1.
Parliamentary procedure
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Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies, and other deliberative assemblies. In the United States, parliamentary procedure is referred to as parliamentary law, parliamentary practice, legislative procedure. At its heart is the rule of the majority with respect for the minority and its object is to allow deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and to arrive at the sense or the will of the assembly upon these questions. Self-governing organizations follow parliamentary procedure to debate and reach group decisions—usually by vote—with the least possible friction, Rules of order consist of rules written by the body itself, but also usually supplemented by a published parliamentary authority adopted by the body. The term gets its name from its use in the system of government. In the 16th and 17th century, there were rules of order in the early Parliaments of England, in the 1560s Sir Thomas Smyth began the process of writing down accepted procedures and published a book about them for the House of Commons in 1583. In Canada, for example, Parliament uses House of Commons Procedure, the rules of the United States Congress were developed from the parliamentary procedures used in Britain. The American parliamentary procedures are followed in nations, including Indonesia. The procedures of the Diet of Japan have moved away from the British parliamentary model, in Occupied Japan, there were efforts to bring Japanese parliamentary procedures more in line with American congressional practices. In Japan, informal negotiations are more important than formal procedures, voting determines the will of the assembly. While each assembly may create their own set of rules, these tend to be more alike than different. A common practice is to adopt a standard book on parliamentary procedure. A parliamentary structure conducts business through motions, which cause actions, members bring business before the assembly by introducing main motions, or dispose of this business through subsidiary motions and incidental motions. Parliamentary procedure also allows for rules in regards to nomination, voting, disciplinary action, appeals, dues, and the drafting of organization charters, constitutions, the most common procedural authority in use in the United States is Roberts Rules of Order. Other authorities include The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure and Demeters Manual of Parliamentary Law, a common text in use in the UK, particularly within trade unions, is Lord Citrines ABC of Chairmanship. In English-speaking Canada, popular authorities include Kerr & Kings Procedures for Meeting, the Conservative Party of Canada uses Wainbergs Society meetings including rules of order to run its internal affairs. In French-speaking Canada, commonly used rules of order for ordinary societies include Victor Morins Procédures des assemblées délibérantes, legislative assemblies in all countries, because of their nature, tend to have a specialized set of rules that differ from parliamentary procedure used by clubs and organizations. In the United Kingdom, Thomas Erskine Mays Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament is the authority on the powers
2.
Voting methods in deliberative assemblies
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Deliberative assemblies – bodies that use parliamentary procedure to arrive at decisions – use several methods of voting on motions. The regular methods of voting in such bodies are a voice vote, a vote. Additional forms of voting include a vote and balloting. The assembly could decide on the method by adopting a motion on it. Legislatures may have their own voting methods, Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised states that a voice vote is the usual method of voting on any motion that does not require more than a majority vote for its adoption. It is considered the simplest and quickest of voting methods used by deliberative assemblies, the chair will then estimate which side had more members. A simple rising vote is used principally in cases in which the chair believes a voice vote has taken with an inconclusive result. A rising vote is also the method of voting on motions requiring a two-thirds vote for adoption. It can also be used as the first method of voting when only a majority vote is required if the chair believes in advance that a vote will be inconclusive. The chair can also order the rising vote to be counted, a show of hands is an alternate to voice voting and can be used as the basic voting method in small boards or committees, and it is so used in other informal or small gatherings for voting. It is more precise than a vote but does not require members to leave their seats. However, it does not count as a division of the assembly, a recorded vote is a vote in which the votes of each member of the assembly are recorded. RONR explains, Taking a vote by roll call has the effect of placing on the record how each member, or sometimes each delegation, votes, therefore, it has exactly the opposite effect of a ballot vote. It is usually confined to representative bodies, where the proceeds are published and it should not be used in a mass meeting or in any assembly whose members are not responsible to a constituency. Recorded votes may either be taken by actually calling the roll or, in some assemblies, a signed ballot is sometimes used as a substitute for a roll call vote. It allows the members votes can be recorded in the minutes without the chair having to call the names of each member individually, a motion to use a signed ballot is one of the motions relating to methods of voting and the polls. Balloting is a form of voting in which the secrecy of the choices is desired. Members mark their choices on pieces of paper and deposit the paper into a ballot box and this procedure is typically the usual method in elections
3.
Robert's Rules of Order
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Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised, commonly referred to as Robert’s Rules of Order, is the most widely-used manual of parliamentary procedure in America. The manual was first published in 1876 by U. S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert, ten subsequent editions have been published, including major revisions in 1915 and 1970. The copyright to Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised is owned by the Roberts Rules Association, the 11th and current edition was published in 2011. In 2005, the Roberts Rules Association published a concise guide. A second edition of the book was published in 2011. The procedures prescribed by the book were loosely modeled after those used in the United States House of Representatives, although he was in the military, the rules in his book were not based on military rules. He eventually became convinced of the need for a new manual on the subject, by this time Robert had long been retired from the Army with the rank of brigadier general. The revisions were based on the feedback from hundreds of letters that Robert had received through the years, through a family trust, and later through the Roberts Rules Association, several subsequent editions of Roberts Rules of Order have been published, including another major revision of the work. The Seventh Edition, published in February 1970 on the 94th anniversary of the publication of the First Edition, was the first under the title Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised. The subsequent editions were based on feedback from users, including feedback received by electronic means in recent years. These later editions included material from Roberts Parliamentary Practice and Parliamentary Law, the current edition of the series became effective on September 23,2011 under the title Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised, Eleventh Edition. More than five and a million copies have been printed. The following table list the official versions of the body of known as Roberts Rules of Order developed by Henry M. Robert. As a result, a book was developed. A second edition of this guide was published in 2011 to conform with the current Eleventh Edition of Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised. The In Brief book is the only authorized concise guide for Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised and is intended as a book for those unfamiliar with parliamentary procedure. The authors say, In only twenty minutes, the reader can learn the bare essentials. It is meant to be a supplement to the current edition of Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised and is not suitable for adoption as a parliamentary authority in itself
4.
Chairman
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The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chair presides over meetings of the group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. When the group is not in session, the officers duties include acting as its head, its representative to the outside world. In some organizations, this position is called president, in others, where a board appoints a president. Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairperson, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, moderator, facilitator, the chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker. The term chair is used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist. In his 1992 State of the Union address, then-U. S, president George H. W. Bush used chairman for men and chair for women. A1994 Canadian study found the Toronto Star newspaper referring to most presiding men as chairman, the Chronicle of Higher Education uses chairman for men and chairperson for women. An analysis of the British National Corpus found chairman used 1,142 times, chairperson 130 times, the National Association of Parliamentarians does not approve using chairperson. In World Schools Style debating, male chairs are called Mr. Chairman, the FranklinCovey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication, as well as the American Psychological Association style guide, advocate using chair or chairperson, rather than chairman. The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style suggests that the forms are gaining ground. It advocates using chair to refer both to men and to women, the word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be in the chair and is referred to as the chair. Major dictionaries state that the word derives from chair and man, some authorities, however, including Riddicks Rules of Procedure, suggest that the second part of chairman derives from the Latin manus, and thus claim gender-neutrality for the word. Vladimir Lenin, for example, officially functioned as the head of Soviet Russia not as tsar or as president, note in particular the popular standard method for referring to Mao Zedong, Chairman Mao. In the absence of the chairman and vice chairman, groups sometimes elect a chairman pro tempore to fill the role for a single meeting. In some organizations that have titles, deputy chairman ranks higher than vice chairman, as there are often multiple vice chairs
5.
Roman Senate
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The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, during the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was following a coup détat led by Lucius Junius Brutus. During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the executive magistrates were quite powerful, since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was most likely gradual, it took several generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the Senate had reached the apex of its republican power, the late Republic saw a decline in the Senates power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its power as well as its prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of the Emperor Diocletian, the Senate became politically irrelevant, when the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the Senate was reduced to a municipal body. This decline in status was reinforced when the emperor Constantine the Great created an additional senate in Constantinople, the Senate in Rome ultimately disappeared at some point after AD603, although the title senator was still used well into the Middle Ages as a largely meaningless honorific. However, the Eastern Senate survived in Constantinople, until the ancient institution finally vanished there c. 14th century, the senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman kingdom. The word senate derives from the Latin word senex, which means old man, the early Roman family was called a gens or clan, and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a pater. When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, over time, the patres came to recognize the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king, and vested in him their sovereign power. When the king died, that power naturally reverted to the patres. The senate is said to have created by Romes first king, Romulus. The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class, Romes fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, chose a further 100 senators. They were chosen from the leading families, and were accordingly called the patres minorum gentium. Romes seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, executed many of the men in the senate. During the years of the monarchy, the senates most important function was to new kings. While the king was elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king
6.
