The British House of Parliament

The British House of Parliament

The parliament is a sovereign region of legislature and it in order to limits royalty to establish. In Britain, the parliament constitutes of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. They are all in the London and near the Big Ben.

The member of the House of Lords is not through election to engender, while it is consists of Royal family and aristocrat’s member. In the last century, the House of Lords has lost most of its powers. At present, most powers are grasping by the House of Commons. Therefore, the House of Commons has more power than the House of Lords.

The member of House of Common consists of men and women and they are through election to engender. The right of House of Commons can decide national policy and each Members of Parliament (MPs) have a constituency. According to the size of city and population, some places have many constituencies, and some place just has one constituency. In the UK, the England has 529 constituencies, the Scotland has 72 constituencies, the Wales have constituencies and the Northern Ireland have 18 constituencies.

For the House of Commons, the general election is very important. Because through election, people will vote to choose a member of parliament that he/she have some special responsibility and lead to their constituency. About the general election is extremely fair and square. Firstly, the electorate need to register that they have right to vote. Then is electoral nomination, thuswise voters will know what candidates can vote. After this step, all candidates can be beginning election campaign. Through election campaign, the candidate can be undertaking to persuade people to vote them. Fourthly, the vote is start and the voter should take their result put in the ballot box. The end, through canvass and votes counted will be elect minister. It is use the ‘first past the post’ system to elect and this system is means who have acquire the most votes is winner.

These MPs and political party forms the government and the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has right to selects a member of parliament to become minister. Nowaday, the  Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are David Cameron and Nick Clegg. David Cameron is represent Conservative party and Nick Clegg is represent Liberal Democrats party.

(David William Donald Cameron, incumbent Prime Minister of Britain)

(Nick Clegg,  incumbent Deputy Prime Minister )

These are the British House of Parliament.

Reference：

http://thehoneyballbuzz.com/2009/12/04/european-liaison-meeting-with-the-house-of-lords-and-the-house-of-commons/

http://denning.law.ox.ac.uk/lrsp/overview/legislation.php

http://goleudy.com/gallery/

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/petermullen/100125233/nick-clegg-on-the-house-of-lords-this-is-a-man-consumed-by-the-politics-of-envy/

The European Union and Eurozone Crisis

European Union

The European Union is the European Community in the formerly, it is according to ‘Treaty on European Union’ made up an international organization by original European Communities members. Now, the European Union has 27 European countries and 23 languages. The purpose of establish the European Union is improve economic and social harmonious development and promote economic and social can be balanced development for every countries.

The European Union of flag’s colour blue and it has twelve golden stars around circle in the middle of flag. This pattern is symbolizing the Virgin Mary. It means establish a united Europe and to promote people's impression for the European Union and the European unity. The institutions of European Union are running the European Council, the Council of ministers, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice.

The European Union was established after the Second World War. In 1957, it has six countries (West Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy) signed the Treaty of Rome. But the Britain was not joined, because of its future’s Commonwealth was in the trading modes and it have a special relationship with USA. The formation’s reason of the European Union is due to the nations of European economic and political status was fells sharply, the USA was supported the Combination of Western Europe and worry about the expansion of the Soviet Union. In the process of European Union’s unity have six times of crisis, now it also have some crisis was existed in the European Union. Then, I will discuss the crisis of European Union.

About political crisis, in 1954, The French national parliament was vetoed the European Community treaties. And in 1965, the president of French -- Charles de Gaulle was implemented ‘Empty Chair Policy’. In 1992, Danish voters was vetoed ‘Maastricht Treaty’. In 1996, due to the British was happened the mad cow disease, so the European Union was banned Britain transport the beef to another countries. In 2001, the Ireland voters was vetoed ‘Treaty of Nice’. Until 2005, the French and Netherland voters were vetoed the ‘Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe’. Except the political crisis, the national of European Union have exist some economic crisis. In 2009, because of the Greece’s financial deficits is too high, so it lead to European crisis was out broke in Greece. And in 2010, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal also was happened the economic crisis.

At present, in these countries, the Greece’s economic crisis is the biggest. Although the euro zone finance minister’s member a meeting decided to help Greece solved the economic crisis, at the same time, the premier of Greece announced use austerity measures. About austerity measure is an official action taken by a government in order to reduce the amount of money that it spends or the amount that people spend. Thus, it stopped the Greece’s economic crisis to spread. However, the debt of Greece is increasingly serious. If the Greece wants to solve the debt crisis, they must with others parties to compromise agreement as soon as possible, otherwise the debt crisis of Greece will be affect others members of European Union and lead to others members of European Union has appear the economic crisis gradually.

