Brit structure and usage inquiries .

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I going to something I've meant to do for a long time . As an American who reads quite a bit of British stuff , including journalism and culture-writing , I'm going to ask about some aspects of Brit culture I don't quite understand - or , perhaps , rather , know the facts about .
This is not intended as " I think those things are wrong " - or right , either - Rather , I am trying to clear up my confusion about them .
In a sense , let's imagine I'm 1/3 or 1/4 my age and trying to put a school report together and want to ask some facts that I do not know .
I am definitely not trying to argue , on my side . I just want to satisfy my curiosity a little . Oh , and I might try to note/show off a little some of the slightly different UK usages/shadings I at least think I know , see if I really do .
Okay , here goes .

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Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

Okay , to start with .
" Labour peer " . I often see that usage in Brit stuff , I assume referring to a peer who received he/his peerage under a Labour administration in Downing Street . I guess peerages are nominated by whoever the PM is at that time - but I have never seen the phrase " Tory peer " used . Only " Labour peer " . Why is it considered worthy of note to specify someone as being a " Labour peer " and not a " Tory peer " (Or , " Conservative peer " - " Conservative and Unionist " , in fact !) ?

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

The party of the Prime Minister who awarded the peerage is not what is being described. Rather, it refers to the party the peer is aligned with. So Michael Heseltine, a Conservative, is referred to as a "Tory peer", even though he was appointed by Blair. The leaders of opposition parties get to recommend people for peerages; the Prime Minister can theoretically say no, but in practice only limits the number.

You also get cross-bench peers who don't sit with any party.

How much influence does the House of Lords actually have these days?

I mean..."practical" influence. De facto influence.

These days, I know the Queen is, theoretically, able to exercise certain prerogatives----but, in "practical terms," these "powers" are ceremonial. De jure, yet not de facto.

The Lords do not interfere with matters which were contained within the manifestos of the ruling parties. They may suggest small adjustments, but they don't block legislation outright.

If the matter was not contained within a manifesto, they can make it very difficult for the government. For example, in 2015 the Conservatives tried to cut tax credits, but couldn't get it through the Lords because they didn't have a majority there.

I'm thinking that "manifestos," within a UK context, are similar to a "platform" within a US context.

I would think that getting rid of tax credits would be within the "platform/manifesto" of the Conservative/Tories.

I'll have to read up on what related to me.

...I didn't know that Wal , thank you .
Still , I had never heard the phrase " Tory peer " before this , only " Labour peer " . I get the Guardian's E-mailed digest/best-of (I presume the slightly more for-the States version - a recent one I saw even had a headline regarding the NBA championship games now going on - Go Dubs !) my father , as a newspaperperson in the San Antonio , TX , area in the post-WWII years , received the paper weekly Guardian digest by subscription (I presume now obsoleted by the Internet) .
So whether a position is in the manifesto (Yes , I presume it's like " platform " here too , I've seen reference to the phrase in the bit of news coverage I've read about your upcoming elections .) affects how it can be protected against Lords giving it trouble ? Interesting . Here , the Big Two parties' platforms tend to be full of " noble aims " they're not really going to try much to follow up on - especially , in modern times , the Republicans , who have tended to put lots of " red meat " in their platforms for their more strong right-wing members that they're not going to spend the political capital on .

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

Manifestos are documents that parties release stating which policies they will implement. I think it differs from a platform in that it refers more to the document than the policies themselves, but it is the same idea.

The Republicans vote in line with their platform 89% of the time, but I guess they could just not bring forward legislation on certain things. Still, I think that despite all our perceptions, political parties (even in America) are quite good at keeping their promises.

...Okay, now I'm going to ask about how the Church of England/Anglican church " state church " thing works out in modern times.
I have read that the Prime Minister has some, anyway, I'm out in naming the Archbishop of Canterbury. Even ones who are not Anglican? I know that Gordon Brown was a Presbytarian (In the sense of your background/your parents - " what your birth certificate says ", as it were, not whether or what extent they are active now, and I mean for all PMs.) - surely every PM from, say, Pitt the Elder up to Tony Blair were not all Anglivan?

