Chapter 5 practice: government and law

Key facts to learn

• In the early 1800s only a small group could vote for MPs: men aged over 21 who owned property of a certain value. In the 1830s and 1840s a movement called the Chartists campaigned for reforms: a vote for every man, elections every year, constituencies with equal numbers of voters, secret ballots, the right of any man to become an MP, and pay for MPs. The campaign was seen as a failure at the time, but by 1918 most of these changes had been made.
• The right to vote widened in steps: in 1918 women over 30 gained the vote, in 1928 women and men over 21 could vote on equal terms, and in 1969 the voting age for men and women was lowered to 18. The handbook treats 1928 as the start of the UK's fully democratic voting system.
• The British constitution is not set out in one single document, so it is described as 'unwritten'. A main reason is that the UK has never had a revolution that brought in a lasting, completely new system of government: its institutions grew over hundreds of years. The main institutions are the monarchy, Parliament (the House of Commons and the House of Lords), the Prime Minister, the cabinet, the judiciary (the courts), the police, the civil service and local government, along with the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• The UK is a constitutional monarchy: the monarch does not rule the country but appoints the government that people have chosen in democratic elections. The monarch asks the leader of the party with the most MPs, or the leader of a coalition, to become Prime Minister. The monarch meets the Prime Minister regularly and may advise, warn and encourage, but the Prime Minister and the cabinet make the decisions on government policy.
• The monarch has important ceremonial duties. Each new session of Parliament opens with a speech by the monarch setting out the government's plans for the year ahead, and every Act of Parliament is made in the monarch's name. The monarch also represents the UK abroad: receiving foreign ambassadors and high commissioners, hosting visiting heads of state and making state visits overseas.
• The UK is a parliamentary democracy. The country is divided into parliamentary constituencies, and the voters in each one elect a Member of Parliament (MP). All the elected MPs together make up the House of Commons. Most MPs belong to a political party, and the party with the most MPs forms the government. If no party has a majority, two parties can join together to form a coalition.
• The House of Commons is the more important of the two Houses of Parliament, and its members are elected. The Prime Minister and almost all cabinet ministers sit in it. MPs represent everyone in their constituency, help to make new laws, scrutinise and comment on what the government is doing, and debate important national issues. People can write to or phone their MP at the constituency office or the House of Commons, and many MPs hold local 'surgeries', often advertised in local newspapers, where constituents can meet them in person.
• Members of the House of Lords are called peers. They are not elected and do not represent a constituency. Since 1958 the Prime Minister has been able to nominate life peers, whose peerage lasts only for their own lifetime: they are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, and some are put forward by other party leaders or by an independent Appointments Commission. The House of Lords is usually more independent of the government than the Commons. It can propose new laws and suggest changes, and it checks that laws are fit for purpose; the House of Commons can overrule it, but rarely does.
• Debates in the House of Commons are chaired by the Speaker, its chief officer. The Speaker is politically neutral and does not speak for a party, but is still an MP who represents a constituency and helps constituents like any other MP. The Speaker is chosen by fellow MPs in a secret ballot, keeps order during debates, makes sure the rules are followed, makes sure the opposition gets a guaranteed amount of time to debate, and represents Parliament on ceremonial occasions.
• MPs are elected at a General Election, which must be held at least every five years. The UK uses a system called 'first past the post': in each constituency the candidate with the most votes wins, and the government is usually formed by the party that wins most constituencies. If an MP dies or resigns, a by-election is held to choose a new MP for that constituency.
• The Prime Minister (PM) is the leader of the political party in power. The PM appoints the members of the cabinet and controls many important public appointments. The PM's official home is 10 Downing Street in central London, near the Houses of Parliament, and there is also a country house outside London called Chequers. The PM can be replaced if the MPs of the governing party decide to change their leader, or if the PM resigns; a PM usually resigns if their party loses a General Election.
• The Prime Minister appoints about 20 senior MPs to be ministers in charge of government departments. They include the Chancellor of the Exchequer (responsible for the economy), the Home Secretary (responsible for crime, policing and immigration), the Foreign Secretary (responsible for relations with other countries) and other Secretaries of State for areas such as education, health and defence. Together they form the cabinet, a committee that usually meets every week and makes important decisions about government policy; many of these decisions must be debated or approved by Parliament.

In our own words, from the official handbook. The full course turns the dates, people, places and numbers into flashcards: see the full course.