Lesson 3

Text 4

British Parliament today- Questions

1. What are the specific features of the system of government in the UK?

The system of parliamentary government in the UK is not based on written constitution. Political leaders of executive are members of the legislature and responsible to elected assembly. Governments tenure of office depends on the support of a majority in HoC, where it has to meet informed and public criticism by an Opposition capable of succeeding is as a government should the electorate so decide. UK Parliament profound influence on the development of parliaments overseas.

2. What is the Queen-in- Parliament?

It is the supreme legislative authority in the UK, which consists of Oueen+HOL+HOC.

3. What is the relationship between the three elements of Parliament?

They work separately; constituted on different principles; do different work in different places. Sometimes they meet together (on coronation or State opening of Parliament). As a law-making organ of State Parliament is a corporate body and with certain exceptions can’t legislate without the concurrence of all its parts.

4. How long does a Parliament last?

P. lasts for five years. It was fixed firstly in the Parliament Act 1911 (без of) and then it was fixed again in the Parliament Act 2011. Although P. may be dissolve and a general election held before the expiry of the legal term.

5. Prove that Parliament is sovereign.

Parliament is sovereign Because it’s not subject to the type of legal restraints imposed on the legislatures of countries which have formal written constitutions, P., during this period, is to legislate as it pleases: to make and unmake any law, to legalize past illegalities and make void and punishable what was lawful when done + return conventions into a binding law. If both H agreed it could prolong its own life of five years without consulting with electorate.

Parliament is free to legislate as it please.

6. How has the balance of power between the Houses changed?

In modern world the center of parliamentary power in the UK is popularly elected HoC, but until the 20 century the Lords’ power of veto over measures proposed by HoC was unlimited. The Parliament Act 1911 curtailed the veto of HoL to a period of 2 years for Bills passed by HoC in 3 successive sessions, and abolished the veto in connection with Bills dealing with expenditure or taxation. Then the Parliament Act 1949 reduced the delaying power of the Lords from 2 years to 1 and the number of successive sessions from 3 to 2. Nowadays the principal function of HoL is revision and that its object is to complement the HoC and not to rival it.

Facile (поверхностно), empty and cliched – Liz Truss’s first week has been a disaster (катастрофа)

The new prime minister made promises on the campaign trail she hoped would be forgotten. She is already paying the price

Премьер-министр надеется, что обещания, которые она сделала за свою политическую карьеру (которые тянутся следом за ее политической компанией), будут забыты.

Liz Truss may not make an exciting or popular Tory leader, but she may have one thing going for her. She may be lucky. A mere (всего лишь) 12% of voters expect her to be a good prime minister. But, just as Tony Blair was eased into Downing Street by his handling of the death of Diana (his “people’s princess”), so the death of the Queen could help Truss steady and establish herself.

Но, также как Тони Блэру помогло попасть на Даунинг стрит то, как он справился со смертью Дианы (его народной принцессой, принцессой людских сердец), так же смерть королевы может помочь Трасс укрепиться и проявить себя.

As the nation enters a period of mourning (траур) – grossly oversold by the BBC (сильно распиаренному, опошленному) – Westminster’s current political hysteria should calm (истерия должна поутихнуть). Truss’scrony cabinet can settle in (в кабинете (правительстве) могут обосноваться дружки, лояльные к Трасс). The Treasury can tend its wounds (казна может залатать дыры), while the media turns its attention to King Charles and the future of the monarchy.

Truss already has ground to make up (у нее есть почва, чтобы наверстать упущенное, исправиться). Her cabinet appointments defied all advice about appeasing her enemies (ее правительство бросает вызов всем советам удовлетворить интересы врагов) and accommodating different strands in her party (и объединить разнородные, разрозненные части ее партии). An acrimonious leadership campaign(язвительная избирательная компания) and a close victory over Rishi Sunak clearly demanded some effortat soothing wounds (быстрая победа над Раши Сунаком потребовали некоторых усилий, чтобы сгладить обиды). Truss did the opposite, sacking the few able ministers to survive Boris Johnson’s mayhem (министром, способных предотвратить разгром Джонсона), such as George Eustice, Grant Shapps and Greg Clark. Instead, she chose a cabinet defined purely (определенный чисто) by loyalty to her. Its gender and ethnic diversity was the only thing remarkable about it (самое запоминающееся о нем это гендерный иэтнический состав). With only a minority of her parliamentary party voting for her as leader, she has ensured eagerness for revenge when things start going wrong (она уверила всех в своем рвении к реванжу, когда всепошло не так).

