Well, now for the real reason. When the House of Commons was bombed out in the Second World War Winston Churchill specified that it should not be increased in size despite more MPs requiring accommodation. He reasoned that in times of crisis a packed parliament with members standing would be more conducive to a sense of urgency and occasion.
The Original Gay Porn Community - Free Gay Movies and Photos, Gay Porn Site Reviews and Adult Gay Forums
-
Welcome To Just Us Boys - The World's Largest Gay Message Board Community
In order to comply with recent US Supreme Court rulings regarding adult content, we will be making changes in the future to require that you log into your account to view adult content on the site.
If you do not have an account, please register.
REGISTER HERE - 100% FREE / We Will Never Sell Your InfoTo register, turn off your VPN; you can re-enable the VPN after registration. You must maintain an active email address on your account: disposable email addresses cannot be used to register.
Why is the British parliment packed like Sardines ?
- Thread starter Telstra
- Start date
Yes, the two lines you see forward of the front benches are the sword lines. Tradition still allows each member to have a sword hook.
JohnnyAnger
OOOG AKBAR
The entire design of the Commons is stupid, and I hope there will be change soon. Two party politics is slowly dying, and hopefully we will eventually switch to PR voting system ending it for good. Two benches facing each other is only useful when you have two parties. Also it leads to the stupid adversarial behaviour we normally see in parliament - unlike kallipolis I do not believe we have vigorous debates. Instead we have a load of middle age men screaming and making stupid noises at each other for an hour every week.
The change can happen soon though, as they will have to get out of the Palace sooner rather than later if they want to save the building (its falling down at a pretty rapid rate right now, and its continued use means proper repairs cannot be done). A move out should give parliament the chance to at least try out the semi-circle parliaments you see pretty much everywhere else.
The change can happen soon though, as they will have to get out of the Palace sooner rather than later if they want to save the building (its falling down at a pretty rapid rate right now, and its continued use means proper repairs cannot be done). A move out should give parliament the chance to at least try out the semi-circle parliaments you see pretty much everywhere else.
JohnnyAnger
OOOG AKBAR
Not far enough to keep the likes of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey from rightly giving Maudling a good slapping!
I still stand by my statement "packed like sardines"
If you look at the video closely, most of their bodies are actually touch each other and no gap at all.
MPs are mostly "public school" boys, raised in a tradition of buggery in the snuggery. They enjoy touching each others' bodies and would feel left out of the fun otherwise. After a vigorous debate they retire to their clubs for drinks and a bit of the old who's yer daddy.
Our Congress is packed with tight-arsed Jerry Falwell clones who have never been touched by anyone but a lobbyist's whore, and they get even less accomplished and have absolutely no sense of humor. This is better??
bankside
JUB 10k Club
All of this would be terrible for democracy. The Westminster system is the best the world has seen. And it works just fine with three competitive parties (or more) as we've seen in Canada in the current election and the decade before it.
The British government is by far the most successful in history. It enabled that tiny Island not only to acquire the largest empire in history, but to lead the world into the industrial revolution and representative democracy. Few countries in the world do not have party of their government copied from the British. Why does the US have two houses of Congress, and 49 of the states? " Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes." Declaration of Independence.
kallipolis
Know thyself
I have to agree....for here in Greece, we are stuck with the semi circle formation...and long, boring speeches...oh for the fun, and rabid exchanges of the Westminster parliamentary system.
I still stand by my statement "packed like sardines"
If you look at the video closely, most of their bodies are actually touch each other and no gap at all.
I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm simply saying that there is no place to expand.
JohnnyAnger
OOOG AKBAR
It's fun for maybe a week. Then it just becomes the government laughing and shouting at the opposition and nothing being asked, let alone answered.
I have given up watching PMQs as it is an embarrassment to see grown men just screaming constantly. They are not even saying anything, just literally screaming over the questions.
JohnnyAnger
OOOG AKBAR
Why is our system the best in the world? Is Germany's for instance so bad? Right now we have a massive gap between what people vote and what people get. The current government won a majority of seats in the commons with 36% of the vote, taking more than 100 seats more Labour who gained 30% of the vote. Then you have Lib Dems getting twice the number of votes that the SNP gained, but having 48 less seats. Fuck knows how few votes the N. Irish parties got, but all the major parties out there got more seats than the Greens and UKIP - both of whom gained more votes than the entire population of N. Ireland.
Its great we end up with strong governments to a degree, but at the same time the will of the people is never represented in parliament.
Also stupid quirks like the speaker not being run against by any of the parties, meaning the people in the constituency of Buckingham (the current speakers constituency) not getting representation in parliament.
There is a way called the new parliament house.
We have the old and the new parliament house. The old parliament house is a museum now.
bankside
JUB 10k Club
People don't elect governments, they elect MPs. Every MP who won a seat in the Commons was preferred over any other choice for that seat. It is the will of the people in Parliament.
JohnnyAnger
OOOG AKBAR
People do not vote for the local MP, they vote for the party. Everyone knows what is going on with that. We also have crazy differences in the boundary populations, whereby the you get places like the Isle of White having four times the votes in their constituencies as most of the highlands and rural Wales seats.
We can still have this anyway with mixed-member proportional representation like Germany and New Zealand. The system is falling apart anyway, with the rise of regional parties like the SNP now being the third party in parliament.
bankside
JUB 10k Club
What is wrong with government, then, is not the Westminster system, but people failing to vote for the MP.
T-Rexx
JUB Addict
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2009
- Posts
- 6,026
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
The subjugation of native people the world over is most emphatically NOT evidence of a "successful" government. It is no more evidence of the "success" of a government than the occupation of eastern Europe by the Soviets, or the conquest of Europe by the Nazis.
The establishment of the British empire is one of the saddest events in human history. It caused the genocide of native Americans, native Australians, and native Africans. It raises serious questions about the morality of a people who would slaughter so much of mankind in an attempt to increase their own wealth.
kallipolis
Know thyself
Slaughtering members of other tribes was a relatively common occurence before the white man arrived in The Americas....with a reminder that tribal wars continue to occupy our news headlines in the Middle East, and Africa.....
Much of the empire was established defensively, by taking it away from prior conquerers. Canada and some islands from the French, India from the French, Moguls, Dutch and Portuguese, etc. None of the countries were democracies and many of the native tribal leaders were cruel to an extent far more cruel than the British. Read Alan Moorhead's "The White Nile", history of the search for the source of the Nile by British explorers, and their efforts to end the slave traffic. In the balance, the people of the empire territories were and are better off for the empire.
Much of the empire was established defensively, by taking it away from prior conquerers. Canada and some islands from the French, India from the French, Moguls, Dutch and Portuguese, etc. None of the countries were democracies and many of the native tribal leaders were cruel to an extent far more cruel than the British. Read Alan Moorhead's "The White Nile", history of the search for the source of the Nile by British explorers, and their efforts to end the slave traffic. In the balance, the people of the empire territories were and are better off for the empire. In any event, the success of a governmental system should be measured against the standard of its contemporaries rather than later systems. Most of our moral objection to subjugation of peoples, was developed in the English speaking world, along with our development of democracy, and has been taught to us, not developed by us on a blank slate.