Category: Politics

In 1742 Lord Guernsey (1715-77) compared huntsmen’s assistants ‘whipping-in’ straying hounds back into the pack with Parliamentary leaders’ assistants coercing their Party’s wayward MPs to show up and vote for the Party’s policies. The metaphor stuck and the Whips still play a key role in the expected functioning of both Houses.

The Chief Government Whip has 8-10 Assistant Whips allocated to Members from different geographical areas. He draws up the weekly Order of Business in consultation with the Leader of the House and circulates it to Members. Important items are underlined once, twice or thrice according to degree of necessity for attending the debate. The most pivotal matters have three underlines, hence the term “three-line whip”. Absence could be excused if a ‘pairing’ is arranged with a trustworthy Opposition Member.

However, a Member who defiantly goes against ‘the Party line’ may find the whip ‘withdrawn’ temporarily which could lead to expulsion from the Party. Whips, who must be excellent communicators and negotiators in their interactions with all Parliamentary levels, passing information back and forth, do thereby have certain ‘carrots’ for persuasion of wavering Members, such as recommendation for promotion or even Honours, since they have the ear of those who decide those matters.

(Image: Philippejacquet01 at pixabay.com / Public domain)

Mystifying as they may seem to a casual onlooker, there are certain procedural rules that everyone in the two Houses of Parliament must follow. These are called Standing Orders ~ ‘standing’ because although they are amended frequently, they continue to be observed from one Parliament to the next. They necessarily began to evolve with the establishment of the first Parliaments in the 13th and 14th centuries.

There are separate Standing Orders for each House and for Public and Private business, making four sets in total. They cover the steps for debating, asking questions, putting motions, joining committees, making statements and amendments, and even the timing of sittings and the etiquette of taking seats in the House. In addition to this guidance, there is a Code of Conduct for personal behaviour.

Prior to 1854, when there were procedural reforms, the Standing Orders were indulgent by omission and so few that they took just one sheet of paper, but there are now hundreds of pages for the new MP or Lord to absorb. There are also the unwritten ‘conventions’ to take on board. However, there are numerous staff members to assist with all of this, as well as provide debate packs, analyses and briefings.

(Image: House of Commons at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The period of riots, protests and terrorism that began in the late 1960s in Northern Ireland and went on for three decades was known as ‘The Troubles’. They came to a much-needed end after a long series of covert discussions in the background and occasional public statements, together forming the Northern Irish Peace Process. The politicians involved made their contributions bravely, since any concessions to one side or the other were bound to be criticised. Thankfully, the para-military leadership eventually realised that negotiations were the only way forward and they could never ‘win’ through violence.

The most important agreements were the Downing Street Declaration of 1993 and the Belfast (or  ‘Good Friday’) Agreement of 1998, the former opening up the possibility for the latter. The 5-year gap between them is evidence of the myriad of hurdles that had to be cleared. The 1993 Declaration stated that unification of N.Ireland with the Republic of Ireland could only be made with the people’s majority consent and the 1998 Agreement established institutions for co-operation between those two countries and between the UK and the Republic.

After sporadic terrorist bombings, the ceasefire finally held and the N.Ireland Assembly, the North-South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council all began operations.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

From peasant subsistence to ‘feeding the nation’, British agriculture has undergone many changes and been subjected to the government’s agricultural policies ever since it was recognised that the food supply affected the ability to wage war. The so-called Corn Laws were an early example of protecting the livelihoods of farmers from cheaper imported grain but these were repealed in 1846, a time when common land was allowed to be gobbled up completely by the large landowners and a potato famine drew mass Irish immigration into Britain.

What followed was a 25-year Golden Age of British farming. Then, competition from huge American farms and elsewhere, entering via the new steamships and railways, severely tested the free trade principle. After WW2, government subsidies were finally brought in and have remained in one form or another.

During our 1973-2020 membership of the EEC/EU the Common Agricultural Policy superseded any UK ideas of regulating domestic agriculture and fisheries. Intensification and specialisation were encouraged and no limits were put on output, resulting in European ‘butter mountains’ and ‘wine lakes’, for instance. Since then, environmental and conservation concerns have played a large role in shaping policies administered by DEFRA. Inheritance tax changes are currently (12/2024) being protested by farmers.

