The Commonwealth

There are 54 members of the Commonwealth, including the UK. It is a voluntary association of independent states, nearly all of which were once British territories, and includes almost one in three people in the world. The members are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus, Dominica, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, Vanuatu, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Queen is head of the Commonwealth and is head of state in the UK and 15 other member countries. The Commonwealth Secretariat, based in London, is the main agency for multilateral communication between member governments on matters relevant to the Commonwealth as a whole. The Secretariat promotes consultation and cooperation, disseminates information, and helps host governments to organize Heads of Government Meetings (normally held biennially), ministerial meetings and other conferences. It administers assistance programs agreed at these meetings, including the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, which provides advisory services and training to Commonwealth developing countries.

Parliament

The three parts of Parliament – the Sovereign, the appointed House of Lords and the elected House of Commons – are based on different occasions of symbolic significance such as the State Opening of Parliament, when the Commons is summoned by the Sovereign to the House of Lords. The agreement of all three is normally needed to pass laws, but that of the Sovereign is given as a matter of course.

Despite devolution, Parliament at Westminster can legislate for the UK as a whole and keeps powers to legislate for any parts of it separately. However, by convention it will not normally legislate on devolved matters without the agreement of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies. It still has responsibility for certain matters under the Acts of Parliament which set up these administrations. In the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which are Crown dependencies and not part of the UK, legislation on domestic matters normally takes the form of laws enacted by Island legislatures. However, UK laws are sometimes extended to the Islands, with their immigration and broadcasting.

As there are no legal restraints imposed by a written constitution, Parliament may legislate as it pleases, as long as the UK meets its obligations as a member of the European Union. It can make or change law, and overturn established conventions or turn them into law. It can even legislate to prolong its own life beyond the normal period without consulting the electorate.

In practice, however, Parliament does not assert itself in this way. Its members work within the common law and normally act according to precedent. The House of Commons is directly responsible to the electorate, and, increasingly during the 20th century, the House of Lords recognized the supremacy of the elected chamber.

1. Make adjectives from the following nouns.

Significance, legislation, power, parliament, law, responsibility, obligation, period, practice, supremacy.

2. Match the words on the left with their synonyms on the right.

Agreement duty

Common alter

Obligation extend

Change consent

Prolong whole

3. Complete the following statements according to the text.

1. The three parts of Parliament are __________.

2. By convention Parliament will not __________.

3. In the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, legislation __________.

4. Parliament is able to __________.

5. Members of Parliament work within __________.

6. The House of Commons is recognized as __________.

4. Give a summary of the text Parliament.

5. Compare British Parliament with any other country.