 Refenence:
http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/symbols/index_en.htm
http://www.eucountrylist.com/
http://www.eurocartrans.org/Activities/EUAffairs/TheEUOverview.aspx
http://useconomy.about.com/od/Europe/p/Eurozone-Crisis.htm
http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=austerity-measure
http://europa.eu/abc/maps/members/italy_en.htm
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/it.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8883485/What-are-Italys-fresh-austerity-measures.html
http://useconomy.about.com/od/Europe/p/Eurozone-Crisis.htm

UK Education & China Education

Education is very important for anywhere, and each country have education system by themselves. It has five education systems in the UK, and in my hometown--China also have five education systems. There are pre-school and nursery, primary education, lower secondary education, upper secondary education and higher and further education. Now, I will discuss the differences between the system in the UK and my country.

Pre-school and nursery education 

About this education system, Chian is the same in the UK. They are all aim at 0-5 year old children to pre-school education. In pre-school, teacher will be teach children basic language and basic things. At the same time, it will be develops activities skill and cognizance skill by themselves. Let children feel the world is beautiful and not lonely. Pre-school education is very important start for each children, so it must be get the best education and look after for every children.

Primary education

Primary education is the first stage of compulsory education. It is after pre-school or nursery education and before secondary education. The primary education of UK have six year, and Chian is same. In China, this education is aim at 6-12 year old children, but it have a little difference for the UK. Because it have four nations in the UK, so each nation have each age group. In China, primary education just let children have a good development for moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetics and labour education, but in the UK, it will be pay attention to the interests of children and cultivate children's creativity and imagination.

Lower secondary education

Lower secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Lower secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education in China. But in the UK, it has upper secondary education after this education. The main direction of lower secondary education is the general of humanistic education. Education at is compulsory for the first three years in the UK, up to the age of 15. I think, this education is both same.

Upper secondary education
Upper secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education in the UK, and in China is not. This education system is more flexible and offers various specialisations depending on the inclination, skills and interests of the students, and aim at age of between 15and 18. In China, study in high school just for get a best university's offer. If student not hard for this stage, it means lose a good opportunity go to university.

Higher and further education

Higher education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology. The higher education of UK is paying more attention to the term work and presentation skills. It will allow students to know significance of team work and developing the expression ability of students for future. About China, teacher will paying attention to the personal independence ability. This is good for individual work, but we have many team work in the furture, so just myself is not enough.

In the end, this is UK education and my country's education.

Source:

http://www.littlemeltonpreschoolnursery.co.uk/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/fivelivebreakfast/2009/10/when_should_children_start_sch.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4447845/Rising-cost-of-education-increases-demand-for-secondhand-uniform.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/12/200-schools-miss-new-gcse-target
http://www.foreignstudents.com/category/news/higher-education

The Four Nations of The UK

People always call the Britain is 'England', but this is not right. And it can make some local people angry, because England is just one of the four nations of the UK. It have four nations in the UK, there are England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Now, I will talk about the differences between the four nations of the UK. Firstly, these four nations have different flag (Picture one), plant (Picture two), patron saint (Picture three) and saint's day. The Flag of England is the St George's Cross and plant is rose, St George is patron saint for England and 23 April is saint's day. The flag of the Wales is the Red Dragon, consisting of a red dragon passant on a green and white field and plant is daffodil, St David is patron saint for Wales and 1 March is saint's day . The Flag of Scotland is a white saltire, a crux decussate (X-shaped cross) representing the cross of the Christian martyr Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, on a blue field. It is named the Saltire or the Saint Andrew's Cross.And plant is thistle, 30 November is saint's day for Scotland. The flag of Ireland is a vertical tricolour of green, white, and orange. It is also known as the Irish tricolour and plant is shamrock, St Patrick is patron saint for Ireland and 17 March is saint's day.
(Picture One: Flag of four nations)
(Picture Two: Plant of four nations)
(Picture Three: Patron saint of four nations)
In addition to these different, these four nations also have other signs of national identity. About name, if prefix 'Mac' or 'Mc'  in last name is either Scottish or Irish. And most common family name in both England and Scotland is actually 'Smith'. A lot of surnames suggest Welsh origin, such as: David, Evans, Rees, Williams. About clothes, the most representative is kilt(Picture four). It is worn by men that a tartan pattern skirt. About instruments, the harp(Picture five) is a symbol of Wales and Ireland and bagpipes(Picture six) are regarded as distinctively Scottish.
(Picture four: Kilt)
(Picture five: Harp)
(Picture six: Bagpipes)
This is information about the four nations of UK. Are you interested in it?

Blog Source:
http://www.flags-and-anthems.com/state/flag-england.html
http://en.islcollective.com/worksheets/worksheet_page?id=810
http://digger-news.blogspot.com/2010/08/sean-connery-man-in-kilt.html
http://www.classicrockforums.com/forum/f11/bagpipes-2752/
http://www.welsh-harps.com/

Hi,Class!

Hi,everybody! I am Cyndi and I come form China. Welcome to my blog! I will very happy share my UK study life with you! I already study and live in the UK have six months. In these six months, I knowing much more about UK. Such as: local food, local people, local culture and so on. I think Britain's food are delicious and local people are very friendly. About culture is very difference with my hometome, I think it's very interesting! But I don't like UK's weather, because it always raining, like today! What about you, my classmates?