Athenian democracy
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Other Greek cities set up democracies, most following the Athenian model, but none are as well documented as Athens. It was a system of democracy, in which participating citizens voted directly on legislation. The longest-lasting democratic leader was Pericles, after his death, Athenian democracy was twice briefly interrupted by oligarchic revolutions towards the end of the Peloponnesian War. It was modified somewhat after it was restored under Eucleides, the most detailed accounts of the system are of this fourth-century modification rather than the Periclean system, Democracy was suppressed by the Macedonians in 322 BC. The Athenian institutions were revived, but how close they were to a real democracy is debatable. Solon, Cleisthenes, and Ephialtes contributed to the development of Athenian democracy and he broke up the power of the nobility by organizing citizens into ten groups based on where they lived rather than on their wealth. The word democracy combines the elements dêmos and krátos, and thus means literally people power, in the words monarchy and oligarchy, the second element comes from archē, meaning beginning, and hence also first place or power, sovereignty. One might expect the term demarchy to have adopted, by analogy. However, the word demarchy had already taken and meant mayoralty. We are not certain that the democracy was extant when systems that came to be called democratic were first instituted. The word is attested in Herodotus, who some of the earliest surviving Greek prose. Around 460 BC an individual is known with the name of Democrates, a name possibly coined as a gesture of democratic loyalty, Athens was not the only polis in Ancient Greece that instituted a democratic regime. Aristotle cites many other cities as well, yet, it is only with reference to Athens that we can attempt to trace some of specific sixth century events that led to the institution of democracy at the end of the century. Before the first attempt at government, Athens was ruled by a series of archons or chief magistrates. The members of these institutions were generally aristocrats, who ruled the polis for their own advantage, in 621 BC Draco codified a set of notoriously harsh laws that were a clear expression of the power of the aristocracy over everybody else. This did not stop the aristocratic families feuding amongst themselves to obtain as much power as possible, however, the enfranchisement of the local laboring classes was succeeded by the development of chattel slavery, the enslavement of, in large part, foreigners. Solon, the mediator, reshaped the city by absorbing the traditional aristocracy in a definition of citizenship which allotted a political function to every resident of Attica. Athenians were not slaves but citizens, with the right, at the very least, under these reforms, the position of archon was opened to all with certain property qualifications, and a Boule, a rival council of 400, was set up
7.
Westminster system
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The Westminster system is a parliamentary system of government modelled after that which developed in the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the British parliament, the system is a series of procedures for operating a legislature. However, some colonies have since adopted either the presidential system or a hybrid system as their form of government. Examples include Queen Elizabeth II, the governors-general in Commonwealth realms, or the presidents of many countries, exceptions to this are Ireland and Israel, whose presidents are de jure and de facto ceremonial, and the latter possesses no reserve powers whatsoever. A head of government, known as the minister, premier. While the head of state appoints the head of government, constitutional convention suggests that a majority of elected Members of Parliament must support the person appointed. If more than half of elected parliamentarians belong to the political party. An exception to this was Israel, in which direct prime-ministerial elections were made in 1996,1999 and 2001, an independent, non-partisan civil service which advises on, and implements, decisions of those ministers. Civil servants hold permanent appointments and can expect merit-based selection processes, a parliamentary opposition with an official Leader of the Opposition. A legislature, often bicameral, with at least one elected house – although unicameral systems also exist, a lower house of parliament with an ability to dismiss a government by withholding Supply, passing a motion of no confidence, or defeating a confidence motion. The Westminster system enables a government to be defeated or forced into a general election independently, a parliament which can be dissolved and snap elections called at any time. Another parallel system of principles also exists known as equity. Exceptions to this include India, Quebec in Canada, and Scotland in the UK amongst others which mix common law with legal systems. Unlike the uncodified British constitution, most countries use the Westminster system have codified the system, at least in part. The pattern of executive functions within a Westminster System is quite complex, in essence, the head of state, usually a monarch or president, is a ceremonial figurehead who is the theoretical, nominal or de jure source of executive power within the system. In practice, such a figure does not actively exercise executive powers, in the United Kingdom, the sovereign theoretically holds executive authority, even though the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Cabinet effectively implement executive powers. In a parliamentary republic like India, the President is the de jure executive, even though executive powers are essentially instituted by the Prime Minister of India and the Council of Ministers. In Israel, however, executive power is vested de jure and de facto in the cabinet, as an example, the Prime Minister and Cabinet generally must seek the permission of the head of state when carrying out executive functions
8.
Australian House of Representatives
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The Australian House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the Parliament of Australia. It is referred to as the house, with the Senate being referred to as the upper house. The House is almost always dissolved earlier, usually alone but sometimes in a double dissolution of both Houses, a member of the House may be referred to as a Member of Parliament, while a member of the Senate is usually referred to as a Senator. The government of the day and by extension the Prime Minister must achieve, the House of Representatives currently consists of 150 members, elected by and representing single member districts, known as electoral divisions. The number of members is not fixed, but can vary with boundary changes resulting from electoral redistributions, the most recent overall increase in the size of the House, which came into effect at the 1984 election, increased the number of members from 125 to 148. It reduced to 147 at the 1993 election, returned to 148 at the 1996 election, each division elects one member using full-preference Instant-runoff voting. This was put in place after the 1918 Swan by-election, which Labor unexpectedly won with the largest primary vote, the Nationalist government of the time changed the lower house voting system from first-past-the-post to full-preference preferential voting, effective from the 1919 general election. This system has remained in place since, allowing the Coalition parties to safely contest the same seats, the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900 established the House of Representatives as part of the new system of dominion government in newly federated Australia. The House is presided over by the Speaker, Members of the House are elected from single member electorates. One vote one value legislation requires all electorates to have approximately the number of voters with a maximum 10% variation. However, the quota for the number of voters in an electorate is determined by the number of voters in the state in which that electorate is found. Meanwhile, all the states except Tasmania have electorates approximately within the same 10% tolerance, voting is by the preferential system, also known as instant-runoff voting. A full allocation of preferences is required for a vote to be considered formal and this allows for a calculation of the two-party-preferred vote. Under Section 24 of the Constitution, each state is entitled to members based on a quota determined from the latest statistics of the Commonwealth. These statistics arise from the census conducted under the auspices of section 51, the parliamentary entitlement of a state or territory is established by the Electoral Commissioner dividing the number of the people of the Commonwealth by twice the number of Senators. This is known as the Nexus Provision, the reasons for this are twofold, to maintain a constant influence for the smaller states and to maintain a constant balance of the two Houses in case of a joint sitting after a double dissolution. The population of state and territory is then divided by this quota to determine the number of members to which each state. Under the Australian Constitution all original states are guaranteed at least five members, the Federal Parliament itself has decided that the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory should have at least one member each
9.
Australian Senate
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The Australian Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I, there are a total of 76 senators,12 senators are elected from each of the six states and two from each of the two autonomous internal territories. Senators are popularly elected under the single vote system of proportional representation. As a result of proportional representation, the features a multitude of parties vying for power. Senators normally serve fixed terms, unless the Senate is dissolved earlier in a double dissolution. Following a double half the state senators serve terms ending on the third 30 June following the election with the rest serving three years longer. The term of the territory senators expires at the time as there is an election for the House of Representatives. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act of 1900 established the Senate as part of the new system of government in newly federated Australia. From a comparative perspective, the Australian Senate exhibits distinctive characteristics. Unlike upper Houses in other Westminster system governments, the Senate is not a body with limited legislative power. Rather it was intended to play – and does play – an active role in legislation, the Constitution intended to give less populous states added voice in a Federal legislature, while also providing for the revising role of an upper house in the Westminster system. In practice, however, most legislation in the Australian Parliament is initiated by the Government and it is then passed to the Senate, which has the opportunity to amend the bill or refuse to pass it. In the majority of cases, voting takes place along party lines, since 2015, armed officers of the Australian Federal Police have been placed on duty to protect both chambers of the Federal Parliament. The system for electing senators has changed several times since Federation, the original arrangement involved a first-past-the-post block voting or winner takes all system, on a state-by-state basis. This was replaced in 1919 by preferential block voting, block voting tended to produce landslide majorities and even wipe-outs. For instance, from 1920 to 1923 the Nationalist Party of Australia had 35 of the 36 senators, and from 1947 to 1950, the Australian Labor Party had 33 of the 36 senators. From the 1984 election, group ticket voting was introduced in order to reduce a high rate of voting that arose from the requirement that each candidate be given a preference. As a result of the changes, voters may assign their preferences for parties above the line, or individual candidates below the line, both above and below the line voting now use optional preferential voting
10.
