House of Commons
Makeup
-consisting of 498 MPs
-Ireland: 132 MPs
Diagram
House of Peers
-consists of 200 Peers
-reformed under Heads of British Isles > 1897-1907 Charles James Fox Martineau (Radical-Democratic - "Radical") †
University Seats
-consisting of grad students from
1. Oxford
2. Cambridge
3. Inns of Court
4. London
5. Newcastle
6. Kings
7. Lunar
8. Leeds
9. York
10. Exeter
11. Combined English
12. Carnarvon
13. Merthyr Tydfil
14. Cardiff
15. Combined Welsh
16. St. Andrews and Glasgow
17. Aberdeen and Edinburgh
18. Faculty of Advocates and Brougham
19. Combined Scottish
20. Dublin
21. Cork
22. Belfast
23. Derry
24. O'Connell
25. Galway
26. Tara
27. Combined Irish
Overseas Holdings Seats
-consisting of Lords Agent-General for
1. Gibraltar
2. Saint Helena
Commons Seats
-consisting of 15 outgoing MPs from the outgoing House of Commons
County Seats
-consisting of 56 elected by electoral colleges consisting of county councils
Chambers of Commerce Seats
-consisting of 35 elected by various Chambers of Commerce from across the country
Chambers of Labour Seats
-consisting of 35 elected by the Chamber of Labour, consisting of labor representatives
Chambers of Agriculture Seats
-consisting of 15 elected by the Chamber of Agriculture, consisting of representatives of agrarian interests
School Boards Seats
-consisting of 5 elected by electoral colleges consisting of school boards
Crown Seats
-consisting of 10 selected by the Crown
Procedures
Chief Magistrate's Message to Parliament
-occur annually
-Chief Magistrate takes permission from Parliamentary Guard to enter through Magisterial Porch
-with one of his lictors permitted to go with him
-lictor knocks on the door of the Peers with long end of fasces to ask invitation in for purpose of speech
-Peers debate resolution, accepted
-with Chief Magistrate seated on chair, lictor goes to Commons, knocks on door with long end of fasces to request they join peers for debate
-Ministers ejected, go with lictor
-doors slammed in face
-Commons debates, may take a while depending on mood, but eventually accepts
-Commons goes to lobby in b/w, at bar, to listen to speech
-Chief Magistrate gives general, short speech on constitutional principles, then yields floor to ministers
-ministers then give speeches on policy issues (as appropriate)
Firsts in British Parliamentary History
The first Catholic MP since the institution of the Penal Laws was the radical reformer, reconciler of liberty and Catholicism, Irish nationalist, pacifist, and abolitionist politician and statesman Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847). Following a long political career in which he fought against civil disabilities suffered by Catholics and Nonconformists through the use of peaceful protest, he was arrested in 1823 by the Frederick regime; he was freed in 1827, following the British Wars > Popular Revolution (1827-9) ending the Frederick regime permanently. That same year, a Convention Parliament was convened, and following the precedent of previous Convention Parliaments, no oath-giving would be required for elected MPs, a fact which meant that Catholics were now eligible for election to Parliament. O'Connell took full advantage of this and won election as an MP for Clare County along with a substantial Irish contingent of fellow MPs who he led. As an MP in the Convention Parliament, his support was indispensable and he made sure that the new Constitution declared religious liberty and equality under the law, along with an end to anti-Catholic oaths for public office. Following the ratification of the Constitution, he later won election to regular Parliament as a member for West Clare (1829-1831; 1833-1834), Central Dublin (1837-1843), and West Cork (1843-1847), in which he helped to found the Radical Party and was involved in abolitionism, the abolition of the common law and legal reform, reforms to administration in Ireland and India, and finally the establishment of the Irish Assembly in 1847. His name remains internationally renowned to this day, synonymous with liberty and political change through peaceful protest.
The first Asian MP, the first Indian MP, the first Bengali MP, and the first Hindu MP was the Bengali sociopolitical and religious reformer Ram Mohan Roy (1774-1841). Following a career in which he founded his own sect of Hinduism and crusaded against widow mistreatment in Hinduism, and also fought for civil rights in the British Raj, he moved to Britain in 1830, in which he took advantage of the end of religious civil disabilities due to the British Wars > Popular Revolution (1827-9) to win election to Parliament as a member for East Finsbury in the same year. He joined the coalition which preceded the Radical Party in 1831. Though he successfully proposed and pushed through a bill banning sati, he faced a string of racist attacks and found himself condescended to even by allies; an attempt to reform colonial administration of the Raj to recognize Indian civil rights and institute representative government was watered down into insignificance. Disillusioned following the end of his term as MP in 1833, he made his way back to India in which he worked to promote education and pushed civil rights charters into princely states in the hopes that future generations would succeed at establishing good government for the peoples of India. Note that the religious faith of Ram Mohan Roy is a matter of some dispute; he belonged to Brahmo Samaj, a Hindu sect influenced by Unitarian Christianity. During his election in 1830 he was viewed as a Unitarian Christian, and he was sworn in on an edition of the Bible which included solely the doctrines of Jesus. Furthermore, the religion of Naya Dharma regards him posthumously as an adherent and an important precursor towards their goal of reconciling the world's religions. If Ram Mohan Roy is not counted as a Hindu, then the first Hindu MP was Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842-1901), who served as a Lord Agent-General for the city of Bombay from 1882 to 1885, in which he fought unsuccessfully for the establishment of industry, famine relief systems, and poor relief in the British Raj.
The first Jewish MP was the financier, activist, philanthropist, and politician Moses Montefiore (1784-1885). Born into an Italian banking family which later moved to London, he served as a stockbroker as a young man, and it was on the stock market on which he made his fortune. Active in the business of Old London, he made connections with reformist circles of evangelicals and nonconformists, which brought him increasingly towards politics. During the Convention Parliament, Montefiore petitioned it to ensure the new parliamentary oath would not exclude Jewish people, and this proved successful. In 1834 he was elected MP for the Eastern Division of the City of London (now Old London), and he was sworn in on the Hebrew Bible with his head covered. In this term, he fought to protect the City of London against the Radical-controlled Parliament's desire to abolish its feudal privileges. This fight proved successful, the City of London was except from the Muncipal Reform Act of 1834, and it took until the 1850s for the City of London to be stripped of its feudal privileges. In this regard, Montefiore aligned himself with the Moderates, but otherwise he was a supporter of Radical politics and causes and supported much of the dramatic Radical programme passed in this period. Declining to be re-elected after 1837 and retiring from business, for the rest of his life Montefiore devoted himself for the rest of his life to the cause for which he is famous: defending Jewish people around the world from persecution.
The first atheist MP was Richard Carlile (1790-1856). Ultra radical MP from 1830 to 1834.