Law making in the House of Commons is also the most important function as any MP can influence the legislation content, they can put forward their ideas and debate them in order to put forward a suitable bill to the House of Lords, trying to make sure there are no flaws. As the House of Commons is an elected chamber, the voice and opinions of the nation are also put forward by each MP from each constituency. MPs in the House of Commons are there to represent the nation as a whole, so they can influence legislation to help the nation and, hopefully, make our lives easier.
It could be argued that because the House of Commons spends so much time on the function of law making, that that could be their most important function. The House of Commons dedicates a lot of its time to law making, as they have to make sure that the bill is correct according to all human rights to put it forward to the House of Lords, without the House of Lords sending it back to be amended. This often takes up a lot of time, so it is vital that the bill is as near to perfect as they can make it, so debates soon ensue and a verdict is reached. The House of Commons doesn’t have to be a member of the government, so, the government don’t have to sponsor the bill but they can’t object to it being put forward. Most of the time the bill wouldn’t get past without government support but publicity would beckon.
However, Government legislation always takes priority over the legislation set about by in the House of Commons; it is seen that government issues are far more important than those in the House of Commons so if there isn’t enough time for the government to introduce or debate these bills, then they are left. It is not the place of the House of Commons to make their own bills whilst they should be supporting the government with theirs. There are two primary roles of the House of Commons and they are to support the government and not make opposing views, for example, Tony Blair would have wanted support during the Iraqi war debate but instead the majority of Parliament voted against a war and to act as a monitor for the government. The House of Commons is there to monitor the government and check its policies and legislations, they are a role of security among parliament and if too little time is given to this role, then mistakes would be made by the government, possibly very important ones. We must remember that; the House of Commons’ priority is not to make laws as they aren’t official law makers.
It appears everyone in parliament is out for personal gain and the back-benchers in the House of Commons are no different. The back-benchers in the House of Commons have a personal aim to help their constituency by making bills for them to improve their community, as they were voted in by their constituency to put forward their views and opinions but some back-benchers take this to the extreme. To these back-benchers, it is more important to help their own constituency than to make laws for other, generally more important, needs. Not only are the back-benchers sometimes selfish in their objectives, in some respects, but they are also easily influenced. MPs and whips often try to influence back-benchers as they are an easy target. Often, government ideas are imposed on them and they vote for what they have been influenced into doing. They are weak-willed and in some cases, power hungry. Therefore, bills can be created, perhaps private members’ bills, for other purposes and not their own.
Lastly, why does there have to be a most important factor, surely each function is more important than the next as each is like a cog in parliament’s machine? Surely we must consider all functions, not just law making. The House of Commons can, in effect, ‘elect’ and ‘unelect’ a government, such as the cabinet and Prime Minister to an extent. They sustain the government and have to grant approval of the government, as they are the authority of the people, indirectly. This would strengthen the government since it has approval of the nation. They play a partial role in legislation, in which they create bills to be passed through parliament, therefore, having an influence on laws. The House of Commons makes the government accountable, the government have to answer to them in order for new actions and policies to be justified or left open to debate, and this is a security blanket for the government. Representation; the House of Commons has to represent the nation, and, as such, when an issue is debated the nation are indirectly involved, they uphold the rights of the nation. Redress of grievances gives individuals the chance to air their dissatisfaction at certain governing bodies, therefore, being an outlet for complaints and people to air their opinions, so the same mistakes won’t be made in the future. Also, the influence of the House of Commons can help minority groups to have a fair say in many debates, many MP s are sponsored by these minority groups.
In conclusion, I think that a collaboration of all the functions is more important than having just one main role in the House of Commons, they all add to the way parliament is run and keep the machine running. Each function has a separate purpose that helps in its own way, if one was taken as a priority then other functions would begin to fail, which would, more often than not, be needed in the successful running of parliament.