The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy. It means that the monarch reigns but does not rule.Britain does not have a written constitution, but a set of laws and conventions.

The British Parliament is made up of three parts: the Monarch, the House of Lords; and the House of Commons. In reality the House of Commons is the only one of the three which has true power.The monarch serves formally as head of state. Nevertheless, the monarch still performs some important executive and legislative duties including opening and dissolving Parliament, signing bills passed by both Houses and fulfilling international duties as head of state. But the monarch is expected to be politically neutral and should not make political decisions.The present monarch is Queen Elizabeth II.

The House of Commons consists of 650 elected Members of Parliament (called MPs for short). They are elected by secret ballot. General elections are held every five years. The country is divided into 650 constituencies. All citizens aged 18 and registered in a constituency, have the right to vote. But voting is not compulsory in Britain.

There are few political parties in Britain. The main ones are: the Conservative Party (its nickname is "the Tories", the party that from the 19th century supported the King), the Liberal Party ("the Whigs", who from the 19th century supported the Parliament), the Labour Party (it was founded in 1900), the Social Democratic Party (the alliance of two parties was made in 1988), and others. Each political party puts up one candidate for each constituency. The one who wins the most votes is elected MPfor that area.

The party which wins the majority of seats in the House of Commons forms the government and its leader usually becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister appoints about 20 MPs from his party to form the Cabinet of Ministers. The second largest party forms the official Opposition, with its own leader and "shadow cabinet". The Opposition has a duty to criticize government policies and to present an alternative programme. The functions of the House of Commons are legislation (or law-making) and scrutiny of government activities. The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker. The Speaker is appointed by the Government. MPs sit on the two sides of the hall, the right side is for the governing party and the left side is for the opposition.

The House of Lords comprises about 1,200 peers, although only about 250 take an active part in the work in the house. The House of Lords has no real power. It acts rather as an advisory council.Unlike MPs, members of the House of Lords ("hereditary peers") are not elected. They are holders of an inherited aristocratic title. The House of Lords is a relic of earlier times. The chairman of the House of Lords is the Lord Chancellor. And he sits on a special seat - a large bag of wool covered with red cloth, called "Woolsack". The Woolsack is a reminder of the times when England's commercial prosperity was founded on her wool exports.

It's in the House of Commons that new bills are introduced and debated. If the majority of the members are in favour of a bill, it goes to the House of Lords to be debated. The House of Lords has the right to reject a new bill twice.But after two rejections they are obliged to accept it. And finally a bill goes to the monarch to be signed. Only then it becomes law.

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