there b

their positi on First, the re are the

Lords') , the twenty or so m ost s enior

judges in the land Bytra dition , the

H ouse of L or ds i s the fi n al cou rt o f

appe a l i n th e coumry In fact,

h owe ver, w he n the Lords acts in th is

role, it is o nly the La w L ords who

vote on t he m atter.

Re formi ng the Hou se of Lords

In 1910 the Li bera l gov ernment pro

-po sal Th is r ejection went agains t a

H ou se o f C om mons had c ont ro l of

an other elec tion It w as a constitu

r ejected t he same bills a gain, he

-e nough for t he government to have

House d estroy ed i n this way, the

t he one t hat li m ited their own pow ers F ro m t hat time, a bill whi ch

Th e Hou se of Lord s

Auni quefeatureof th eBritishparliam entary system isitshereditary

elem ent Unlike MPs membersofth HouseofL o rds(knownas 'peers ') are notelected.They aremembersas ofright In th case of

som e ofthem, this'right'istheresultoftheirb ing theholder

of aninheritedaristocratic title.TheHouseofLordsisther eforea

relicofearlie r, undemocra tic , times.Thefact hat itstill existsis

perhapstypi callyBr itish.It hasbeenallowed to survive but i hashad

to change ,losin g mostof itsp werand alteringiscompositionin

theprocess

Tli eHouse ofLords(likethemonarc y)haslittle,if any, real

power any more.All proposalsmusthavethe agreeme ntof the Lords

beforetheyc n becom e law.But th pow er of the Lords torefu se a

proposalforalaw whichh sbeena reedbythe Co mmonsisn w limited Afteraperiod whi chcan beas shaftas six monthsth p

ro-posalbecomeslaw anyway,whetheror not th Lo rd sagree

Th compos itio nof the Lordshas chang edsince 1958 ,whe n it

b cam e possib le toaward 'lifepeerages' through thehonour s system (seecha pter7) Entitlement to sit in the Lordsdoesn t passto the

ch ildren oflife peers The life peeragesystem has establis heditselfas

amean s offindin gaplaceinp blic lifefor disting uishe d retired

politici answho nuyn lo nger wish to beas busy as MPsin the

Co mmons, b t who stillwish to voice theiropin io ns inapublic forum At the timeofwriting,fourof thelastfiv Prime Ministers,

as well as abo ut .300pastministersand other respectedpoliticians,

have accepte the offerof a lifepeer age.Politicalpartiesare, infact,

especially keen tosendtheir older memberswho once belongedto

the leade rshipofthe partyto th Hou seofL ords.Itisawayof rewarding them wihprestigewhile atthesame timegett ingth m

ou toftheway ofthepresentpartylead ersinthe Commons, whe re

their statusand rep utat io nmigh t otherwise crea te troublefor party

uni ty.Informally,thispractic e hasbecomeknownas being 'kicked

upstairs'.Asaresult ofth lifepeeragesystem thereare morethan .3 00peo plein theHou se of Lordswhoare notaristocratsandwho havee per tise inpoliticallife:In fact, asa resultofrecent reforms,

theselife peersnow form amajo rityat its sittings

The mode rn Hou se ofLo rdsis a forum for publicdiscussion

Becau se its mem bers do not depen do partypolitics fortheirposi

-tion, it is some timesableto bringim port antmattersthatthe Comm ons hasbeen igno ring into the ope n.Moreimportant ly, it is

theplacewhere proposalsfornewlawsare discussedingreatdetail

-much1110re detail thantheb syCommons has tim efor- a d inthis

wayirregularit iesor inconsistenciesin these proposals can be

rem oved befo re they become law More importantstill, t sargu ed,

the Lo rds is a che ckon a governm entthat ,thr oug hits co tro lofthe

Com m o ns,couldpossiblybecometoodictat orial.Few people in

politicsare perfectly happywith thepresentarrangement Most