Making Government accountable is one of Parliament’s primary functions. The executive must answer to the Parliament. This process is exercised in particular during the Question Time in the House of Lords. Committees are also set up to provide expertise in best interest of the public.
Next function is representation. An MP may be elected on a party platform, represents geographical area in the UK. His interest should be his constituents regardless of the party he is associated to.
Parliament is also engaged in the process of recruitment of government ministers. The vast majority of government ministers are recruited form parliament. The majority of these will be MP’s that support the government; however the government can recruit from outside of Parliament or from the House of Lords. Career politicians may use their backbench position as a springboard for future promotions to office.
Existence of whips has a major impact on work of a whole government. House of Commons as well as House of Lords has their own whips. They are responsible for maintaining order, insuring party discipline and recruitment of governmental ministers. As they work in different state institutions they have different ways of maintaining discipline. In the Upper House whips can only use the power of persuasion on its members, while the whips from the House of Commons may use threat to keep MPs in line, as they are unlike Lords, democratically elected and more accountable to the public.
There are various reasons for tension between House of Commons and House of Lords. First of them might be fact that the majority of MPs would consider themselves to be the voice of the people, because they have been elected democratically. They see the House of Lords as being out of touch with the electors wishes, and therefore basing they decisions on they personal opinions and what they think the electorate needs, as for the House of Lords they see the MPs as reactionary. Therefore they often take the view that the MPs have knee-jerk-reaction and they feel that have countered that, almost adopting a big brother position which often leaves MPs feeling patronised.
The government declared intensions to reform House of Lords, eliminate hereditary peers and having a second elected chamber has not helped relations between House of Commons and the predominately hereditary peers of House of Commons. The Parliament Act gives the House of Commons a root to by pass the House of Lords completely. In practice House of Lords has no authority to influence Money Bills.
Then what has left for Lords to have power over? Certainly they concentrate on analyzing the Bills proposed by the Commons. The Bill might be returned for further consideration and delayed for up to a year. This can be another reason for conflict driven relationship between these two state institutions. Forcing commons to reconsider its proposals can lead to double work, costs increase and lack of they authority. This is not the intensions of the Lords, in fact the Upper House consists a large amount of experts. They are able to identify errors in legislation (David Roberts (2000) British Politics in Focus, Causeway Press).
Political organization whose effectiveness is crucially important to Britain is its Parliament. Effectiveness of it can be judged in accordance to functions it performs. Parliament, as its majority is elected, represents voice of the public is responsible for millions of citizens. By performing one of its functions has the ability to influence the laws invented either by the British government or by the EU. Every law will affect the public to some extent. That is the main reason why parliament has to fulfil its duties perfectly so the new law could be faultless.
Parliament as a majority of a government has the responsibility of maintaining an order as well as performing scrutiny of the executive. Providing independent expertise is possible through creating select committees. European legislation and the work of EU are well inspected by the Upper House. At this stage effective political organization is necessary to ensure that political changes will only improve economical situation of the countries.
Performing a wise control over public finances will help to provide the best public health services, educational system, public safety, etc.
This all shows how important is that, a person that rules the country is wisely selected in process of democratic elections and represents the best interest of the public. An effective political organization should be up to date with current political affairs from all round the world and what is more important; should answer to current needs of the public and be able to protect the country in any circumstances. Strong leadership is one of the most significant attributes of effective political organization.
Lack of it could be observed during government under John Major. After 1992 elections he was in parliamentary minority. Division over Europe attracted press criticism which eventually damaged his government. This leaves one conclusion; lack of decisive style of leadership leads to failure (class video 2004).
Bibliography:
Neil McNaughton (2001) Success in Politics 2nd edition, Murray
David Roberts (2000) British Politics in Focus, Causeway Press
Class video 2004