House of Commons of Canada
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The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons chamber is located in the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the House of Commons is a democratically elected body whose members are known as Members of Parliament. There were 308 members in the last Parliament, but that number has risen to 338 following the election on Monday October 19,2015, Members are elected by simple plurality in each of the countrys electoral districts, which are colloquially known as ridings. MPs may hold office until Parliament is dissolved and serve for constitutionally limited terms of up to five years after an election, historically however, terms have ended before their expiry and the sitting government has typically dissolved parliament within four years of an election according to a long-standing convention. In any case, an Act of Parliament now limits each term to four years, seats in the House of Commons are distributed roughly in proportion to the population of each province and territory. However, some ridings are more populous than others, and the Canadian constitution contains some provisions regarding provincial representation. As a result, there is some interprovincial and regional malapportionment relative to population, the lower of the two houses making up the parliament, the House of Commons in practice holds far more power than the upper house, the Senate. Although the approval of both Houses is necessary for legislation, the Senate very rarely rejects bills passed by the Commons, moreover, the Government of Canada is responsible solely to the House of Commons. The Prime Minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support, or confidence, the term derives from the Anglo-Norman word communes, referring to the geographic and collective communities of their parliamentary representatives and not the third estate, the commonality. This distinction is clear in the official French name of the body. Canada and the United Kingdom remain the only countries to use the name House of Commons for a house of parliament. The new Parliament of Canada consisted of the Queen, the Senate, the Parliament of Canada was based on the Westminster model. Unlike the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the powers of the Parliament of Canada were limited in that other powers were assigned exclusively to the provincial legislatures, the Parliament of Canada also remained subordinate to the British Parliament, the supreme legislative authority for the entire British Empire. Greater autonomy was granted by the Statute of Westminster 1931, after which new Acts of the British Parliament did not apply to Canada and these exceptions were removed by the Canada Act 1982. From 1867, the Commons met in the chamber until that was destroyed by fire in 1916. It relocated to the amphitheatre of the Victoria Memorial Museum—what is today the Canadian Museum of Nature, since then, the Commons has sat in its current chamber. The House of Commons comprises 338 members, each of whom represents a electoral district. The constitution specifies a minimum of 295 electoral districts
11.
Speaker of the House of Commons (Canada)
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The Speakers role in presiding over Canadas House of Commons is similar to that of speakers elsewhere in other countries that use the Westminster system. The current Speaker is Geoff Regan, the Speaker with the longest tenure is Peter Milliken who served four consecutive parliaments in 10 years,124 days. In Canada it is the Speakers responsibility to manage the House of Commons and it is also the Speakers duty to act as a liaison with the Senate and the Crown. He is to rule over the house and have the government answer questions during the period as well as keep decorum with the house. The term Speaker originates from the British parliamentary tradition, by convention, Speakers are normally addressed in Parliament as Mister Speaker, for a male, and Madame Speaker, for a female. While the Constitution requires that the Speaker be elected by the House of Commons, however, in 1986 this was changed and they are now selected by secret ballot. The Speaker remains a sitting MP, but only votes on matters in the case of a tie, all MPs except for Cabinet ministers and party leaders are eligible to run for the Speakership. Any MP who does not wish to put his or her name forward must issue a letter withdrawing from the ballot by the day before the vote. The election is presided over by the Dean of the House, currently Louis Plamondon, all candidates who receive less than 5% of the vote are removed from the ballot. If no candidate received less than 5% of the then the MP with the fewest vote drops off. This continues, with a break between ballots, until one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. In the event of a tie on the ballot, the ballot is taken again. This happened once, in 1993, when Gilbert Parent won over Jean-Robert Gauthier, the winner is escorted to the Speakers chair by the Prime Minister and Leader of the Official Opposition. Scheer was the youngest Speaker in Canadian history, on December 2,2015, Geoff Regan was elected Speaker in a secret ballot by members of the 42nd Parliament over Liberal candidates Denis Paradis, Yasmin Ratansi and Conservative Bruce Stanton. Regan won on the first ballot and is the first speaker from Atlantic Canada in over a hundred years, the Speaker usually comes from among MPs of the governing party. In the 39th Parliament, three members, Peter Milliken, Diane Marleau and Marcel Proulx, ran for Speaker. So far, every Speaker from a party has been a Liberal. The Speaker is required to perform his or her office impartially, Speaker Lucien Lamoureux decided to follow the custom of the Speaker of the British House of Commons and ran in the 1968 election as an independent
12.
Parliament Hill
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Parliament Hill, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings is the home of the Parliament of Canada and has elements of national symbolic importance. Parliament Hill attracts approximately 3 million visitors each year, law enforcement on parliament hill and in the parliamentary precinct is the responsibility of the Parliamentary Protective Service. Since 2002, an extensive $1 billion renovation and rehabilitation project has been underway throughout all of the precincts buildings, Parliament Hill is a limestone outcrop with a gently sloping top that was originally covered in primeval forest of beech and hemlock. After Ottawa—then called Bytown—was founded, the builders of the Rideau Canal used the hill as a location for a military base, a large fortress was planned for the site, but was never built, and by the mid 19th century the hill had lost its strategic importance. On 7 May, the Department of Public Works issued a call for proposals for the new parliament buildings to be erected on Barrack Hill. After the entries were narrowed down to three, Governor General Sir Edmund Walker Head was approached to break the stalemate, and the winners were announced on 29 August 1859. The team of Thomas Stent and Augustus Laver, under the pseudonym of Stat nomen in umbra, won the prize for the second category, $300,000 was allocated for the main building, and $120,000 for each of the departmental buildings. Ground was broken on 20 December 1859, and the first stones laid on 16 April of the following year, the construction of Parliament Hill became the largest project undertaken in North America to that date. By early 1861, Public Works reported that $1,424,882, two years later, the unfinished site hosted a celebration of Queen Victorias birthday, further cementing the areas position as the central place for national outpouring. The site was still incomplete when three of the British North American colonies entered Confederation in 1867, with Ottawa remaining the capital of the new country, thus, the offices of parliament spread to buildings beyond Parliament Hill even at that early date. The British military gave a nine-pound naval cannon to the British army garrison stationed in Ottawa in 1854 and it was purchased by the Canadian government in 1869 and fired on Parliament Hill for many years as the Noonday Gun. By 1876, the structures of Parliament Hill were finished, along with the surrounding fence, fire destroyed the Centre Block on 3 February 1916. Eleven years later, the new tower was completed and dedicated as the Peace Tower, the Queen was back on Parliament Hill on 17 April 1982, to issue a royal proclamation of the enactment of the Constitution Act that year. In April 1989, a Greyhound Lines bus with 11 passengers on board travelling to New York City from Montreal was hijacked by an armed man, a standoff with police ensued and lasted eight hours, though three shots were fired, there were no injuries. The following year, Queen Elizabeth IIs Golden Jubilee was marked on 13 October, on 22 October 2014, several shooting incidents occurred around Parliament Hill. A gunman, after shooting a Canadian Army soldier mounting the ceremonial guard at the National War Memorial. There, he was killed in a shootout with RCMP officers, the gunman also injured one House of Commons constable, who was shot in the foot
13.
Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia
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The parliament is the central legislative body in the political system of North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition to passing of laws, its most important tasks are the election of the Minister-President of the state, the current parties of government are a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance 90/The Greens, supporting the cabinet of Minister-President Hannelore Kraft. The last state election took place on 13 May 2012, the State Parliament is the central legislative body of the state. It establishes or changes laws that fall within its authority, which includes the regulation of education, police matters. Bills can be brought before the parliament by a group or a group of at least seven members of parliament. Additionally, the government itself can bring relevant bill proposals to parliament for consideration. In practice, most bill proposals originate from the government and these generally are detailed proposals submitted in writing. If necessary, the proposal will also be delivered to external experts that are in contact with lobby groups. The specific parliamentary committees will then pass the bill with recommended decisions back to the parliament at large for a second reading. At this stage, members of parliament again make suggestions regarding the bill, each member has the ability to make suggestions to change the bill, and afterwards, the assembly will vote on each proposed amendment individually before finally voting on the entire bill. Bills are enacted by majority vote, as the constitution does not require any more stringent criteria for passage, the parliament operates by a quorum decision making process, meaning that only half of its legal members must be present. Constitutional amendments and the budget must go through the process three times, instead of the standard two. For any proposed legislature, a reading, deliberation, or committee counseling can be requested either by a party or by at least a quarter of the assembly. The President of the Parliament delivers each ratified law to the Minister-President, the law enters into force after it is written in the Law and Ordinance Record for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Referendums in Germany are similar to bill proposals from parliament and the government in that they can be submitted by the people to parliament to undergo the same legislative process. If parliament rejects the referendum, then a plebiscite is undertaken in which the people at large can vote, a successful plebiscite leads to the referendum being passed as law. A plebiscite can also be enacted at the request of the government, in practice, this form of direct democracy does not play a large role in the legislative process. The authority of the parliament in numerous legal areas has waned in the last few decades
14.
