For a law to be enacted it must be approved by the Queen in Parliament. That is a Bill (a draft law) must be presented and go through all the necessary stages in both Houses of Parliament and the Queen must signify her approval (which is a formality). The Bill then becomes an Act and […]

During the session the House of Lords meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 2.30 p.m. and on Thursdays at 3 p.m. Monday sittings at 2.30 and Friday sittings at 11 a.m. take place as business demands. Not all peers with a right to sit in the House of Lords attend the sittings. Average daily attendance […]

Parliament is the supreme legislative authority in Britain. The three elements of Parliament — the Queen and the two Houses of Parliament (the House of Lords and the elected House of Commons) are outwardly separate, are constituted on different principles, and they meet together only on occasions of symbolic significance, such as a coronation, or […]

When they speak of the British Parliament they usually mean the House of Commons. It is this House that is elected at a Parliamentary election. This reflects the leading role of the House of Commons though there is the other House in Westminster Palace, the House of Lords. Westminster is often referred to as ‘Mother […]

Although the Queen is deprived of actual power, she has retained many important, though formal, functions. These include summoning, proroguing and dissolving Parliament; giving royal assent to Bills passed by both Houses of Parliament; appointing every important office holder, including government ministers, judges, officers in the armed forces, governors, diplomats and bishops and some other […]

The United Kingdom is one of the few developed countries of capitalism where a constitutional monarchy has survived with its ages-old customs, traditions and ceremonies. The British constitution, unlike that of most other countries, is not contained in any single document: there is no written constitution. It was formed partly by statute, partly by common […]

English Sunday observance laws, with all their ridiculous anomalies, go back more than 350 years but the most important is the Act of 1780. The 1780 law was framed to block the spread of new ideas sparked off by the revolutions in France and America® and to curb the growth of trade unions during the […]

Just before the First World War when trade unions were beginning to grow rapidly and the Labour Party had begun to win seats in Parliament a newspaper called the Daily Herald was started. It was called “the miracle of Fleet Street’’ because the other newspapers could not see how a journal that did not have […]

The Law and the Church are powerfully interlocked with the History of Britain. Both judges and bishops sit in the House of Lords, and are honoured with ancient titles. Both reached a climax of fame in Victorian times. Both have been intensely conservative and resistant to change — as their votes in the House of […]

Six men whose fate shook all England were the Tolpuddle Martyrs. They were arrested and then deported to Australia in 1834. No one could have guessed that when the Tolpuddle parish constable tapped George Loveless on the shoulder and demanded that he accompany him to Dorchester he was Starting a case that was to shake […]