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Hi, everyone. And welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】.

Hi,安澜.

Hi, everyone.

So what are we gonna talk about in this episode? Hang on a minute. You have the general election coming up, right? 英国要大选了吧.

Yep. In early July, we have our general election.

Do you still vote? I mean you don't even live in the UK.

I still vote. Yes.

And, you know, I don't really follow the politics that closely, however I do enjoy sometimes watching in news, all these fights that go on in the parliament when they're trying to debate.

Yes.

All these hear, hear.

Yeah. That's mostly for the big debates, the ones that make the telly. But most of them are quit quiet.

就是英国议会里面的 Debate还是挺有意思的, 比如说他们去怼，就是现任的首相这样的什么的.  So, let’s, I thought can we talk about these traditions in your parliament?

Yeah, of course. The British parliament has been around for centuries. So you could imagine that over that time, some quite unusual traditions have developed and some quite unusual rules as well.

But first of all, let's rewind or recap. We talked about the parliament before.

Yes.

我们原来讲过英国政府的构成, 讲过议会. Let me review, let me see if I can still remember this.

Okay.

It's divided in two parts. You have two houses就有两个, 一个上议院, 一个下议院，叫做House of Lords and House of Commons.

Yeah, that's right.

其实就是贵族院和平民院，对吧?

Yeah.

And those people who are shouting, that's House of Commons. I guess.

That's the House of Commons. So the House of Commons is the most important House because those are the people who are directly elected.

Oh,  because House of Lords is passed on.

Some of them are passed on. Most of them are what we call Life Peers(终身贵族). So if they've been former politicians, they get “promoted to the House of Lords”. The House of Lords, essentially it's a way of kind of reviewing laws passed by the House of Commons.

So if the House of Lords don't like a law or they don't like a proposed bill, then they send it back to the House of Commons. Think of them almost like a editing service.

I see.

So a lot of the big decisions, the big policies and new acts, new laws are still proposed, first of all, by the House of Commons.

All of the new.

All of the new. I see. Let's start with this whole what we see on TV. You said that's the big debate that's not like an everyday thing.

No. No. 

So when you see the House of Commons really really sore, that's normally for the big debates such as Prime Ministers question time.

It’s just Prime Ministers question time, it just sounds like 安澜's bedtime story.

Pretty much.  So once a week, the Prime Minister has to answer questions in the House.

Once a week as frequent as that? 

Yeah. Absolutely.

What if he is traveling to other countries?

Then the deputy Prime Minister will do it.

So there will always be someone, someone is gonna be there.

There will always be someone. So it's a chance for the opposition to essentially attack the Prime Minister.

I see when you say question time, most of us probably thinking is question and answers提问时间, but it's question as in almost like 审问时间.

That's right.

It's like being interrogated. You did this wrong? Why did you have this policy? Why did you do that?

Well. They wouldn't say you. So MPs can't use you.

What do they say, Prime Minister?

They will say the honourable member for plus the area they represent.

What about the Prime Minister, for the country?

He would be the Prime Minister or His Ministers would be the Right Honourable Member.

Hang on. I'm getting a bit confused. When they are trying to attack the Prime Minister during Prime Minister's question time.