Focus on Grammar

UNIT 3HOW BRITAIN IS GOVERNEDBefore you read1. Do you know anything about politics in Great Britain?2. Who decides if Britain needs more nuclear power stations and how much of thetaxpayers’ 1 money should be spent on defence, pensions, schools?3. Who makes decisions which are important for the whole nation?Read the text and retell it.The UK is a monarchy and the Queen is the head of the country, but she has nopower to make political decisions. Each year she opens Parliament and reads the Queen’sSpeech. The programme she reads is prepared by the government – the prime ministerand the other ministers in the Cabinet 2 . But it can be accepted only if the members ofParliament agree.The British Parliament consists of two houses, the House of Commons and theHouse of Lords. Both the Commons and the Lords discuss bills, but the Commons hasthe final word. So it is the House of Commons that turns this programme into law. TheHouse of Commons consists of 635 Members of Parliament (MPs). The Queen reigns 3in Britain, but doesn’t govern it. From time to time the British discuss whether GreatBritain needs a monarchy or not. British taxpayers think that it is very expensive to keepit, but Britain is a nation of traditions and the British respect their Queen.Every four or five years a general election is held. Voters in different areas elect thefuture Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in Westminster. The membersof the House of Lords are not elected. They inherit their titles or are given them forspecial merits 4 .Westminster is the centre of government for the whole of Britain, i.e. England,Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But local councils are responsible for education,health and some other things. The police are independent of local government.There are three main political parties: the Labour party (left wing), the Conservativeparty (right wing) and the Liberal Democrats. Each party has its own politicalprogramme.1 taxpayer [ˈtæks peiÀ] – ѳñÏ í׳ñáÕ, ѳñϳí׳ñ2 Cabinet [ˈkæbinit] – ϳé³í³ñ³Ï³Ý ϳ½Ù, ϳµÇÝ»ï3 to reign [ˈrein] – ó·³íáñ»É4 merit – ³ñųÝÇù, í³ëï³Ï26