Bundestag
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The Bundestag is a constitutional and legislative body at the federal level in Germany. For its similar function, it is described as a lower house of parliament along the lines of the US House of Representatives. The German constitution, however, does not define the Bundestag, since 1999 it has met in the Reichstag Building in Berlin. Norbert Lammert is the current President of the Bundestag, Members of the Bundestag are usually elected every four years by all adult German citizens in a mixed system of constituency voting and list voting. There are currently 631 seats, however, one – belonging to the CDU – remains vacant. The Election Day, however, can be if the Federal Chancellor loses a vote of no confidence. In the 19th century the name Bundestag was the designation for the assembly of the sovereigns and mayors of the Monarchies. Its seat was in the Free City of Frankfurt on the Main, two decades later, the current parliament building was erected. The Reichstag delegates were elected by direct and equal male suffrage, the Reichstag did not participate in the appointment of the Chancellor until the parliamentary reforms of October 1918. After this the Reichstag met only rarely, usually at the Krolloper following the Reichstag fire starting in 1933 to unanimously rubber-stamp the decisions of the government and it last convened on 26 April 1942. With the new constitution of 1949, the Bundestag was established as the new German parliament, the Bundeshaus in Bonn is the former Parliament Building of Germany. The sessions of the German Bundestag were held there from 1949 until its move to Berlin in 1999, today it houses the International Congress Centre Bundeshaus Bonn and in the north areas the branch office of the Bundesrat. The southern areas became part of German offices for the United Nations in 2008, the former Reichstag building housed a history exhibition and served occasionally as a conference center. The Reichstag building was occasionally used as a venue for sittings of the Bundestag and its committees and the Bundesversammlung. In 2005, an aircraft crashed close to the German parliament. It was then decided to ban private air traffic over Central Berlin, together with the Bundesrat, the Bundestag is the legislative branch of the German political system. The committees play a prominent role in this process, Plenary sessions provide a forum for members to engage in public debate on legislative issues before them, but they tend to be well attended only when significant legislation is being considered. This check on executive power can be employed through binding legislation, public debates on government policy, investigations, for example, the Bundestag can conduct a question hour, in which a government representative responds to a previously submitted written question from a member
15.
Bellwether
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A bellwether is one that leads or indicates trends, a trendsetter. The term is derived from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram leading his flock of sheep, the movements of the flock could be noted by hearing the bell before the flock was in sight. In a Westminster-style election, for example, a constituency, the control of which tends frequently to change, following this, the Division of Robertson in NSW became the nations new longest-running bellwether seat, continually won by party that also won government since the 1983 election. The Division of Lindsay in NSW, has elected its Member of Parliament from the party won government in every Federal election since its creation in 1984. Both Lindsay and Eden-Monaro lost their status in the 2016 election. Also, in terms of two party preferred vote, Eden-Monaro, Lindsay, Robertson and Makin have bucked the bellwether trend in the past by voting Liberal at the 1998 federal election. Unlike many bellwethers, these are cited by analysts solely for their record and are not usually attributed to factors that reflect the median of Australia. In Brazilian direct presidential elections, the states of Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte is where the winning candidate took the lead in the election from 1945 to 2014. Tocantins, since its creation in 1988, always had the presidential candidate winning the state lead in votes. In the Canadian province of Ontario, Sarnia-Lambton voted for the party in every federal election from 1963 until 2011. This streak was broken in 2015, st. Pauls has only elected three opposition MPs since it was created in 1935. Also in Ontario, Peterborough has been won by the party who has won the most seats overall in provincial elections since 1977, in Alberta, Peace River has elected only three opposition MLAs since the province was founded in 1905. Both states lie in the North of the country, neither containing many large cities, nor large rural catholic populations. Ireland has a proportional electoral system, in which politicians are elected by the single transferable vote. Bellwethers here can only be measured by the number of candidates from each side elected to Irelands multiple-seat constituencies that elect an odd number of members. In New Zealand, there are three generally accepted bellwether electorates, Hamilton East and Hamilton West, both based around the city of Hamilton, and Northcote on Aucklands North Shore. Hamilton West and Northcote have only missed one election each since they were first contested in 1969 and 1996 respectively — the 1993 election for Hamilton West, Hamilton East, first contested in 1972, has missed three elections —1993,1999, and 2005. In the Philippines, the winner of Philippine presidential election has won in Negros Oriental in all instances since 1935 except for 1961 and 2016, after Negros Oriental voted for the runner-up in 2016, Basilans streak that started in 1978 is currently the nations longest
16.
Polyphemus
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Polyphemus is the giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in the Odyssey. His name means abounding in songs and legends, Polyphemus first appears as a savage man-eating giant in the ninth book of Homers Odyssey. Some later Classical writers link his name with the nymph Galatea, in Homers epic, Odysseus lands on the island of the Cyclops during his journey home from the Trojan War and, together with some of his men, enters a cave filled with provisions. When the giant Polyphemus returns home with his flocks, he blocks the entrance with a stone and, scoffing at the usual custom of hospitality. Next morning, the giant kills and eats two more and leaves the cave to graze his sheep, after the giant returns in the evening and eats two more of the men, Odysseus offers Polyphemus some strong and undiluted wine given to him earlier on his journey. Drunk and unwary, the giant asks Odysseus his name, promising him a guest-gift if he answers, Odysseus tells him Οὖτις, which means nobody and Polyphemus promises to eat this Nobody last of all. With that, he falls into a drunken sleep, Odysseus had meanwhile hardened a wooden stake in the fire and now drives it into Polyphemus eye. When Polyphemus shouts for help from his fellow giants, saying that Nobody has hurt him, they think Polyphemus is being afflicted by divine power and recommend prayer as the answer. In the morning, the blind Cyclops lets the sheep out to graze, however, Odysseus and his men have tied themselves to the undersides of the animals and so get away. As he sails off with his men, Odysseus boastfully reveals his real name, Polyphemus prays to his father, Poseidon, for revenge and casts huge rocks towards the ship, which Odysseus barely escapes. The story reappears in later Classical literature, in his Latin epic, Virgil describes how Aeneas observes Polyphemus as he leads his flocks down to the sea. They have encountered Achaemenides, who re-tells the story of how Odysseus and his men escaped, the giant is described as descending to the shore, using a “lopped pine tree” as a walking staff. Once Polyphemus reaches the sea, he washes his oozing eye socket, Achaemenides is taken aboard Aeneas’ vessel and they cast off with Polyphemus in chase. His great roar of frustration brings the rest of the Cyclopes down to the shore as Aeneas draws away in fear, julien dHuy speculates that the myth may be palaeolithic. Elements of the story of Odysseus and Polyphemus are recognizable in the folklore of many other European groups, Wilhelm Grimm collected versions in Serbian, Romanian, Estonian, Finnish, Russian, and German. Versions in Basque, Lappish, Lithuanian, Gascon, Syrian, one such episode, on a vase featuring the hero carried beneath a sheep, was used on a 27 drachma Greek postage stamp in 1983. The blinding was depicted in sculpture, including a giant Polyphemus. This may be an interpretation of a composition, and was apparently repeated in variations in later Imperial palaces by Claudius, Nero
17.
Oireachtas
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The Oireachtas, sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the legislature of Ireland. The directly elected Dáil is by far the more powerful branch of the Oireachtas, the term oireachtas derives from the Old Irish word airech. Its first recorded use as the name of a body was within the Irish Free State. Dáil Éireann, the house, is directly elected under universal suffrage of all Irish and United Kingdom citizens who are resident. An election is held at least once in five years as required by law. However the house can usually be dissolved at any time at the request of the Taoiseach, Dáil elections occur under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The Dáil has had 166 members since 1981, the Seanad is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members selected in a number of ways. 43 senators are elected by councillors and parliamentarians,11 are appointed by the Taoiseach, the President of Ireland is directly elected once in every seven years, for a maximum of two terms. However, if, as has occurred on a number of occasions, to become law, a bill must first be approved by both the Dáil and in most circumstances the Seanad, and then signed into law by the President. Bills to amend the Constitution must also be approved by the People in a prior to being presented to the President. The powers of the Seanad are in limited to delay rather than veto. It is the Dáil, therefore, that is the tier of the Irish legislature. The Oireachtas has exclusive power to, Legislate, including a power vested in the Dáil of approving the financial resolutions relevant to the budget, however, the courts have allowed the Oireachtas to delegate limited legislative powers to other entities, such as Government Ministers. Propose changes to the constitution, which must then be submitted to a referendum, allow international agreements to become part of the domestic law of the state. Pass certain laws having extraterritorial effect, enact, when it considers a state of emergency to exist, almost any law it deems necessary, with imposition of capital punishment being the only absolutely excluded act in all circumstances. Laws are invalid if, and to the extent that, they contradict the constitution, in the event of a conflict, EU law also takes precedence over acts of the Oireachtas, as is common throughout the European Union. It may not retrospectively criminalise acts that were not illegal at the time they were committed and it may not enact any law providing for the imposition of the death penalty, even during a state of emergency. The Oireachtas has a number of joint committees that include members of both houses and this parliament governed the English-dominated part of Ireland, which at first was limited to Dublin and surrounding cities, but later grew to include the entire island
18.
