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When the Senate Race came up, I may have been the only person asking
what a Senator does and what the whole deal about it was. If Whyville
was English, you would probably be wondering the same as well!
Rule of the country
Firstly, England is run by our prime minister, NOT THE QUEEN. There are
two main parties that the Prime Minister usually comes from: The Labour
Party or the Conservative Party. There is also the Liberal Democrats,
usually less powerful than Labour and the Conservatives. There are
other, smaller parties, which mainly support single issues, but they
also wish to get control of as many seats in Parliament as possible.
Parliament
The prime minister doesn't do the job on his own. And even if the
country is "ruled by Labour," that does not mean that all the seats in
Parliament are held by people in the Labour Party.
In London, there is a big building called The Houses of Parliament (aka
the Palace of Westminster), which contains both the House of Commons
and the House of Lords. The House of Commons has more than 600 seats in
it. They all stand for a small area of land called a constituency. The
people in each constituency vote for a separate Member of Parliament
(MP). The MPs then sit in the Commons and discuss all new laws, etc.
The House of Lords is made up of wealthy land owners, bishops and
former members of the House of Commons. They also discuss laws and fine
it up a bit. The law then has to be passed to the monarch, who then
accepts or vetoes it. The British monarch has not rejected any law
since 1708!!!
Voting and standing for
To vote you must be 18, and not residing at HM (Her Majesty's) pleasure
(aka in jail).
To stand for an MP you must be 21.
Voting is done by secret ballot.
Hope you learned a little more about English politics.
Cobd (your English know-it-all)
Editor's
Note: So, what's the difference between the U.S. Congress and
England's Parliament?
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