Privileges of The UK House of Commons
The ancient and undoubted rights and privileges of the Commons are claimed by the Speaker at the beginning of each new Parliament. The privileges are only codified in Erskine May's Parliamentary Practice and the House itself is the only judge of its own privileges. Most of those specifically claimed are practically obsolete, but others remain very real:
- Freedom of speech; (members speaking in the House are not liable for defamation)
- Freedom from arrest in civil matters (practically obsolete);
- Access of the Commons to the Crown (via the Speaker); and
- That the most favourable construction should be placed upon the deliberations of the Commons.
Privileges not specifically mentioned:
- Right of the House to regulate its own composition; (although election petitions are now determined by the ordinary Courts)
- Right of the House to regulate its own internal proceedings, both as to matters and procedures;
- Right to punish members and “strangers” for breach of privilege and contempt;
- Right of freedom from interference (although members are no longer immune from all civil actions)
Read more about this topic: Parliamentary Privilege
Famous quotes containing the words privileges of the, privileges of, privileges, house and/or commons:
“Take two kids in competition for their parents’ love and attention. Add to that the envy that one child feels for the accomplishments of the other; the resentment that each child feels for the privileges of the other; the personal frustrations that they don’t dare let out on anyone else but a brother or sister, and it’s not hard to understand why in families across the land, the sibling relationship contains enough emotional dynamite to set off rounds of daily explosions.”
—Adele Faber (20th century)
“Take two kids in competition for their parents’ love and attention. Add to that the envy that one child feels for the accomplishments of the other; the resentment that each child feels for the privileges of the other; the personal frustrations that they don’t dare let out on anyone else but a brother or sister, and it’s not hard to understand why in families across the land, the sibling relationship contains enough emotional dynamite to set off rounds of daily explosions.”
—Adele Faber (20th century)
“We have been weakened in our resistance to the professional anti-Communists because we know in our hearts that our so-called democracy has excluded millions of citizens from a normal life and the normal American privileges of health, housing and education.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“He hath eaten me out of house and home, he hath put all my
substance into that fat belly of his.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I am really sorry to see my countrymen trouble themselves about politics. If men were wise, the most arbitrary princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny. Princes appear to me to be fools. Houses of Commons & Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools; they seem to me to be something else besides human life.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)