(Image: Peter Whatley at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

A constitution sets out how a community has agreed to be governed. The British Constitution is a unique, time-worn set of principles and rules, some unwritten, which have developed alongside the historical events in Britain’s journey from Magna Carta Libertatum (1215) to the present day. It has three sectors: the legislative (Parliament), the executive (the Cabinet, Prime Minister, Civil Service and the Monarchy) and the judicial (judges and the court system).

Unlike other countries, Britain does not have a single document that lays out its Constitution; it would be the length of an encyclopedia if one did exist. Instead, it comprises Magna Carta, the Petition of Right  (1628), the Bill of Rights (1689), common law, the Statutes, the precedents set by judges’ decisions (case law) and the conventions.

One only has to look at the power-shifting relationship between the Houses of Lords and Commons which began with the Reform Act of 1832 to appreciate the value of the British Constitution’s flexibility, as well as the existence of various checks and balances, so that modifications are gradual and careful. It has been described as a ‘delicate machinery’ in which any change filters through the apparatus, but that is how it maintains its somewhat quirky integrity.

(Image: pexels.com / CC0)

The Liberal Democrat Party (‘LibDems’) was formed in 1988 as an amalgamation of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. Today, however, they see themselves as a continuation of the Liberal Party, thereby laying claim to that Party’s history, going back to 1859. The merger served to boost their election results for a while, culminating in the coalition government of 2010-15 in which the LibDem leader (Nick Clegg) became Deputy Prime Minister along with some other LibDem members of the Cabinet.

However, the LibDems appeared ineffective in this situation and public support quickly faded. The Party has instead achieved much more success at local council level. For example, while their policy on re-entering the E.U. is not a vote-winner in a General Election, concern with potholes on local streets from a Party which is not entangled in everyday Parliamentary squabbles does garner support in local elections.

So whereas the Party had at its peak 18% of the national vote yielding 57 MPs (2010), it currently has around 3,000 local councillors, the third highest, with control of some councils overall. It also tends to do well in by-elections, achieving big swings from both Conservatives and Labour, as these generate focus on local as well as national issues.

(Image of LibDem 2015 campaign bus: Liberal Democrats at Flickr.com / CC BY-ND 2.0)

Of the three dozen British dukedoms (duchies) that still exist, several are in royal possession (“merged in Crown”) after having become vacant at some point in the past. There had been just three Dukes of Lancaster before the fourth inherited the title and became King Henry V (1386-1422) simultaneously in 1413, thereby preserving it and all its estates for the monarch personally to this day.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a Member of Parliament chosen to represent the monarch’s Duchy interests in the Cabinet. The Chancellor answers to the King/Queen for the administration of the commercial, agricultural, financial and residential portfolio, though most of this is delegated to the Duchy Council to carry out. The profits generated by the Duchy go to the monarch via the Keeper of the Privy Purse and amount to some £20,000,000 per year before tax (paid voluntarily). Just one other Duchy provides income to royalty in this way, namely the Duchy of Cornwall.

In Cabinet and in the House of Commons, the Chanellor holds a senior position and has wide-ranging oversight of government policy, security and conduct, including that of major events. For example, in 2023 he was involved in the planning of the King’s Coronation.

(Image of Duchy-owned Lancaster Castle: Ian Taylor at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

King Edward VII (1841-1910) created the Order of Merit (OM) in 1902 in recognition of “..exceptionally meritorious service in Our Navy and Our Army..” (the Air Force was added in 1935) or for civilians equally meritorious in the “..advancement of the Arts, Learning, Literature and Science, or such other exceptional service”. Awardees are chosen solely by the monarch and there are only 24 British or Commonwealth members of the Order at any one time. Foreign recipients are additional to this but on an Honorary basis.

