Quote:
Originally Posted by shalym
Ah...I don't believe we have anything like that in the US. Bills are introduced by Senators and members of the House of Representatives, who are part of the government. So members of Parliament aren't part of the government in Great Britain?
Shari
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I should explain that "the government" in this context means the political party (or parties) that are currently in power; ie the party that the Prime Minister is the leader of. That party (or coalition) is in complete control of what legislation is introduced into Parliament; no Member of Parliament can personally introduce legislation other than as a "Private Member's Bill" which, as I say, stands virtually no chance of becoming law unless the government decides to grant it time to get through the process (which does occasionally happen).
The government lays out its programme of legislation for each session of Parliament in the "Queen's Speech", which opens the Parliamentary session. (The government writes it, the Queen reads it.)