Ceann Comhairle
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The Ceann Comhairle is the chairperson of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas of Ireland. The person who holds the position is elected by members of the Dáil from among their number in the first session after each general election, the Ceann Comhairle of the 32nd Dáil is Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ó Fearghaíl,8 June 2016. The Ceann Comhairle is expected to observe strict impartiality, despite this, a government usually tries to select a member of its own political party for the position, if it has enough deputies to allow that choice. As a consequence, the constituency that an incumbent Ceann Comhairle represents elects one fewer TD in an election than its usual entitlement. The Ceann Comhairle does not take part in debates nor vote except in the event of a tie, in this event they generally vote in accordance with the parliamentary conventions relating to the Speaker of the British House of Commons, which tend to amount to voting against motions. The Ceann Comhairle formally opens each days sitting by reading the official prayer, the Ceann Comhairle is the sole judge of order in the house and has a number of special functions. Specifically, the Ceann Comhairle, Calls on members to speak, all speeches must be addressed to the Ceann Comhairle. Puts such questions to the house and supervises and declares the results of divisions, to ensure obedience to his rulings the Ceann Comhairle may order members to withdraw from the Dáil or suspend an individual from the House for a period. In the case of disorder the Ceann Comhairle can suspend or adjourn the house. Rings a bell when deputies are out of order, the bell is a half-sized reproduction of the ancient bell of Lough Lene Castle found at Castle Island, Lough Lene, Castlepollard, County Westmeath in 1881 and now in the National Museum. The reproduction was presented in 1931 by the widow of Bryan Cooper, the Ceann Comhairle is an ex officio member of the Presidential Commission, Council of State, Commission for Public Service Appointments. The position of Ceann Comhairle is as old as the Dáil, the first Ceann Comhairle was Cathal Brugha, who served for only one day, presiding over the houses symbolic first meeting, before leaving the post to become Príomh Aire. The office was continued under the 1922–1937 Irish Free State, the constitution of which referred to the office-holder as the Chairman of Dáil Éireann, the practice of automatically re-electing the Ceann Comhairle in a general election was introduced by a constitutional amendment in 1927. The position of Ceann Comhairle was retained when the Constitution of Ireland was adopted in 1937, the use of secret ballot commenced in 2016. This list includes the constituencies and political affiliation of each Ceann Comhairle as well as the number of their Dáil Éireann, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle holds office as the Deputy Chairman of Dáil Éireann under Article 15.9.1 of the Constitution. In the absence of the Ceann Comhairle, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle deputises, the current Leas-Cheann Comhairle is Fianna Fáil TD Pat the Cope Gallagher, since 6 July 2016. By tradition, the position is reserved for the Opposition, the role carries the same pay and the same status as that of a Minister of State. Cathaoirleach Politics of the Republic of Ireland History of the Republic of Ireland Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly OConnor, Tom, OHalloran, Politics in a Changing Ireland 1960–2007, A Tribute to Seamus Pattison
19.
Leinster House
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Leinster House is the seat of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland. Leinster House was originally the palace of the Dukes of Leinster. Since 1922, it is a complex of buildings, of which the ducal palace is the core. The most recognisable part of the complex, and the face of Leinster House. The societys famous Dublin Spring Show and Dublin Horse Show were held on its Leinster Lawn, facing Merrion Square. The building is the place of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. Irelands parliament over the centuries had met in a number of locations, most notably in the Irish Houses of Parliament at College Green, next to Trinity College and its medieval parliament consisted of two Houses, a House of Commons and a House of Lords. Irelands senior peer, the Earl of Kildare, had a seat in the Lords, like all the aristocrats of the period, for the duration of the Social Season and parliamentary sessions, he and his family resided in state in a Dublin residence. From the late eighteenth century Leinster House was the Earls official Dublin residence, the building itself was designed by acclaimed architect Richard Cassels. In the history of aristocratic residences in Dublin, no other mansion matched Kildare House for its size or status. When the Earl was made the first Duke of Leinster in 1766, one famous member of the family who occasionally resided in Leinster House was Lord Edward FitzGerald, who became involved with Irish nationalism during the 1798 Rebellion, which cost him his life. With the passage of the Act of Union in 1800, Ireland ceased to have its own parliament, the 3rd Duke of Leinster sold Leinster House in 1815 to the Royal Dublin Society. In 1853 the Great Industrial Exhibition was hosted in its grounds, at the end of the nineteenth century, two new wings were added, to house the National Library of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland. The Natural History Museum was built on the site, part of this scheme intended to re-clad the house in more attractive Portland stone and extend the portico outwards. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 provided for the creation of a self-governing Irish dominion, plans were made to turn Royal Hospital Kilmainham, an eighteenth-century former soldiers home in extensive parklands, into a full-time Parliament House. The building was bought outright from the RDS in 1924, a new Senate or Seanad chamber was created in the Dukes old ballroom, while wings from the neighbouring Royal College of Science were taken over as used as Government Buildings. The entire Royal College of Science, which by then had been merged with University College Dublin, was taken over in 1990. Both the National Library and National Museum wings next to Leinster House remain used by as a library, while plans were often made to provide a brand-new parliament house, the Oireachtas has remained permanently located in Leinster House
20.
Taoiseach
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The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The current Taoiseach is Enda Kenny, TD, who was appointed on 9 March 2011, on 10 March 2016, at the first sitting of the 32nd Dáil, Kenny failed to gain the support of the house and tendered his resignation to the President. He remained in office in a capacity until being re-elected on 6 May 2016. The word means chieftain or leader in Irish and was adopted in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland as the title of the head of the Government, Taoiseach is the official title of the head of government in both English and Irish. Outside of Ireland, the Taoiseach is often referred to as the Prime Minister of Ireland, under the Constitution of Ireland, the Taoiseach is nominated by a simple majority of Dáil Éireann from among its members. He/she is then appointed to office by the President, who is required to appoint whomever the Dáil designates. For this reason, it is said that the Taoiseach is elected by Dáil Éireann. The Taoiseach may lose the support of Dáil Éireann by the passage of a vote of no confidence, or the failure of a vote of confidence, or alternatively, the Dáil may refuse supply. In the event of the Taoiseachs resignation, he/she continues to exercise the duties, the Taoiseach nominates the remaining members of the Government, who are then, with the consent of the Dáil, appointed by the President. The Taoiseach also has authority to advise the President to dismiss cabinet ministers from office, advice the President is required to follow by convention, the Taoiseach is further responsible for appointing eleven members of the Seanad. The Department of the Taoiseach is the government department which supports, since 2013, the Taoiseachs annual salary is €185,350. It was cut from €214,187 to €200,000 when Kenny took office, a proposed increase of €38,000 in 2007 was deferred when Brian Cowen became Taoiseach and in October 2008, the government announced a 10% salary cut for all ministers, including the Taoiseach. However this was a cut and the salaries remained nominally the same with ministers. This courted controversy in December 2009 when a cut of 20% was based on the higher figure before the refused amount was deducted. The Taoiseach is also allowed an additional €118,981 in annual expenses, there is no official residence of the Taoiseach. The house, which part of the Farmleigh estate acquired by the State in 1999 for €29. 2m, was renovated at a cost of nearly €600,000 in 2005 by the Office of Public Works. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern did not use it as a residence, the words Taoiseach and Tánaiste are both from the Irish language and of ancient origin. Though the Taoiseach is described in the Constitution of Ireland as the head of the Government or Prime Minister, Tánaiste in turn refers to the system of tanistry, the Gaelic system of succession whereby a leader would appoint an heir apparent while still living
21.
