Interesting facts. No King or Queen has entered the House of Commons since 1642, when Charles I stormed in with his soldiers and tried to arrest 5 MPs who were there.
There are more than 1,000 rooms and more than 2 miles of corridors in the Houses of Parliament.
I. True or False? Write True if you agree, or False if you don’t.
1. The UK is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional Monarch as Head of State
2. Britain has a two-party parliamentary system of government
3. British prime ministers have never been assassinated
4. The Queen is not allowed to take part in political activity
5. The 1st woman Prime Minister of Britain, M. Thatcher, was given the nickname “the Iron Lady” because of her forceful style of government
II. Find the right answer. Write a, b or c.
1. The first political parties in Britain were known as .
d) the Cavaliers and the Roundheads
e) the Whigs and the Tories
f) the Royalists and the Parliamentarians
2. The “Tories” are ancestors of the Party.
a) Liberal
b) Labour
c) Conservative
3. A bill (proposal for a new law) has to go through readings to become a law.
a) two
b) three
c) four
4. The British Parliament is often called because of a distinguished building in central London it is housed in.
a) Westminster
b) Buckingham Palace
c) Westminster Abbey
5. There are members in the House of Lords.
a) 657
b) 675
c) 600
6. The House of Commons has members elected by local residents.
a) 650
b) 659
c) 695
7. Each MP represents in Parliament one political area, known as .
a) constituency
b) county
c) shire
8. The Government of the UK is formed by the party which wins most seats in at a general election.
d) the House of Commons
e) the House of Lords
f) the Cabinet
9. In the UK the government department that is responsible for the general management of the economy is called .
a) the Treasury
b) the Exchequer
c) the Ministry of Finance
10. An important aspect of parliamentary control over the Government’s policy is , when ministers deal in turn with MPs questions.
a) Question Time
b) Answers Time
c) MPs Time
