Автор работы: Пользователь скрыл имя, 21 Марта 2012 в 21:08, доклад
The United Kingdom Parliament is composed of the Crown, that is the monarch, the House of Lords, an appointive and hereditary upper chamber, and the popularly elected lower chamber, the House of Commons. The latter enjoys supremacy over the former: the House of Lords' powers, originally equal to those of the House of Commons, were drastically reduced in 1911 and 1949 to delay of nonmoney (non-fiscal) bills. Since 1999, most of the country's hereditary peers are excluded from membership in the House of Lords.
However, the bill also includes provisions to reduce the size of the House of Commons to 600 seats (down from the current 650), while making parliamentary constituencies more equal in size: no constituency would have an electorate under 95% or over 105% of the U.K. average, except for constituencies with an area of more than 12,000 square kilometers (approximately 4,600 square miles), and the sparsely populated insular constituencies of Orkney & Shetland and Na h-Eileanan an Iar (previously the Western Isles). In addition, there would be two constituencies in the Isle of Wight, which currently elects one MP.
Early estimates suggest Labour would have lost far more seats than the Conservatives (or for that matter the Liberal Democrats) had the bill's "reduce and equalise" provisions been in place for the 2010 general election (assuming an identical popular vote outcome under an otherwise unchanged electoral system), and not surprisingly the party opposed the bill in Parliament, its previous backing of AV notwithstanding. In fact, the existing electoral system continued to favor Labour, even in defeat: despite attaining both a slightly higher share of the vote and a substantially larger popular vote lead than Labour in 2005, the Conservatives still won fewer seats in 2010 than Labour in the preceding election.