Government of Ireland
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The Government of Ireland is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in the Republic of Ireland. The structure of the Government of Ireland is regulated fundamentally by the Constitution of Ireland, the Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach. The deputy prime minister is called the Tánaiste, and is nominated by the Taoiseach from among the members of the Government, the Government must consist of between seven and fifteen members, according to the Constitution of Ireland. Every member of the Government must be a member of the parliament of Ireland, no more than two members of the Government may be members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas. Therefore, all members of the Government must be members of Dáil Éireann. The Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance must be members of the Dáil, the 7 to 15 Members of Government are generally referred to as The Cabinet. The Taoiseach is nominated by Dáil Éireann, the house of the Oireachtas. Other members of the Government are nominated by the Taoiseach, approved by Dáil Éireann, Members of the government are often styled cabinet ministers, as opposed to Ministers of State, called junior ministers, who are not in the cabinet. A minister is usually in charge of a Department of State, occasionally a minister without portfolio is appointed who is a minister and a member of the Government but not a Minister of the Government. Non members have no voting rights at Cabinet but may participate fully and normally receive circulated Cabinet Papers on the same basis as a full member of Government. The Government is advised by the Attorney General, who is not formally a member of the Government, the Chief Whip may attend meetings of the cabinet, but is not a member of the Government. In addition, the Government can choose other Ministers of State and this person is informally known as a Super Junior Minister. The current Super Junior Ministers are Paul Kehoe and Finian McGrath, Office of the President The Office of President was established by The Constitution. The President is elected directly by the people, the term of office is 7 years and a President may not serve more than 2 terms. The President must reside in or near Dublin, st. Patrick’s Hall, Dublin Castle, is the venue for Inauguration ceremonies, at which each President takes an oath as provided in the Constitution. The President represents all the people when undertaking official engagements at home, the President is Supreme Commander of the Defence Forces. There have been nine different holders of the office – Michael D. Higgins is the current President. The formal powers, the President, who does not have an executive or policy role, exercises them on the advice of the Government. Additional functions can be conferred on the President by law, a special Commission acts whenever the President is absent
22.
Secret ballot
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The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voters choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous, forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation and potential vote buying. The system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy, Secret ballots are used in conjunction with many different voting systems. The most basic form of secret ballot uses blank pieces of paper, without revealing the votes to anyone, the voter would fold the ballot paper and place it in a sealed box, which is emptied later for counting. An aspect of secret voting is the provision of a booth to enable the voter to write on the ballot paper without others being able to see what is being written. Today, printed ballot papers are provided, with the names of the candidates or questions. Provisions are made at the place for the voters to record their preferences in secret. The ballots are designed to eliminate bias and to prevent anyone from linking voter to ballot, a problem of privacy arises with moves to improve efficiency of voting by the introduction of postal voting and electronic voting. Some countries permit proxy voting, which some argue is inconsistent with voting privacy, in ancient Greece, secret ballots were used in several situations, like ostracism, and also to remain hidden from people seeking favors. In ancient Rome, the laws regulating elections were known as Tabellariae Leges. Today the practice of casting secret ballots is so commonplace that most voters would not consider any other method might be used. Other methods which had used and which are still used in some places. Other public voting methods include raising a hand to indicate a vote, article 31 of the Constitution of the Year III of the revolution states that All elections are to be held by secret ballot. The same goes with the constitution of 1848, voters could hand-write the name of their candidate on their ballot at home or receive one in a distribution in the street. The ballot is folded in order to prevent other people from reading its content, louis-Napoléon Bonaparte attempted to abolish the secret ballot for the 1851 plebiscite with an electoral decree requesting electors to write down yes or no under the eyes of everyone. But he faced an opposition and finally changed his mind. According to the web site of the Assemblée nationale, the voting booth was permanently adopted only in 1913. The demand for a ballot was one of the six points of Chartism. The London School Board election of 1870 was the first large-scale election by secret ballot in Britain, the original ballot box, sealed in wax with a liquorice stamp, is held at Pontefract museum
23.
Walkover
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A walkover or W. O. is the awarding of a victory to a contestant because there are no other contestants, or because the other contestants have been disqualified or have forfeited. The term can apply in sport but can apply to elections. The word is used generally by extension, particularly in politics. The strict and extended meanings of walkover as a word are both found from 1829. The word originates from horseracing in the United Kingdom, where an entrant in a race run under Jockey Club rules has at least to walk over the course before being awarded victory. This outcome was quite common at a time there was no guaranteed prize money for horses finishing second or third so there was no incentive to run a horse in a race it could not win. The term is used in tennis, in reference to a players unopposed victory as a result of the opponents failing to start the match for any reason. The only Olympic Games walkover for a medal was at the 1908 Summer Olympics. The only time it has happened at the FIFA World Cup was in the 1938 edition, after the England team declined to take Austrias entry, FIFA gave Sweden a walkover. A walkover is usually the sign of a strong mandate or unanimous support. It can, however, be interpreted by critics of the faction the walkover is awarded to as a sign of electoral fraud or gerrymandering to prevent other candidates from participating. The circumstances of such an interpretation are usually controversial, walkovers can thus often be a sign of an illiberal democracy. Many liberal democracies in history, including the United States, have had uncontested elections because support for one candidate was so strong. In the 1820 election, James Monroe also ran unopposed, though New Hampshire elector William Plumer cast a vote for John Quincy Adams as a symbolic measure, walkovers are called acclamation in Canada. Other multi-party systems that have held uncontested presidential elections include Germany, Singapore, Ireland, Algeria, Iceland, running without opponents is not always a guarantee of winning. Many elections require that the winner has not only the most votes of all candidates but a fraction of all votes cast. In this case electors may be able to cast a vote or none of the above vote, spoil their papers. In such cases, the members of the body usually appoint someone to the vacant seat
24.
Jack Lynch
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John Mary Jack Lynch was the Taoiseach of Ireland, serving two terms in office, from 1966 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979. Lynch was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála for Cork in 1948 and he previously served as Minister for Finance, Minister for Industry and Commerce, Minister for Education, Minister for the Gaeltacht and as a Parliamentary Secretary. He was the leader of Fianna Fáil from 1966 until 1979. Lynch was the last Fianna Fáil leader to secure a majority in the Dáil. Historian and journalist T. Ryle Dwyer has called him the most popular Irish politician since Daniel OConnell, before his political career Lynch had a successful sporting career as a dual player of Gaelic games. He played hurling with his local club Glen Rovers and with the Cork senior inter-county team from 1936 until 1950, Lynch also played Gaelic football with his local club St Nicholas and with the Cork senior inter-county team from 1936 until 1946. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest dual players of all-time, in a senior inter-county hurling career that lasted for fourteen years he won five All-Ireland titles, seven Munster titles, three National Hurling League titles and seven Railway Cup titles. In a senior inter-county football career lasted for ten years Lynch won one All-Ireland title. Lynch was later named at midfield on the Hurling Team of the Century, John Mary Lynch was born on 15 August 1917, just yards from the famous Shandon bells and St. Annes in Cork City. The youngest of five boys, with two girls born after him, Jack, as he was known, was regarded as the wild boy of the family. He was educated at St. Vincents Convent on Peacock Lane, and later at the famous North Mon, when Lynch was just thirteen years old his mother died suddenly. Lynch, who had particularly close to his mother, was deeply affected by her death. His aunt, who herself had a family of six, stepped in to look after the family in time of great upheaval for them. Lynch sat his Leaving Certificate in 1936, after which he moved to Dublin and worked with the Dublin District Milk Board, Lynch began working at the Cork Circuit Court as a clerk while still only nineteen years old. His work in the court ignited his interest in law and in 1941 he began a course at University College Cork studying law. After two years in UCC he moved to Dublin to complete his studies at Kings Inns, while continuing his studies he started work with the Department of Justice. In 1945 Lynch was called to the Bar and had to decide whether to remain in his Civil Service job or practice as a barrister, Lynch made the decision to move back to Cork and began a private practice on the Cork Circuit. It was in 1943, while on holidays in Glengariff, West Cork, that Lynch met his wife, Máirín OConnor
25.
New Zealand House of Representatives
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The New Zealand House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the legislature of New Zealand. The House and the Queen of New Zealand together constitute the New Zealand Parliament, the House of Representatives passes all laws, provides ministers to form a cabinet, and supervises the work of the Government. It is also responsible for adopting the states budgets and approving the states accounts, the House of Representatives is a wholly democratically elected body, usually consisting of 120 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected for limited terms, holding office until Parliament is dissolved, a government is formed from the party or coalition with the majority of MPs. If no majority is then a minority government can be formed with a confidence. The chamber was created by the British New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, which established a legislature, however the upper chamber. Parliament received full control over all New Zealand affairs in 1947 with the passage of the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act, the seat of the House of Representatives is Parliament House in Wellington, the capital city. The House of Representatives takes the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as its model, the New Zealand Parliament is based on the Westminster system. As a democratic institution, the role of the House of Representatives is to provide representation for the people. The executive branch of the New Zealand government draws its membership exclusively from the House of Representatives, although it does not elect the Prime Minister, the position of the parties in the House of Representatives is of overriding importance. By convention, a minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of. Thus, whenever the office of prime minister falls vacant, the governor-general appoints the person most likely to command the support of the House—normally the leader of the largest party and this support is immediately tested through a motion of confidence. The House of Representatives normally consists of 120 members, known as Members of Parliament, the Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives has overall charge of the administration of the House, and presides over sittings. Seating in the chamber is arranged in a horseshoe pattern. The Speaker of the House sits in a chair at the open end of the horseshoe. Following the example of the British House of Commons, members of Government are seated on the hand of the Speaker. MPs are assigned seating on the basis of the seniority in a party caucus, for example, the prime minister sits on the front row, in the fourth seat along from the Speaker. The 51st New Zealand Parliament is the current sitting of the House and its membership was elected at the 2014 general election and, so far, one subsequent by-election
26.
