18/03/2013-24/03/2013 - How A Law Is Passed

How a Bill of Law is Passed

A quick summary of the process of creating a law.

1)      Green and White Papers

Papers that present the problem and lists ideas on how to fix it, it will be information from interested people (such as charities or people in that field)

2)      First Reading

A law can start by a MP in the House of Commons or a Lord in the House of Lords. The first reading is just the representative telling the House the Name and the Main Aim of that Law. If they like the idea, they pass it on, if they do not, they get rid.

3)      Second Reading

This has now gone into the main debate. Anyone who wants a say in the House can have one, these debates can last for hours (the one on Gay Marriage lasted 6 hours).

4)      Committee Stage

Once a Bill has been debated on a group of either MP or Lords sit in a committee, this is between 16 to 50 members except on Finance Bills where the whole house sits. It is a intricate clause by clause analysis and making amendments so that it is as perfect as possible.

11/03/2013-17/03/2013- Elections

It has come to my attention that people don’t know how people are elected to the House of Commons. So here is my explanation of how it works.

Mp’s

Mp’s or members of Parliament can either join a political party or stand as an independent. When it is a general election time (about every 5 years) or a by election (when the current MP stands down or dies) they have to win to first stand as that party candidate in that constituency and then win that constituency against the other parties.

The Leader of the Party

He/she has to be a known MP within the party. There is an election much like that of a general election but only people who have membership to the party can vote in it.

The Prime Minister

The Prime Minister is the leader of the party who gets the most seats in the House of Commons. There are 650 seats/constituencies in the Commons up for grabs at election time. The party have to win at least half of these to win or otherwise we end up with a coalition. This means that two parties have to join together to gain over half the seats.

04/03/2013 - 1003/2013 - Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats promote liberal policies; it was created in 1988 with the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party joining together. The two parties had previously been working together.

They are supporters of the European Union, more environmental policies and a new House of Commons elected by the voting system proportional representation.

The Lib Dems are currently in coalition with the Conservatives, they have:

·         57/650 seats in the House of Commons

·         79/738 seats in the House of Lords

·         11/72  British seats in the European Parliament

·         16/129 seats in Scottish Parliament

·         5/60 seats in the Welsh Assembly

Liberal Democrats support many policies including

Britain should get rid of their nuclear weapons, University should be free, there should be

an elected House of Lords, there should be more renewable energy, same sex marriage

 Should be legal and progressive taxation.

Cabinet Members Include:

Nick Clegg – Deputy Prime Minister

Vince Cable – Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills

Ed Davey – Secretary for Energy and Climate Change

Michael Moore – Secretary for Scotland

Danny Alexander – Chief Executive for the Treasury

Former leaders of the party include, Paddy Ashdown, Charles Kennedy and Vince Cable. The

current leader is Nick Clegg.

25/02/2013-03/03/2013 - Labour

The Labour Party

The Labour Party are the main centre – left party in the UK, they are the second largest party in the House of Commons and form the official opposition. The current Leader is Ed Miliband.

They were in power in the Scottish Parliament until 2007 and the second largest party in the London Assembly, Local Governments and the European Union.

History

They were formed in 1906 with the support of socialism and won their first election in 1945. Tony Blair bought ‘New Labour’ through in the 1997 election. Some leaders include Neil Kinnock, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband. Clement Attlee was the first Labour Prime Minister from 1945-1951, Tony Blair is one of the most well known and successful Labour Prime Ministers from 1997-2007, he handed over the role to Gordon Brown who held it for three years until the 2010 General Election.

The Labour Party are hoping to win the 2015 General Election with Ed Miliband as Prime Minister, they face critics though as it has been said the recession and economic downfall was down to their bad judgement, but the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat coalition are becoming unpopular due to controversial heavy cuts in every sector possible.

18/02/2013-24/02/2013 - Conservatives

Thought I’d do some writing on the histories of the main three parties.

The Conservative Party

The Conservative Party is the main centre – right party in the United Kingdom, their policies usually promote British unionism. They are currently the largest party in the House of Commons with 307/650 seats with David Cameron as the Prime Minister.

Party Policies include:

·         Wales, Scotland and Ireland should remain as part of the UK,

·         Britain should not join the Euro

·         There should be no change to the Electoral System

History

The party was founded by Robert Peel in 1834. Under Benjamin Disraeli, the Liberal Unionists joined the party so they were in power from 1885-1906. In the 1920’s the Labour Party became the main rivals of the Conservatives. The party were the leaders during the world wars, with Winston Churchill during WWII. Edward Heath bought the UK into the European Union in the 1970’s. Margaret Thatcher, the only female Prime Minister was Conservative Leader from 1975 to 1990. The ‘poll tax’ introduced by John Major made the party very unpopular in the 1990’s. They were the opposition party for 13 years before winning the 2010 General Election with a Coalition Government.