So where exactly did he come from, is he actually any good?dead stars wrote:Well, Durão Darroso is also Portuguese. I know exactly where he is coming from.
Actually, he quit being a Prime-Minister here to go to Brussels and was widely criticed for that but I agree he simply had to go. Europe is more important.
(That's right. Portuguese are not patriots. Understand that.)
In Belgium there's the Senate, which seems to have more or less the same role as your House of the Lords, but some politicians want to go to a single chamber parliament, which wouldn't make much of a difference, since the Senate only comes into the game when they want to slow down, or something like that, so, wouldn't mind if they'd take it down...Francis wrote:Anyways, yes the House of Lords still exists, though its makeup can be influenced by the government of the day creating its own life peers. My understanding is that their role is as a 'reality check'
to the elected House of Commons, the idea being that they're not just going to curry favour with public opinion becasue they don't need to get re-elected in four years time. They make ammendments to Bills proposed in the Commons and can stall legislation for upto three readings in each House. But at the end of the day, even if they reject a Bill at the third reading the Government can invoke the Parliament Act and over-ride their opinion. Due to various behind-the-scenes machinations, this happens rarely, but did so recently over the infamous fox-hunting debate.
I guess when talking about length of democracy in Europe/ US, we should compare like with like and take it from universal suffrage, i.e. men and women over a certain age (18 in the UK) having the right to vote in free and fair elections. Which dates back to the early 1900s here. I can't remember exactly when but I do remember Emily Pankhurst was instrumental in gaining women's right to vote.
Thanks for the link on Sufragettes, had a quick read through it, and seems interesting and very educative stuff on this matter
Don't know how women got to vote in Belgium, but IIRC, Soldiers' widows were allowed to go to voting before the other women, and I think it has been much more of a slow evolution over here...
- against their will! 