Crossing the floor
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In politics, crossing the floor is when a politician changes their allegiance or votes against their party in a Westminster system parliament. Crossing the floor may be voting against the party lines. While these practices are legally permissible, crossing the floor can lead to controversy, as well, voting against party lines may lead to consequences such as losing a position or being ejected from the party caucus. The term originates from the British House of Commons, which is configured with the Government, an MP who switched parties would literally need to cross the floor. A notable example of the latter is Winston Churchill, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals in 1904, most political parties let their members have a free vote on some matters of personal conscience. Among other parties, crossing the floor is rare although Senator Barnaby Joyce of the National Party of Australia crossed the floor 19 times under the Howard coalition government. Nonetheless, the record for crossing the floor in the Australian Parliament goes to Tasmanian Senator Sir Reg Wright, in both Canada and the United Kingdom, the term carries only this meaning and is not used for a simple vote against the party line on a bill
27.
Legal drinking age
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The legal drinking age is the age at which a person can legally consume or purchase alcoholic beverages. These laws cover a range of issues and behaviors, addressing when. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased in some countries and these laws vary among different countries and many laws have exemptions or special circumstances. Most laws apply only to drinking alcohol in public places, with consumption in the home being mostly unregulated. Some countries also have different age limits for different types of alcoholic drinks, some Islamic nations prohibit Muslims, or both Muslims and non-Muslims, from drinking alcohol at any age, due to the Quraan forbidding the consumption of wine. In other countries, it is not illegal for minors to drink alcohol, in some cases, it is illegal to sell or give alcohol to minors. The following list indicates the age of the person for whom it is legal to consume, austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Georgia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Morocco, and Western Sahara have the lowest set drinking ages. ARA Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use Association established in 1989 of major manufacturers of alcohol beverages in South Africa, IARD International Alliance for Responsible Drinking
28.
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the countrys parliament. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The House is a body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved, under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance, by convention, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Since 1963, by convention, the minister is always a member of the House of Commons. The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence, confidence and no confidence motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance, That this House has no confidence in Her Majestys Government. Many other motions were considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such, in particular, important bills that form a part of the Governments agenda were formerly considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. Parliament normally sits for a term of five years. Subject to that limit, the minister could formerly choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament. By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without a general election. In such circumstances there may not even have been a party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim. A prime minister may resign if he or she is not defeated at the polls. In such a case, the premiership goes to whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, in practice this is usually the new leader of the outgoing prime ministers party. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no mechanism for electing a new leader, when Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 without recommending a successor and it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the advice of ministers. By convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords, a handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they then entered Parliament either in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all ministers have been members of the Commons
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Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)
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The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdoms lower chamber of Parliament. The office is held by John Bercow, who was initially elected on 22 June 2009. He was returned as an MP in the 2010 general election and was re-elected as Speaker when the House sat at the start of the new Parliament on 18 May 2010. He was again returned as an MP in the 2015 general election and was re-elected, unopposed, the Speaker presides over the Houses debates, determining which members may speak. The Speaker is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, the Speaker does not take part in debate or vote. Aside from duties relating to presiding over the House, the Speaker also performs administrative and procedural functions, the Speaker has the right and obligation to reside in Speakers House at the Palace of Westminster. The office of Speaker is almost as old as Parliament itself, the earliest year for which a presiding officer has been identified is 1258, when Peter de Montfort presided over the Parliament held in Oxford. Early presiding officers were known by the title parlour or prolocutor, Edward III was frail and in seclusion, his prestigious eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, terminally ill. It was left to the son, a furious John of Gaunt. He arrested De la Mare and disgraced other leading critics, in the next, Bad Parliament, in 1377, a cowed Commons put forward Gaunts steward, Thomas Hungerford, as their spokesman in retracting their predecessors misdoings of the previous year. On 6 October 1399, Sir John Cheyne of Beckford was elected speaker, the powerful Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, is said to have voiced his fears of Cheynes reputation as a critic of the Church. Eight days later, Cheyne resigned on grounds of ill-health, although he remained in favour with the king, in such a situation, the influence of the speaker should not be underestimated. Sir Thomas More was the first speaker to go on to become Lord Chancellor, until the 17th century, members of the House of Commons often continued to view their Speaker as an agent of the Crown. As Parliament evolved, however, the Speakers position grew into one that involved more duties to the House than to the Crown, such was definitely the case by the time of the English Civil War. This change is said to be reflected by an incident in 1642. The development of Cabinet government under King William III in the late 17th century caused further change in the nature of the Speakership, Speakers were generally associated with the ministry, and often held other government offices. For example, Robert Harley served simultaneously as Speaker and as a Secretary of State between 1704 and 1705, the Speaker between 1728 and 1761, Arthur Onslow, reduced ties with the government, though the office did remain to a large degree political. The Speakership evolved into its modern form—in which the holder is an impartial and apolitical officer who does not belong to any party—only during the middle of the 19th century, over 150 individuals have served as Speaker of the House of Commons
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Pager
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A pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric messages and/or receives and announces voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknowledge, reply to, Pagers operate as part of a paging system which includes one or more fixed transmitters, as well as a number of pagers carried by mobile users. These systems can range from a restaurant system with a single low-power transmitter, in the 2000s, the widespread availability of cellphones and smartphones has greatly diminished the pager industry. This resilience has led public safety agencies to adopt pagers over cellular, the first telephone pager system was patented in 1949 by Alfred J. Gross. One of the first practical paging services was launched in 1950 for physicians in the New York City area, physicians paid $12 per month for the service and carried a 200-gram pager that would receive phone messages within 40 kilometres of a single transmitter tower. The system was manufactured by the Reevesound Company and operated by Telanswerphone, in 1962 the Bell System—the U. S. telephone monopoly colloquially known as Ma Bell—presented its Bellboy radio paging system at the Seattle Worlds Fair. Bellboy was the first commercial system for personal paging and it also marked one of the first consumer applications of the transistor, for which three Bell Labs inventors received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956. Solid-state circuitry enabled the Bellboy pager, about the size of a small TV remote device, to fit into a pocket or purse. The Bellboy was a terminal that notified the user when someone was trying to call them, when the person received an audible signal on the pager, he found a telephone and called the service centre, which informed him of the callers message. The ReFLEX protocol was developed in the mid 1990s, another is a facility handling classified information, where various radio transmitter or data storage devices are excluded to ensure security. First responders in rural areas with inadequate cellular coverage are often issued pagers, volunteer firefighters, EMS paramedics, and rescue squad members usually carry pagers to alert them of emergency call outs for their department. These pagers receive a tone from a fire department radio frequency. Restaurant pagers are in use in the 2000s. Customers are given a portable receiver that usually vibrates, flashes, Pagers have been popular with birdwatchers in Britain and Ireland since 1991, with companies Rare Bird Alert and Birdnet Information offering news of rare birds sent to pagers that they sell. The U. S. paging industry generated $2.1 billion in revenue in 2008, in Canada,161,500 Canadians paid $18.5 million for pager service in 2013. Telus, one of the three major carriers, announced the end to its Canadian pager service as of March 31,2015. Many paging network operators now allow numeric and textual pages to be submitted to the paging networks via email and this can result in pager messages being delayed or lost. Older forms of message submission using the Telelocator Alphanumeric Protocol involve modem connections directly to a paging network, for this reason, older forms of message submission retain their usefulness for disseminating highly-important alerts to users such as emergency services personnel
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Mobile phone
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A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the systems of a mobile phone operator. Most modern mobile telephone services use a network architecture, and, therefore. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to seven billion, penetrating 100% of the global population. In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone manufacturers were Samsung, Apple, a handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a pocket-size folding telephone with a thin carbon microphone. Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships, the race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and this was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology, in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1991, the digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators, ten years later, in 2001, the third generation was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3. 5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access family, allowing UMTS networks to have data transfer speeds. By 2009, it had become clear that, at point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies
