parlament

Parliament

The British Parliament works in a large building called the Pałace of Westminster (The Houses of Parliament). It contains of-fices, committee rooms, restaurants, libraries and even some places of residence. It also contains two large rooms. One is where the House of Lords meets, the other is where the House of Commons meets. The British Parliament is divided into two Houses and its members belong to one or other of them. (Only members of Commons are known as MPs — Members of Parliament.) The Commons is morę important of the two Houses.

The person who chairs and Controls dis-cussion in the House of Commons is the Speaker. He (or she) decides which MP is going to speak next and makes surę that the rules of procedurę are followed. In fact, the Speaker is, officially, the second important "commoner" in the Kingdom after the Prime Minister. In 1992 for the first time a woman was appointed Speaker, so nowadays MPs address her "Madam Speaker".

Traditionally, MPs were not supposed to be professional politicians. They were supposed to be ordinary people, bringing their experience into Parliament. They were not even paid until the beginning of this cen-tury. They were supposed to be doing a