Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 25 Gorffennaf 1922.
Mr Arthur Neal
, Sheffield, Hillsborough
I certainly have never said, either in Committee or in private or here, that the Government will withdraw from Clause 15 at all. What I said—and let there be no misunderstanding about lt—was that there was a great agitation growing against. Clause 15, and that the House might defeat it. But the position of the Government has always been perfectly clear. We stand by the pledge we gave to the House of Lords in Clause 15.
The house of Lords is the upper chamber of the Houses of Parliament. It is filled with Lords (I.E. Lords, Dukes, Baron/esses, Earls, Marquis/esses, Viscounts, Count/esses, etc.) The Lords consider proposals from the EU or from the commons. They can then reject a bill, accept it, or make amendments. If a bill is rejected, the commons can send it back to the lords for re-discussion. The Lords cannot stop a bill for longer than one parliamentary session. If a bill is accepted, it is forwarded to the Queen, who will then sign it and make it law. If a bill is amended, the amended bill is sent back to the House of Commons for discussion.
The Lords are not elected; they are appointed. Lords can take a "whip", that is to say, they can choose a party to represent. Currently, most Peers are Conservative.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
