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The Mother of all Parliaments - A (very) brief history

It is sometimes referred to as the 'Mother of all Parliaments' or even the 'Cradle of Democracy' . To people visiting London the magnificent buildings known as the Houses of Parliament , or the Palace of Westminster , is a 'must' to visit and photograph.

The peerless location of the Houses of Parliament on the north side of the River Thames , to the west of Westminster Bridge , creates a wonderful vista, whether it's from Parliament Square , the South Bank of the River Thames or perhaps best of all, from the top of The London Eye .

We know that Britains politicians ( Members of Parliament , or MP's ) representing all four corners of the United Kingdom , meet there to discuss the business of the country which, in the case of the United Kingdom (also confusingly known as Great Britain ), includes England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland .

But how did it all start?

For more than a thousand years England has had a body of men, yes almost always men, who have fulfilled the role of assisting and advising the King on important matters of the day, particlarly those of finance.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the Kings's advisers would be leading nobles and church leaders who, for the purpose of this exercise, we shall call 'the great and the good' of the day! In the late 13th century , however, the meetings changed in a very important way!

Around that time, somebody had the somewhat obvious idea that 'the great and the good' might be just a little too 'self-serving' at these gatherings and the meetings should, perhaps be opened up to representatives of other, more ordinary , people .

In other words, the meetings should be attended by people who were actually chosen to represent the interests of ordinary folk .

Imagine the surprise and confusion on the faces of the King and his cronies as this radical prospect sunk in, one can only imagine their initial response!

However unlikely the chances, it actually happened , and these representatives of the people were gradually allowed to be part of the debates. Collectively, this group became known, rather deprecatingly methinks, as the 'Commons' .

The meetings of 'the great and the good' and the 'Commons' took place separately, however. Mingling with the 'Commons' may well have been a step too far for the establishment of the day.

Parliament , as the institution was coming to be known, therefore comprised two Houses and was looking pretty much as it does today, headed by the monarch with the lower house of Parliament known as the House of Commons , and the upper house comprising the 'great and the good' known as the House of Lords .

The American Constitution decrees that "All men are created equal" . Allowing for the fact that the Founding Fathers probably intended women to be included in the collective term 'men', it's probably not very likely they borrowed the idea of equality from the old British Parliamentary system !

Over the years, the influences of the respective Houses of Parliament has waxed and wained. In the early years, the House of Lords generally remained more powerful than the House of Commons , but the 'lower house' did continue to grow in influence, reaching a zenith in relation to the 'upper house' during the middle of the 17th century .

Conflicts between the King and Parliament (for the most part, the inconveniently unco-operative House of Commons ) ultimately led to the English Civil War during the 1640s . In 1649 , after the defeat and execution of King Charles I , a republic (the Commonwealth of England ) was declared. As so often happens when a regime is overthrown, the nation effectively came under the overall control, some might say dictatorship, of Oliver Cromwell , 'Lord Protector of England' .

As a result, the House of Lords became a largely powerless body, with Cromwell

The Mother of all Parliaments

However, the monarchy was restored in 1660 and the House of Lords returned to its former position as the more powerful chamber of Parliament , a position it would occupy until the 19th century. The debate about the role of the House of Lords , however, would not go away.

In 1909 , the Chancellor of the Exchequer , David Lloyd George , introduced into the House of Commons the "People's Budget" , which proposed a land tax targeting wealthy landowners . The popular measure, however, was unsurprisingly thrown out by the House of Lords . In December 1910 , the Liberal Government passed a bill to curtail the powers of the House of Lords .

The Parliament Act 1911 further reduced the power of the House of Lords but no governing party was keen to take more radical action. The House of Lords remained an hereditary instituition with the encumbents remaining the unelected offspring of the peers of the realm, themselves the issue of countless earlier generations of the landed gentry and the rich and powerful friends of the monarch.