CHAPTER IV

PARLIAMENT (Continued)

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT. KING'S SPEECH

You will remember that we left the newly-elected members waiting to take their seats in the Parliament House whilst the Prime Minister was selecting colleagues to fill the great offices of State. These appointments have now been made, a Speaker" or Chairman has been chosen, Members have been sworn" (i.e. taken the Oath of Allegiance), and the day fixed for the formal opening of Parliament arrives. The King generally arranges to open Parliament in person.

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Accompanied by the Queen, the King drives from Buckingham Palace in the State Coach, and is received with great ceremony at the entrance to the House of Lords by the high dignitaries of State, clad in their sumptuous robes of office. Proceeding to the House of Lords the King seats himself upon the Throne. The Queen sits beside him. A messenger is then despatched to summon the Members of the House of Commons to hear the King's Speech.

As the House of Lords and the House of Commons are at opposite ends of a long handsome corridor, it occupies a little time for "Black Rod" (as the messenger is quaintly styled) to accomplish his errand. Meanwhile the King and Queen and the whole assembly sit quietly in their places. At last the Commons, headed by the Speaker, before whom is carried the great Mace, arrive, and stand uncovered at the bar of the House whilst the King reads the Speech which is placed in his hands by the Lord Chancellor. This document contains the programme of the proposed measures about to be presented for the consideration of Parliament. It outlines in a general manner the labours of the coming Session. Though it is called the King's Speech it is in reality drafted by the Cabinet,

and submitted to the King for approval. The Speech always concludes with an invocation of the Divine Blessing upon the labours of Parliament. After reading the Speech the King retires leading the Queen by the hand.

The ancient, dignified, and picturesque ceremony of opening Parliament being over, the Commons hasten back to their own Chamber, and the work of Parliament begins in earnest. Perhaps a few members who have been detained in the country are waiting to take the Oath of Allegiance. This is a formality occupying but a few moments, but one nevertheless of high importance. Indeed, a member may be heavily fined if he takes his seat and joins in the business of the House before having taken the Oath, or made an equivalent Affirmation.

THE LABOURS OF THE SESSION

Whilst members are assembling and exchanging friendly greetings and congratulations after the vicissitudes of the general election, we may consider for a moment the task to which these gentlemen are about to address themselves. They have come together as the chosen representatives of the nation to discharge vast duties and responsibilities. Upon their collective wisdom depends the welfare of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. Not only have they to look after the internal affairs of England, Scotland, and Wales, but those also of India, and many of the colonies. The maintenance in an efficient condition of the Navy and of the Army occupies a large share of the attention of Imperial Parliament, whilst the commercial and political relations with other nations and with our self-governing colonies have also to be carefully considered. All manner of social questions, such as the education and the health of the young, unemployment, insurance against sickness and accidents, problems of trade and wages and housing of the people form part of their work. These are but a few of the important subjects which claim the time and thought of our legislators, and you have only to look at the report of the proceedings of Parliament in the daily papers to see for yourselves the infinite variety of other matters which come up before the House of Commons for discussion, and perhaps legislation. No tramway in the remotest corner of the country, no drainage scheme, no railway extension, no harbour or dock construction, can come into existence without

first obtaining the sanction of Parliament. Many of these affairs are of interest only to the people immediately concerned, and are carried through the House as "Private Acts." But even Private Acts have to go through just the same procedure as Public Acts, about which you will learn more in a few

moments.

OVERWORKED PARLIAMENT

You will believe, therefore, that Parliament is an overworked assembly. It has really too much to do and too many things to think of to do them all well and thoroughly. For this reason some people wish to set up subordinate Parliaments in Scotland and Wales (see p. 22), which shall take part of the work off the shoulders of the Imperial Parliament.

LEGISLATION AND ADMINISTRATION

If you examine somewhat further into the labours of Parliament you will find that part of its work consists in making laws, and part in seeing that those laws are properly administered. Legislation, or law-making, forms only a portion of the business of the House of Commons. Much time is spent by members in listening to questions about the way in which the law is being carried out. Every grievance of a public nature, be it great or small, is brought before Parliament. If, for instance, the design upon some new stamps displeases any member, he will ask a question upon the subject, and the Postmaster-General will answer that question. If a number of members are dissatisfied, a debate will take place upon the matter, and perhaps some alteration in the design of the stamps will be promised. In the case of more serious grievances the Government will undertake to bring forward a new Bill to remedy the trouble.

