We live in a time of unbelievable media entertainment. Every movie, video game, story book and television show is available for you to view with relative ease. EBay, Amazon, Netflix. You name it there's an easy way to get it. So what did I get? A general introductions book on the English House of Commons made in the early 1960s.
And what a fantastic read it was. It's quick simple and to the point. It is everything that the title implies. A simple introduction to a parliamentary system. In a country with one of the more successful parliamentary systems.
Which really does show how bad most of the world parliamentary systems are when the British one is higher up on the list.Still it's nothing if not persistent. Which is really quite astounding when you consider that to this very day the British House of Commons is far too small for its body of people. And they keep adding people every couple years it gets bigger and bigger.
But none of that matters because we're looking at the fifties House of Commons. Which is a strange time, the wars are over, the eight years of rations are over and Britain hasn't really come into the whole Invasion of Amerasian culture yet*. They're just in a limbo state right now, slowly but surely losing every tiny bit of territory they possessed from there ones Mighty Empire.
And of course the Suez Canal Crisis. The greatest black eye of British history in the 20th century. (The point when Britain lost its old prestige.)
It's a real Crossroad time for the British Parliament. The old conservative values that works so well for 150 years of Empire have slowly been crumbling and they're coming up with more radical reforms. Yet this book doesn't really address any of that,
It discusses more of the day-to-day workings of the parliament and how the days start and how they end. What time it starts debating and what time of discussion must end.
Even to go as far as the mentioning of the various house committees. Everything from the ''Committee of nationalised Industries'' to the ''Committee of Public Accounts''. There's even a small section on the ''kitchen committee'' which ironically possesses more direct power than any of the other house committees.
The book also discusses the financial undertakings required to protest or revoke a bill. And how difficult this can be for any individual member outside of the House of Commons. For every day the bill is mentioned the person protesting it must pay a fee. And dusted explains how the average folk you usually don't acquire proper protests. As the opposition to discussing the bill can simply reject it that's pushing it down the list of the House of Commons scheduled debates. This can go on almost indefinitely for several weeks before the house may throw it out all together.
It's also interesting to see that at least in the 50s a House of Commons member didn't make that much money. Oh sure they're still considered middle-class but lower middle-class and a lot of them really couldn't live on their minimum salary acquired by the house. Fees in the house itself could eat up most of your income. Which is why so many of these men and women stuck to their other careers as well being lawyers or working and certain other public office. Know if you or judge you can't work for the House of Commons that's one of the rules.
It's also financially one of the cheapest books I've ever purchased. Costing a total of $0.50 Canadian! And worth every penny and then some. Grant you I wouldn't want to pay over $4 for this book for its fairly light and it is made for children. That is Children of the 1950s United Kingdom in years 5-7. Which unfortunately might be year 10 students today. Or at least from a reading comprehension point of view.
The most interesting part of the book for most people would be the first two chapters. Which are mainly an introduction and history of the House of Commerce. Back in the day when they were in a Chapel. And the times when the rooms are even smaller than they are today. Combine that with a great fire that took place years ago at the mall is the whole thing and how people the day of complained of their feet being warm . There had been a fire blazing in the basement of this Chapel for nearly 7 hours before anybody realised that the building was on fire. By that point it was pretty much all but gone and impossible to stop. That's resulting in the destruction of the Old House of Commons the luckily none of the people died.
It also talks for a small amount of time on how the house of common over the years has come to possess more power. Both from the House of Lords and from the Monarchs themselves. And today is really the true representation of the people (which was the whole point to begin with). It's funny in a way and acts completely the opposite the United States Senate system. At the beginning of that country the Senate and the House of Representatives were far more powerful than the president. But that powers been diminished by every administration. Every American president makes themselves slightly more powerful than the last. Especially with some of the Heavy Hitters like the second Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Which once again seems to be the opposite to the British prime minister's at least up until about 20 years ago. Now Prime Ministers of always held a particularly Strong place in any of the commonwealth countries. More or less running their party. But in Britain particularly the party can vote their representative out if they constantly screw up and misrepresent them time and time again. And act that's not so easy in say a country like Canada or even to some degree in Australia (tho I hesitate to speak on their behalf.)
From the decorative Mr.Churchwell** speeches to Disraeli and even people like Michael MacDonagh***. All of them have that flare for speaking, for letting us know what they think and for shaking the foundations of their country. And of course there's ''The Hansand'' which recored their speeches and sometimes helps to put them in (More appropriate) writing so they may be better understood by the people.
In short it was a fun political read. And worth your time if you want to look into the eyes of yesteryear Parliament. But maybe find it as a PDF for I can't imagine the book is out there and many copies and even if it is it shouldn't cost that much. As I said formally paying anything over $5-$10 for this is just a bit of a rip-off. Unless maybe there's a signed version of it. By the author Robert Road James .
*It acquired quite an economic boom.
**The common way to refer to Winston Churchill in his Pre Prime-Minister days of the House of Commons is to refer to him simply as ''Mr. Churchill.''
***A bishop for Ireland and not part of the House of Commons. But one who witnessed the Affairs quite offten and went on to write quite extensively on their affairs.
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