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Whip
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There are also whips which combine both a firm stick and a flexible line, such as hunting whips. Certain religious practices and BDSM activities involve the self-use of whips or the use of whips between consenting partners, misuse on animals may be considered animal cruelty, and misuse on humans may be viewed as assault. Whips generally are used on animals to provide directional guidance or to encourage movement, some whips are designed to control animals by imparting discomfort by tapping or pain by a full-force strike that produces pain compliance. Some whips provide guidance by use of sound, such as cracking of a bullwhip, other uses of whips are to provide a visual directional cue by extending the reach and visibility of the human arm. In modern times, the stimulus is still used in some animal training. The whip can be a tool to back up riding aids when applied correctly, particularly when initial commands are ignored. However, many competition governing bodies limit such use of whips, overuse improper use of whips may be considered animal cruelty in some jurisdictions. Whip use by sound never or rarely strikes the animal, instead, the sound is loud enough to affect multiple animals at once, making whip-cracking more efficient under some circumstances. This technique can be used as part of a response, with sound being used first prior to a pain stimulus being applied. Whips used without painful stimulus, as an extension of the hand or arm, are a visual command, or to tap an animal. The crack is thus a small sonic boom, Whips were the first man-made objects to break the sound barrier. But any design can be banged against another such as leather boot to make a loud noise. Short, stiff crops often have a leather popper at the end which makes a particularly loud noise when slapped against an animal, boot. Stockwhips, including bullwhips and the Australian stockwhip, are a type of single-tailed leather whip with a long lash. Stockwhips are primarily used to make a cracking sound to move livestock away from the sound. It is generally not used to strike an animal, as it would inflictexcessive pain and is difficult to apply with precision. The Australian stockwhip is said to have originated in the English hunting whip. Today, it is used primarily by stockmen, unlike the short, embedded handle of a bullwhip, the stockwhip handle is not fitted inside the lash and is usually longer
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Burning of Parliament
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The Palace of Westminster, the medieval royal palace used as the home of the British parliament, was largely destroyed by fire on 16 October 1834. The blaze was caused by the burning of small wooden tally sticks which had used as part of the accounting procedures of the Exchequer until 1826. The actions of Superintendent James Braidwood of the London Fire Engine Establishment ensured that Westminster Hall, in 1836 a competition for designs for a new palace was won by Charles Barry. Barrys plans, developed in collaboration with Augustus Pugin, incorporated the buildings into the new complex. The competition established Gothic Revival as the predominant national architectural style, the Palace of Westminster originally dates from the early eleventh century when Canute the Great built his royal residence on the north side of the River Thames. By 1245 the Kings throne was present in the palace, which signified that the building was at the centre of English royal administration, by 1332 the barons and burgesses and citizens began to meet separately, and by 1377 the two bodies were entirely detached. In 1512 a fire destroyed part of the palace complex and Henry VIII moved the royal residence to the nearby Palace of Whitehall. In 1547 Henrys son, Edward VI, provided St Stephens Chapel for the Commons to use as their debating chamber, the House of Lords met in the medieval hall of the Queens Chamber, before moving to the Lesser Hall in 1801. Over the three centuries from 1547 the palace was enlarged and altered, becoming a warren of wooden passages, St Stephens Chapel remained largely unchanged until 1692 when Sir Christopher Wren, at the time the Master of the Kings Works, was instructed to make structural alterations. He lowered the roof, removed the stained glass windows, put in a new floor and he also added galleries from which the public could watch proceedings. The result was described by one visitor to the chamber as dark, gloomy, and badly ventilated, the members were really to be pitied. When the future Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone remembered his arrival as a new MP in 1832, I do not think that in any part of the building it afforded the means of so much as washing the hands. Why are 658 of us crammed into a space that allows each of us no more than a foot and a half square. By 1834 the palace complex had been developed, firstly by John Vardy in the middle of the eighteenth century. Vardy added the Stone Building, in a Palladian style to the West side of Westminster Hall, Wyatt enlarged the Commons, moved the Lords into the Court of Requests and rebuilt the Speakers House. Soane, taking on responsibility for the complex on Wyatts death in 1813, undertook rebuilding of Westminster Hall. Soane also provided a new entrance, staircase and gallery, as well as committee rooms. The potential dangers of the building were apparent to some, as no fire stops or party walls were present in the building to slow the progress of a fire
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Division of the assembly
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In parliamentary procedure, a division of the assembly, division of the house, or simply division is a method for taking a better estimate of a vote than a voice vote. Typically, a division is taken when the result of a vote is challenged or when a two-thirds vote is required. A division is called a rising vote, where members stand up from their seats. According to Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised, the numbers for, however, they may be counted by order of the chairman or by order of the assembly through majority vote. The assembly may also have a rule that the division is counted, historically, and often still today, members are literally divided into physically separate groups. This was the used in the Roman Senate, and occasionally in Athenian democracy. Westminster system parliament chambers have separate division lobbies for the Ayes and Noes to facilitate physical division, in several assemblies, a division bell is rung throughout the building when a division is happening, in order to alert members not present in the chamber. In the Australian House of Representatives divisions follow a similar to that of the United Kingdom. For instance, a Member in the Chamber when the tellers are appointed must vote, furthermore, members must vote in accordance to their voice votes. The voice vote is held as in the British House of Commons, if a Member objects, then the division bells are rung throughout the Parliamentary estate. If the division is still on, the count and record the names of the Members. The Speaker announces the result, but does not vote unless there is an equality of votes, in the Australian Senate, a procedure similar to that of the House of Representatives is followed. The voice vote is taken, and, if two Senators object, a division is held, Senators take seats in the right or left of the Chamber as in the House, and the President of the Senate appoints one teller for each side to record the votes. The President may vote by stating to the Senate the side on which he intends to vote, if the result of the division is an equality of votes, then the motion is in all cases disagreed to. The procedure used in the House of Commons of Canada is similar to that in the British House of Commons, the Speaker reads the question aloud, and then asks, Is it the pleasure of the house to adopt the motion. If anyone dissents, the Speaker then states all those in favour of the motion will please say yea, after the cries of yea, the Speaker says all those opposed will please say nay, and all members opposed to the question cry out nay all at once. The Speaker then announces his opinion of the outcome of the vote, if five or more MPs challenge the Speakers opinion, a formal division follows. A formal division is invoked by the Speaker asking to call in the members, bells are rung throughout the Parliament Buildings for either 15 or 30 minutes to allow all present MPs time to enter the chamber and take their seats
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James Callaghan
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As Prime Minister, he had some successes, but was chiefly remembered for the Winter of Discontent in 1978–79. During a very cold winter, his battle with trade unions led to strikes that seriously inconvenienced the public. On 18 November 1967, the government devalued the pound sterling and he sent the British Army to support the police in Northern Ireland, after a request from the Northern Ireland Government. After Labour lost the 1970 election, Callaghan played a key role in the Shadow Cabinet, when Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned in 1976, Callaghan defeated five other candidates to be elected as his replacement. This was followed by a defeat in the general election. Callaghan was born at 38 Funtington Road, Copnor, Portsmouth, England and he was named after his father, also James Callaghan, who was a Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer. He had a sister, Dorothy Gertrude Callaghan. He attended Portsmouth Northern Secondary School and he gained the Senior Oxford Certificate in 1929, but could not afford entrance to university and instead sat the civil service Entrance Exam. At the age of 17, Callaghan left to work as a clerk for the Inland Revenue, while at the Inland Revenue offices in Kent, in 1931, he joined the Maidstone branch of the Labour Party. In 1934, he was transferred to Inland Revenue offices in London, laski encouraged him to stand for Parliament, although later on he requested Callaghan several times to study and lecture at the LSE. Callaghan joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as an Ordinary Seaman in World War II from 1942 where he served in the East Indies Fleet and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in April 1944. While training for his promotion, his examination revealed that he was suffering from tuberculosis so he was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar in Gosport near Portsmouth. After he recovered, he was discharged and assigned to duties with the Admiralty in Whitehall and he was assigned to the Japanese section and wrote a service manual for the Royal Navy The Enemy Japan. Callaghan would become the last British prime minister to be an armed forces veteran, whilst on leave, Callaghan was selected as a Parliamentary candidate for Cardiff South. He narrowly won the party ballot with twelve votes against the next highest candidate George Thomas with eleven. During 1945 he was assigned to the East Indies Fleet and served on HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Indian Ocean, after VE Day, along with other prospective candidates he returned to the United Kingdom to stand in the general election. Labour won a victory on 26 July 1945 bringing Clement Attlee to power. Callaghan won his Cardiff South seat in the 1945 UK general election and he defeated the sitting Conservative incumbent candidate, Sir Arthur Evans, by 17,489 votes to 11,545