CONTROL OF THE EXECUTIVE

The Ministers who for the time being are at the head of the great Departments of State have to answer in Parliament for the good management of their departments. If anything goes very seriously wrong in any department, the Minister in charge may be called upon to resign his office. Thus, for

example, the Board of Education has to see that there is a Public Elementary School within reach of every child in the kingdom; and if any village were not supplied with a school you may be sure that a question would soon be asked in Parliament about it. The Minister of Education would then have to give some good reason why no school had been supplied, or he would be blamed for not managing his Department better. Not many years ago the Under-Secretary to a Minister had to explain why there was not more of an explosive called cordite in the Government magazines. Members did not think the answer satisfactory, and when the House “divided " on the question (see p. 36) the Government was defeated, i.e. had a minority of votes;. whereupon they resigned office. A general election took place, resulting in the return of the opposite party to power.

By such means as those above outlined, Parliament sees that great departments of the Government are properly managed. Master this fact, for it distinguishes our Parliamentary system from those of some other great nations Parliament not only controls legislation, but controls also the Executive (i.e. those who administer or execute the laws made by Parliament), by making the Ministers responsible for the good administration of the Departments of which they are respectively put in charge.

DANGER OF BUREAUCRACY

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[Theoretically Ministers are individually responsible to Parliament for the administration of their Departments.

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Under our Parliamentary system, however, it frequently happens that a Minister is appointed to a Department for the work of which his previous career affords no training. Thus, it has happened that a lawyer has been made War Minister, a business man Minister of Education, a country squire Chancellor of the Exchequer, a medical man Minister of Munitions, a literary man First Lord of the Admiralty, and so forth. Being new to their work they have to be "coached the organisation and business of the Department by the officials. One of the daily functions of a Minister is to answer questions asked in the House of Commons relating to his Department. As a matter of fact it is usual for the permanent officials to write out the answer to these questions and for the Minister to read this answer in the House. So heavy is the pressure of work in Parliament, where his attendance is constantly demanded, that even the most energetic and

capable of Ministers is compelled to rely on the permanent staff of his Office for information, instruction, and guidance.

It is well that you should grasp the full import of this situation, viz. that the Minister is obliged to trust to the officials to carry out the work of administration. To the credit of our Civil Service this duty is usually well and faithfully performed. But a great principle is at stake. The tendency is for more and more power to fall into the hands of the officials and for less and less control to be exercised over their action. Complaint is already heard that Ministers are becoming a mere figure-head or mouthpiece of their respective Departments.

And so once again we come to the same conclusion as we arrived at in the last chapter, viz. that Parliament must be lightened of many of its labours if it is to regain full and effective control over the Executive. Failing this we shall drift insensibly and inevitably into a bureaucratic form of government, i.e. government by officials.]

VOTING SUPPLIES

It is hardly necessary to tell you that no taxes can be levied without the consent of Parliament. "No taxation without the people's consent." Reasonable as this now seems to you, it took centuries for Parliament to wrench this valuable prerogative from the Crown. Read in your histories about John Hampden who refused to pay a tax levied by Charles I. without the consent of Parliament, and you will see with what cost and suffering our forefathers gained for us what we now regard as a most elementary right. With keen practical sense our ancestors realised that if Parliament secured control of the national purse, it could gradually enforce other rights, by the simple process of refusing to grant money to the King unless he ruled in accordance with the wishes of his people. 'No supplies until grievances are redressed," was their maxim, and it is the working rule of Parliament to this day.

Unless Parliament annually votes the money to pay for the Army, the Navy, for the Civil Service, for Education, Old Age Pensions, for payment of the interest on the National Debt, etc., a chaotic condition of affairs would ensue. So among its multifarious duties Parliament has to spend many days in the session in "voting supplies," as the old phrase calls it. When the House" goes into Supply," the Government asks for money for various purposes. Perhaps it is for the Navy, and the Government is proposing to spend several more millions upon the construction of battleships. A sharp