Listening 2.
Listen to the text and answer the following questions.
1) Why was that week difficult for Labour Government of the UK?
2) What legislation did Labour MP’s try to vote down on?
3) What ban did they want to amend into a tougher one?
4) What were the main two reasons for the smoking ban?
5) Why had smoking in restaurants become a focus of the legislation?
6) What exceptions were supposed to be specified in the bill?
7) Why was the Chairman of the Parliament Health Committee against these reservations?
8) When was the law supposed to come into force?
Reading for Vocabulary 2.5.
The House of Lords
Before you read. Think over the following questions:
- What do you know about the structure of the House of Lords?
- Why is there an opinion that this institution is obsolete?
Read the following text and then entitle its parts.
The House of Lords is the second chamber of the U.K.Houses of Parliament. Members of the House of Lords (known as ' peers ') consist of Lords Spiritual (senior bishops) and Lords Temporal (lay peers). Law Lords (senior judges) also sit as Lords Temporal. Members of the House of Lords are not elected. Originally, they were drawn from the various groups of senior and influential nobility in Britain, who advised the monarch throughout the country's early history.
Following the House of Lords Act 1999 there are only 92 peers who sit by virtue o f hereditary peerage. The majority of members are now life peers and the Government has been consulting on proposals and attempting to legislate for further reform of the Lords.
There were 666 peers in total on 1st March 2004.
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In general, the functions of the House of Lords are similar to those of the House of Commons in legislating, debating and questioning the executive. There are two important exceptions: members of the Lords do not represent constituencies, and are not involved in matters of taxation and finance. The role of the Lords is generally recognised to be complementary to that of the Commons and it acts as a revising chamber for many of the more important and controversial bills.
All bills go through both Houses before becoming Acts, and may start in either House. Normally, the consent of the Lords is required before Acts of Parliament can be passed, and the Lords can amend all legislation, with the exception of bills to raise taxation, long seen as the responsibility of the Commons. Amendments have to be agreed to by both Houses. The House of Lords is as active as the Commons in amending bills, and spends two-thirds of its time revising legislation.
Following the Lords' rejection of the Liberal Government's budget of 1909, the Parliament Act of 1911 ended their power to reject legislation. A power of delay was substituted, which was further curtaile d by the Parliament Act of 1949. The House of Commons can present a bill (except one to prolong the life of Parliament) for Royal Assent after one year and in a new session even if the Lords have not given their agreement. There is also a convention (known as the 'Salisbury' convention) that the Government's manifesto commitments, in the form of Government Bills, are not voted down by the House of Lords at second reading.
The House of Lords is also the final court of appeal for civil cases in the United Kingdom and for criminal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Only the Lords of Appeal (Law Lords) - of whom there are 12 employed full-time - take part in judicial proceedings.
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The Speakership of the House of Lords has traditionally been performed by the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor's powers as Speaker have been very limited compared with those of the Speaker of the House of Commons, since the Lords themselves control the proceedings under the guidance of the Leader of the House. Lords business is expected to be conducted in an orderly and polite fashion without the need for an active Speaker. The Lord Chancellor sits on a special seat called the Woolsack except when the House is in committee, but does not call upon members to speak and has no powers to call the House to order.
The Woolsack is a seat stuffed with wool on which the Lord Chancellor sits. It was introduced by King Edward III (1327-77) and originally stuffed with English wool as a reminder of England's traditional source of wealth - the wool trade - and as a sign of prosperity. Today the Woolsack is stuffed with wool from each of the countries of the Commonwealth, to symbolise unity.
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This has been due in part to the Lord Chancellor's constitutionally unique position: that of being simultaneously the Speaker of the House of Lords, a Cabinet minister with departmental responsibilities and the head of the judiciary in England and Wales. The government are now intent on a separation of these powers and on the abolition of the office of Lord Chancellor.
The proposed reforms, announced on the 12th June 2003, include:
· a new Department for Constitutional Affairs incorporating most responsibilities of the former Lord Chancellor's Department; this came into immediate effect.
· a new 'Supreme Court' to replace the existing system of Law Lords operating as a committee of the House of Lords and an independent commission to recommend candidates for appointment as judges. A Constitutional Reform Bill to this effect was introduced in the 2003-04 session; under a rarely used procedure a Lords Select Committee was set up to consider the bill and instructed to report back to the House by 24th June 2004.
· changes to Standing Orders enabling a new Speaker - who is not a Minister - to be chosen in the House of Lords. A Select Committee on the Speakership of the House was appointed in July 2003 to consider future arrangements. Its recommendations were published in the first report of the committee, November 2003, and agreed by the House on 12 Jan 2004.
Other office holders in the House of Lords include government ministers and whips, the Leader and Chief Whip of the main opposition party, and two Chairmen of Committees. The Leader of the House occupies a special position in the House of Lords: as well as leading the party in government he has a responsibility to the House as a whole. It is to him, and not the Lord Chancellor, that members have turned for advice and leadership on points of order and procedure.
These office holders and officers, together with the Law Lords, receive salaries. All other members of the House of Lords are unpaid, but they are entitled to reimbursement of their expenses, within maximum limits for each day on which they attend the House. The Clerk of the Parliaments, a role like that of a chief executive, is head of the administration. The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod has ceremonial and royal duties and is in charge of security, access and domestic matters. Members of the House of Lords are not elected and, with the exception of bishops who leave the House on retirement, they retain their seats for life.
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The composition of the House of Lords is different from that of the House of Commons. There was traditionally a large number of Conservative peers in the Lords but this is no longer the case since the majority of hereditary peers were excluded from membership of the House followingthe House of Lords Act 1999.
About two thirds of the Lords align themselves with a political party. A distinctive feature of the House of Lords is the presence of crossbench peers who are not affiliated to any party group. Even those who are aligned may not attend the House regularly. The overall numbers and membership of the House of Lords changes more frequently than they do in the House of Commons.
Some Lords are former Members of the House of Commons who have been elevated to the Lords in recognition of distinguished service in politics or because one of the political parties wishes to have them in the House. People who have especially distinguished themselves in other parts of public life, such as industry, the trade unions, education, science, the arts and local government, are often brought into the House of Lords.
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Until the Reformation in the 16th century, the Lords Spiritual made up the majority of members of the House of Lords. They included archbishops, bishops and mitred abbots.
However, with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century, there were no abbots to attend, and with limitations being placed on the number of bishops entitled to sit in the Lords, the number of spiritual peers is now reduced to 26. They include the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of Durham, London and Winchester, and the 21 next most senior Church of England Bishops.
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Up to 1958, the Lords Temporal were all either hereditary peers (those who inherited their titles) or Law Lords (appointed for life to discharge the judicial functions of the House). In 1958 the Life Peerages Act was passed, which entitled the Queen to grant non-hereditary titles or life peerages to both men and women. The Queen exercises this prerogative on the advice of the Prime Minister. From May 2000 an Appointments Commission has operated a nominations system for cross-bench peers. The first of these nominated peers (sometimes referred to as 'People's Peers') were appointed in April 2001.
Since the House of Lords Act 1999, only 92 peers sit by virtue of hereditary peerage, 75 of whom were elected by their respective party groups. The remaining 17 are office holders or have ceremonial offices.
The most senior judges also sit in the House of Lords as Lords of Appeal ('Law Lords').
Exercises