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

And remember....in the UK, an "inquiry" is an "enquiry.

About the members of Parliament in the House of Commons.

Do members of the house of commons run in the equivalent of "congressional districts"?

Do they each have some little region of Britain that they represent if they get elected like our House of Reps people have districts within states, and even senators (each state gets two to represent the state at large) represent just one state? Or do MPs represent the whole country at large, or what?

Members of Parliament represent constituencies. In the UK you are represented by your constituency MP. They have a seat in the House of Commons. Members of the House of Lords are selected not elected.

The UK parties don't have official primaries. You elect the government not the leader of the party. However depending on party, they can used whatever process they like to choose a leader.

There is no requirement to have parties, but parties are considered the most efficient way.

...That reminds me, in fact - is the phrase in the U.K. for the area a House of Commons member reoresents " a posting "? Is posting, for a Commons member, equivalent to " district ", " Congressional district ", in the sense that it is used in America for House of Representatives members? Does " district = posting "?
And, do the areas that Commons member reoresents, whether they are called " postings " or not, have their borders redrawn as often as American congressional districts, with our glorious gerrymandering tradition, are?
I would guess NOT ! !! !! !! !! !!

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

^ A member of the house of commons represents a "constituency". I don't know how they compare in size to a USA district but, for example, London currently has 73 constituencies. Constituency boundaries are determined by a body called the "Boundary Commission". The issue of gerrymandering does come up - in fact there is some hoo-ha going on about proposed changes at the moment. However, I think it probably does happen less here because we don't have quite the same state/federal dichotomy in governance, so changing boundaries is a very length process which is usually done at a national level.

Regarding the religious views of Prime Ministers, I found the following mentioned as non-Anglicans [my additions in brackets]...

Balfour, Campbell-Bannerman, and Brown were members of the Church of Scotland. [essentially Presbyterian, but the ruling Monarch is nominally both Church of England and Church of Scotland].

Asquith and Wilson were Congregationalists.

Lloyd George was a Non-conformist [Baptist upbringing, but he privately admitted to doubting his faith while publicly still practising]

Law and MacDonald were Presbyterians.

Chamberlain was a Unitarian.

Attlee was an Agnostic.

Callaghan was an Atheist.

Non-conformist Christians (i.e. not Anglican) were barred from public office until 1828. The requirement to be a Christian lasted until 1858, and finally, in 1886 atheists were permitted to run for office.

...Thank you!
I have already read that the Royal Family, when in Scotland, attends Presbyterian services. I have read that both the monarch and the PM have - some?? - input in naming the Archbishop of Canterbury. the Anglican Communion's head.
How, especially with non-Anglican PMs, is this done?
I recall reading that presumably C of E- raised Tony Blair became a Catholic post-Downing Street. Was Cheri Blair born Catholic?
My father did say that the phrase was" posting ". Maybe the preferred phrasing was different back then (post-WW-II).








ite"]^ A member of the house of commons represents a "constituency". I don't know how they compare in size to a USA district but, for example, London currently has 73 constituencies. Constituency boundaries are determined by a body called the "Boundary Commission". The issue of gerrymandering does come up - in fact there is some hoo-ha going on about proposed changes at the moment. However, I think it probably does happen less here because we don't have quite the same state/federal dichotomy in governance, so changing boundaries is a very length process which is usually done at a national level.

Regarding the religious views of Prime Ministers, I found the following mentioned as non-Anglicans [my additions in brackets]...

Balfour, Campbell-Bannerman, and Brown were members of the Church of Scotland. [essentially Presbyterian, but the ruling Monarch is nominally both Church of England and Church of Scotland].

Asquith and Wilson were Congregationalists.

Lloyd George was a Non-conformist [Baptist upbringing, but he privately admitted to doubting his faith while publicly still practising]

Law and MacDonald were Presbyterians.

Chamberlain was a Unitarian.

Attlee was an Agnostic.

Callaghan was an Atheist.

Non-conformist Christians (i.e. not Anglican) were barred from public office until 1828. The requirement to be a Christian lasted until 1858, and finally, in 1886 atheists were permitted to run for office.[/quote]

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!