House of Commons of The United Kingdom

House Of Commons Of The United Kingdom

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The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which, like the House of Lords (the upper house), meets in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament (MPs). Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved.

A House of Commons of England evolved at some point in England during the 14th century, becoming the House of Commons of Great Britain after the political union with Scotland in 1707 and in the nineteenth century the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the political union with Ireland before assuming its current title after independence was given to the Irish Free State in 1922.

Under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords' power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains its support.

Read more about House Of Commons Of The United Kingdom:  History, Members and Elections, Procedure, Committees, 2010 Election

Famous quotes containing the words house of, house, commons, united and/or kingdom:

    “The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.”
    —Tony Benn (b. 1925)

    “In America a woman loses her independence for ever in the bonds of matrimony. While there is less constraint on girls there than anywhere else, a wife submits to stricter obligations. For the former, her father’s house is a home of freedom and pleasure; for the latter, her husband’s is almost a cloister.”
    —Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)

    “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)

    “An alliance is like a chain. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it. A great power like the United States gains no advantage and it loses prestige by offering, indeed peddling, its alliances to all and sundry. An alliance should be hard diplomatic currency, valuable and hard to get, and not inflationary paper from the mimeograph machine in the State Department.”
    —Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)

    “The Scripture was written to shew unto men the kingdom of God; and to prepare their minds to become his obedient subjects; leaving the world, and the Philosophy thereof, to the disputation of men, for the exercising of their natural Reason.”
    —Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)