The first 12 members comprised three Field Marshals, two Admirals, two physicists, two politicians, a painter, an astronomer and a surgeon, suggestive of the King’s concerns and interests at the time. The first foreigners to be recognised were three Japanese military leaders in 1906 and the first woman was nurse Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) in 1907. Six British Prime Ministers wore the OM badge ~ Balfour, Lloyd George, Churchill, Atlee, Macmillan and Margaret Thatcher.

Current members include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, David Hockney and Sir James Dyson, and a gathering of some or all of these glittering personalities would make for fascinating conversations! With ages ranging from 56 to 96 and careers including architect, playwright, engineer, archbishop, mathematical physicist and conductor, the anecdotes would doubtless be rather special.

(Image: Oosoom at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

One of the noteworthy figures in the formation of Great Britain (England, Wales & Scotland) was the 4th Duke of Hamilton (1658-1712) from Lanarkshire. He, and others, suffered a significant financial loss in Scotland’s Darién Scheme of 1698-1700, with the ship named after him being among those that never returned from a short-lived colony in Spanish-controlled territory. The Scottish economy, already hit by a string of poor harvests, almost collapsed.

Furthermore, Hamilton proffered his claim to the  joint Scottish-English throne, as he was of Stuart descent, like Queen Anne (1665-1714), who had no living child. The Scots were angry that the English Parliament independently pursued the German royal line for a successor, so they passed a law affirming their right to have a separate monarch, as they did pre-1603.

The English then threatened to put Scots on the same footing as any other foreigners. Queen Anne saw union as the solution, which would come with jobs and financial assistance, plus the retention of the Scottish church, education and legal systems. Hamilton was persuaded but stayed away from the 1707 Parliamentary vote on the Act of Union with toothache. He subsequently received several English titles but was killed in a duel in London over an inheritance.

(Images:- Great Britain flag [adjusted]: Elliott Brown at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0, Scottish & English flags: publicdomainpictures.net / CC0)

Members of Parliament can be regarded as the front-end, public-facing partners of His/Her Majesty’s Home Civil Service (HCS), an organisation which is tasked with the nuts-and-bolts administration of the country. HCS employees are called civil servants but they are actually Crown servants and they populate dozens of departments and specialist agencies covering numerous aspects of government control.

The total number of civil servants, which has been over a million and is currently (2022) around half that, varies according to prevailing political factors, such as:-

• wars/conflicts
• nationalisation/privatisation of major industries
• report recommendations on recruitment/redundancy
• Parliament’s desire to follow new, untried, far-reaching policies

The origins of the HCS lie in the small teams of clerks who assisted court appointees. These teams, or secretariats, blossomed with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the British Empire, but by the mid-1800s it was recognised that the whole body needed overhauling and regulation, with entrance examinations and promotion given on merit. Indeed the size and efficiency of the HCS has been a regular topic for parliamentary consideration. HCS careers can be tailored to one department or many and range from leadership and responsibility for policy formation and implementation, to administrative office work and boots-on-the-ground tasks.

(Image of civil servants in training: UK CivilService at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The Good Parliament of 28 April – 10 July 1376 was followed by the Bad Parliament of 27 January – 2 March 1377, which reversed everything accomplished by the former and added an unpopular poll tax on top. Indeed the issue of tax was one of the main reasons the ailing King Edward III (1312-77) had brought the MPs together.

A 10-day debate opened the session, in which all their complaints were aired, including:-

• Edward’s excessive demands for tax
• the financial corruption of his inner circle
• his mis-management of the war with France resulting in loss of French territory
• the fortune given to his mistress, Alice Perrers (1348-1400), from royal coffers
• Perrers’s interference in legal cases against her friends

Sir Peter de la Mare (c.1330-c.1390) summarised their grievances so well that he was elected ‘Prolocutor’, or Speaker, to represent these to the King.  He was the first to hold such a position.

Another ‘first’ was the use of impeachment ~ a prosecution conducted by the House of Commons and judged by the House of Lords. Three of the King’s financial associates were thus sentenced, jailed and fined. Perrers was made to swear that she would not go near the King, even when his son the Black Prince died in the June.

(Image of King Edward III: www.worldhistory.org / CC BY-NC 4.0)