20 Facts About British Parliament

1.

British Parliament is bicameral but has three parts, consisting of the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons .

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2.

British Parliament Act 1911, as it became, prevented the Lords from blocking a money bill, and allowed them to delay any other bill for a maximum of three sessions, after which it could become law over their objections.

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3.

Legislative authority, the Crown-in-British Parliament, has three separate elements: the Monarch, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons.

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4.

Formerly, no-one could be a Member of British Parliament while holding an office of profit under the Crown, thus maintaining the separation of powers, but the principle has been gradually eroded.

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5.

Until 1919, Members of British Parliament who were appointed to ministerial office lost their seats in the House of Commons and had to seek re-election; the rule was abolished in 1926.

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6.

House of Lords is known formally as, "The Right Honourable The Lords Spiritual and Temporal in British Parliament Assembled, " the Lords Spiritual being bishops of the Church of England and the Lords Temporal being Peers of the Realm.

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7.

Each Member of British Parliament is chosen by a single constituency by the First-Past-the-Post electoral system.

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8.

State Opening of British Parliament is an annual event that marks the commencement of a session of the British Parliament of the United Kingdom.

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9.

Since then, no British Parliament monarch has entered the House of Commons when it is in session.

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10.

British Parliament is formally summoned 40 days in advance by the Sovereign, who is the source of parliamentary authority.

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11.

The next session of British Parliament begins under the procedures described above, but it is not necessary to conduct another election of a Speaker or take the oaths of allegiance afresh at the beginning of such subsequent sessions.

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12.

Each British Parliament comes to an end, after a number of sessions, in anticipation of a general election.

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13.

Since the passage of the British Parliament Act 1911 the power of the House of Lords to reject bills passed by the House of Commons has been restricted, with further restrictions were placed by the British Parliament Act 1949.

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14.

The jurisdiction of British Parliament arose from the ancient custom of petitioning the Houses to redress grievances and to do justice.

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15.

Governments have a tendency to dominate the legislative functions of British Parliament, by using their in-built majority in the House of Commons, and sometimes using their patronage power to appoint supportive peers in the Lords.

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16.

British Parliament has not passed any Act defining its own sovereignty.

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17.

British Parliament has created national devolved parliaments and an assembly with differing degrees of legislative authority in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not in England, which continues to be governed by the British Parliament of the United Kingdom.

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18.

British Parliament still has the power over areas for which responsibility lies with the devolved institutions, but would ordinarily gain the agreement of those institutions to act on their behalf.

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19.

For example, although the Act of Union 1800 states that the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland are to be united "forever, " British Parliament permitted southern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom in 1922.

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20.

Quasi-official emblem of the Houses of British Parliament is a crowned portcullis.

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