This will come harder, since Truss is no master of the parliamentary stage (это будет трудно, так как Трасс нематер парламентских выступлений). A sentence from Johnson could have his backbenchers baying with delight (заявления Джонсона могли вызывать у заднескамеечников восторг). Truss’s response to questions from Keir Starmer at her first prime minister’s questions had the virtue of directness (обладалидостоинством прямоты), but her answers seemed wooden and dull (топорные (деревянные) и скучные). She could not summon up one memorable phrase in her initial message on the Queen’s passing (она невыдала ни одной запоминающейся фразы в своем послании на смерть королевы). She does not do rhetoric, only cliché (она занимается не риторикой, а повторением клише) – “from thick and thin” she said, in a brisk and cursory speech at Downing Street (через огонь и воду, сказала она в беглой и поверхностнойречи). She might have been reading out a shopping list.

But not all prime ministers are performers. Brevity is a virtue in itself (краткость – сестра таланта, добродетель сама по себе), and minimalism could be Truss’s secret weapon. After Johnson, she has the opportunity to exploit the strength of her weakness (использовать силу своей слабости). She can take the steam out of every crisis and make it seem boring (она может найти выход из любого кризиса и сделать егоскучным с виду).

The best news is that, after a life spent trimming her views to the prevailing wind (после жизни, потраченнойна подстраивание своего мнения под направление ветра, после жизни, где ее мнение менялось взависимости от того, куда ветер дует), Truss brings to her job no sense of principle (политика Трассбеспристрастна). It took just 24 hours on Monday for her to forget her campaign pledge of “no handouts” (политические обещания «никаких подачек, льгот»). Now she promises the biggest handout in history, upwards of £150bn to subsidize energy bills (более 150 миллиардов на субсидирование счетов заэнергию). On top of that, she allows surely the largest handout to any industry, by declining to tax the energy companies of their stupefying £170bn in excess profits (отказываясь от налогообложения сверхприбыливыше ошеломляющих 170 миллиардов энергетических компаний), won by charging those same consumers as a result of sanctions against Russia (выигравшие от взимания платы с тех потребителей). She says she will borrow the money from future taxpayers (она говорит, что возьмет деньги с будущихналогоплательщиков).

Truss opposes windfall taxes (налог на сверхприбыль) as they “deter investment”. This is facile (поверхностно). Given soaring demand for energy, the companies already have huge incentives to invest (получившие растущий спрос на энергию итак имеет огромные стимулы инвестировать). Truss may oppose tax and spend (Трасс может соотносить поступления и расходы), but what is so virtuous in spend and borrow? While France, Germany and most of the EU are taking direct action, including windfall taxes, to break the hold energy suppliers have over their consumers (чтобы сломать хватку поставщиков энергии надпотребителями), Truss is stuck (застряла) in a bunker. It is hard to believe she can stay there for long.

Opposition politicians love to make promises they hope will be forgotten, but Truss was not in opposition. She was a member of a government that spent its way through a pandemic lockdown with panache (провелсвой путь в период локдауна с размахом) – and grotesque waste (и с колоссальными расходами). She now means to spend as much as the government did on lockdown to excuse corporate profiteering (чтобыоправдать корпоративную спекуляцию/барышнчество). Meanwhile, she still has 25,000 migrants crossing the Channel this year alone. She has 60,000 court cases idle and overdue for a hearing (застрявших ипросроченных). She has 6.8 million people waiting for hospital treatment (стационарное лечение), and an NHS the laughing stock of European healthcare (Национальная служба здравоохранения Англии, посмешище европейской медицины).