Parliament and government: the basics

I make a big play to students thinking of signing up for Politics in the sixth form (and we don’t do too badly for numbers - roughly a quarter of the lower sixth take the subject, and we are the 4th most popular in terms of bums on seats in that year group) that at the very least they will end one year of study with a good understanding of how their country’s governmental systems works. But do they? The conscientious class student should end up with more ability than the man in the street to discuss the workings of the single transferable vote, or be able to recognise that the introduction of a new Parliament at Holyrood has thrown into sharp relief the problems of asymmetrical devolution.

But when it gets to the nuts and bolts of legislating and governing, what then?

Is there an explicit understanding of the difference between ‘the government’ and ‘government’? What is the difference between being a member of Cabinet, a minister and an MP?

There are lots of excellent sites out there devoted to answering these very questions that are worthy of exploration. As a half term exercise I am going to set my students the task of getting stuck into the two following sites:

First, the BBC’s guide to Parliament

Also there is the UK Parliament’s official site

On return there will be a short quiz on their contents. Hoped for dividends. On the one hand, young adults will have something to take with them beyond school that is not just an ability to jump through hoops. That is, after all, why we do what we do as teachers. On the other hand, I put my examiner hat on and consider the grim realities of school life: there are lots of easy marks to be gained in the introductory questions of the AS papers with even a rudimentary understanding of the UK’s governing mechanics.