Britain: An official handbook > 1959

GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
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and persons disqualified under the House of Commons Disqualification Act, 1957,
i.e. persons who are holders of public offices or members of public services listed
in the Act.
Parliamentary Privilege
Both Houses of Parliament enjoy certain privileges and immunities designed to
protect them from unnecessary obstruction in carrying out their duties. These
privileges apply collectively to both Houses and individually to each member.
In the House of Commons, the Speaker formally claims from the Crown for the
Commons ‘their ancient and undoubted rights and privileges’ at the beginning of
each Parliament. These include freedom from arrest in civil proceedings for a
period of forty days before to forty days after a session of Parliament; freedom of
speech in debate; and the right of access to the Crown, which is a collective
privilege of the House. Further privileges include the right to control its own
proceedings (so that it has been able, when the public interest so required, to debate
in secret); the right to pronounce upon legal disqualifications for membership and
to declare a seat vacant on such grounds; and the right to punish those who commit
a breach of its privileges.
The privileges of the House of Lords are: freedom from civil arrest for peers as
for members of the House of Commons; freedom of speech in debate; freedom of
access to the Sovereign for each peer individually; and the right to commit for con¬
tempt. These privileges are not formally claimed by the Speaker as in the House
of Commons; they exist independently without grant.
The Party System
The party system has existed in one form or another since the seventeenth cen¬
tury, and has now become an essential element in the working of the constitution.
The present system is based upon the existence of organised political parties,
each laying rival policies before the electorate. Whenever there is a General Election,
these parties may all put up candidates for election; independent candidates may
also stand.1 The electorate then indicates, by its choice of candidate at the poll on
election day, which of the opposing policies it would like to see put into effect.
The party which wins the majority of seats (although not necessarily the majority
of votes) at a General Election, or which is able to command a majority of sup¬
porters in the House of Commons, forms the Government. By tradition, the leader
of the majority party is appointed as Prime Minister by the Sovereign, usually on
the formal advice of the retiring Prime Minister; and its most outstanding members
in the House of Lords and the House of Commons receive ministerial appointments
on the advice of the Prime Minister. The largest minority party becomes the official
Opposition with its own leader and its own council of discussion or ‘shadow
Cabinet’; while the members of any other parties or any Independents who have
been elected may support the Government or the Opposition according to their
party’s or their own view of the policy being debated at any given time.
In the General Election which took place on the 26th May, 1955, 76-8 per cent
of the electorate voted, compared with 76-1 per cent in 1945, 84 per cent in 1950,
and 82-6 per cent in 1951. The number of votes cast for the principal parties is
shown in Table 3.
1 In the General Election of May 1955, the choice was between Labour and Conservative
in most constituencies. Liberal candidates numbered no. In a few constituencies, two of
the parties agreed to support the same candidate. The number of candidates representing
other political parties was very small.