The UK Parliament
The King is not allowed into the House of Commons, and at every State Opening an MP is held 'hostage' at Buckingham Palace. Welcome to the UK Parliament.
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Quick Facts
- Where it sits
- The Palace of Westminster, London
- Two chambers
- House of Commons (650 elected MPs) and House of Lords
- Third part
- The Crown, whose assent turns bills into law
- Early milestone
- Simon de Montfort's 1265 parliament; Edward I's 'Model Parliament' followed in 1295
- Union of parliaments
- England and Scotland in 1707; Ireland joined in 1801
- Current building
- Rebuilt after the fire of 1834, designed by Charles Barry with Augustus Pugin
- Wartime damage
- The Commons chamber was destroyed by bombing on 10 May 1941 and reopened in 1950
- Devolved parliaments
- Scottish Parliament and Senedd cover Scotland and Wales; Northern Ireland has its Assembly
The monarch who can't come in
On 4 January 1642, Charles I marched into the House of Commons with armed men to arrest five MPs. They had been tipped off and gone. 'The birds are flown,' he is said to have remarked. The king left empty-handed, and the damage was permanent. No reigning monarch has entered the Commons chamber since. At the State Opening, the King sits in the House of Lords and sends Black Rod to summon the MPs. The Commons door is slammed in Black Rod's face, and only after a knock with the rod is it opened. The ritual is a reminder that the elected house answers to the people, not the Crown. Even the hostage tradition fits: an MP, usually a government whip, is kept at Buckingham Palace until the monarch has safely returned.
From a row with a baron to a model for the realm
Magna Carta in 1215 set the idea that even a king had to take advice. In 1265 the baron Simon de Montfort, who was in revolt against Henry III, called a parliament that included knights from the shires and burgesses from the towns. That was a radical step. In 1295 Edward I summoned what is now called the Model Parliament, and it set the pattern: nobles and clergy on one side, representatives of shires and towns on the other. Over the centuries the representatives became the Commons and the lords and bishops became the Lords. The real shift came after the Civil War and the 1688 Glorious Revolution, when it was settled that Parliament, not the monarch, held the upper hand.
How it actually works
Parliament has three parts: the Commons, the Lords and the Crown. Most bills need approval from both houses and Royal Assent before they become an Act. Under the Parliament Acts, qualifying bills can become law without the Lords' approval, as happened with the Hunting Act 2004. The Commons is the powerful chamber. Its 650 MPs each represent a constituency, and the party that can command a majority forms the government. The prime minister is an MP, which surprises many people who think the job is separately elected. The Lords is a revising chamber made up mainly of appointed life peers, alongside Church of England bishops who sit by virtue of their office and a remaining group of hereditary peers. The House of Lords Act 1999 initially allowed 92 hereditary peers to remain. The Lords can ask the Commons to think again, but it cannot ultimately block most legislation. Oddly, the Commons chamber has seats for only around 427 of its 650 members. A larger chamber was considered during discussions about rebuilding after the wartime bombing, but Churchill argued for retaining the relatively small chamber and its confrontational layout.
A palace that burned, then was bombed
On the night of 16 October 1834, a stove used to burn old tally sticks, the wooden records of the Exchequer, set the medieval palace alight. Westminster Hall survived. Much of the rest did not. The new Gothic building was designed by Charles Barry, with interiors by Augustus Pugin. Its clock tower, now called the Elizabeth Tower, houses the bell known as Big Ben. The name belongs to the bell, not the tower. In the Second World War, the Commons chamber was destroyed in the bombing of 10 May 1941. Winston Churchill argued it should be rebuilt as before, small and cramped, so that the House would stay intimate and lively. Giles Gilbert Scott's rebuilding reopened in 1950.
Four nations, four arrangements
The Parliament of Great Britain was created by the Acts of Union in 1707, merging the English and Scottish parliaments. Ireland joined in 1801, and after Irish independence the title became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Wales was legally merged into the English system in the 1500s, which is why the Welsh dragon doesn't appear on the Union Flag: Wales was already part of the Kingdom of England when the flag was designed. Devolution changed the picture again. The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood reopened in 1999, after nearly three centuries, and its Enric Miralles-designed building opened in 2004. The Welsh body, now called the Senedd, meets in a Richard Rogers building in Cardiff Bay. Northern Ireland's Assembly meets at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast, and was created under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. These bodies make laws on matters such as health and education. Westminster remains sovereign, though, and handles areas such as defence and foreign affairs for the whole UK.
Notable people
- Simon de Montfort
- Edward I
- Charles I
- Charles Barry
- Augustus Pugin
- Giles Gilbert Scott
- Winston Churchill
- Nancy Astor
- Enric Miralles
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