Full text of the Chinese version of the life aristocratic bill

British aristocrats were born in the 11th century and have a history of nearly a thousand years. In today's world, the aristocratic phenomenon in Britain is the most representative. Like the ancient aristocrats in China, the British aristocrats are divided into five grades, namely, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount and Baron. The title of nobility can be hereditary, and members of the nobility can enjoy civil immunity and serve as members of the House of Lords.

Britain is the first country in the world to establish a constitutional monarchy. The British Parliament is the originator of the bourgeois parliament. It started in 1264 and consists of three parts: the king, the upper house (the house of nobility) and the lower house (the house of commoners). The upper house, one of the two houses of parliament, is composed of all members of the nobility. There are about 1,2 members, including 759 hereditary nobles, more than 4 lifelong nobles (also known as "newly sealed nobles"), and more than 2 archbishops and bishops. They represent the interests of the aristocracy and symbolize its social and political status.

In today's Britain, members of the nobility can still be respected by the society. Generally speaking, most of them are relatively rich, but in the British political arena, although they still occupy half of the country in the parliament, the highest legislative and power organ, their role and influence are not what they used to be.

In terms of legislative power, Parliament is the highest legislature of the country. In 1688, after the success of the "Glorious Revolution" in Britain, Parliament immediately passed the Bill of Rights and the Law of Succession to the Throne, which seized the highest power in politics, law, economy and military affairs from the king and established a constitutional monarchy. At this time, as the protagonist of the "glorious revolution", the nobles of the upper house naturally became the leaders of the parliament, and by controlling the composition of the lower house (members of the lower house must be nominated by the upper house and elected), they firmly controlled the whole parliament and took charge of state power in an all-round way.

With the completion of the British industrial revolution in the 19th century, the bourgeoisie not only increased its economic strength day by day, but also won in the struggle for its political status, so the influence of the nobles in the upper house was gradually weakened. The sudden decrease of the power of the nobility and their upper house was directly related to the Parliamentary Law of 1911 and 1949.

before the enactment of the parliamentary law in p>1911, the legislative power of the upper house and the lower house was equal, that is, any bill had to be passed by both houses before it could take effect after being signed by the king. In 199, the ruling Liberal Party drafted the Parliamentary Law, which restricted the power of the House of Lords. After two years of struggle, the House of Lords had to make major concessions and passed the law under the threat of the Prime Minister's suggestion that the king should add enough nobles to make it pass. According to the Parliamentary Law of 1911, any financial bill passed by the lower house will become law after being submitted to the upper house for deliberation for one month, regardless of whether it is approved by the upper house or not, as long as it is signed by the king. If all other social bills are passed three times in a row in two years, even if they are rejected by the upper house every time, the lower house can petition the king to sign them into law. In 1949, the Labour government enacted a new Parliamentary Law, which further restricted the veto power of the House of Lords, and reduced the time limit for the House of Lords to postpone the veto power from two years to one year. It can be seen that the upper house has lost its veto power over any bill proposed and passed by the lower house, and the legislation of the upper house's parliament always has no actual power at all.

In terms of executive power, the British government comes directly from the House of Commons. The lower house holds a general election every five years, and the government cabinet is organized by the political party that has won the majority of seats in the lower house (***65 seats), and the leader of the ruling party is the prime minister. Although the official head of state is the queen (or king), she (or he) has no control over the cabinet. Now, the Prime Minister leads the government ministries in the name of the Queen, is in charge of the internal affairs and foreign affairs of the whole country, and commands the huge state machine.

Until the 19th century, British prime ministers were mostly members of the nobility, but after the 2th century, since 192, none of the British prime ministers have been aristocrats.

According to the Noble Law of p>1963, nobles have no right to vote, to be elected as members of the House of Commons, and to be the prime minister of the government. If an aristocratic member intends to be prime minister, he must first renounce his aristocratic title and leave the upper house, that is, become a "commoner", and then enter the lower house through election. For example, Douglas Home, the prime minister of the Conservative government who came to power in 1963, is an example.

Today, the upper house of the British Parliament is no longer the domain of hereditary nobles. In order to control the number of members of the House of Lords, in 1958, Britain passed the Law on Lifelong Aristocracy, which came into effect in January 198, but since 1963, the conferring of hereditary aristocrats has basically stopped. From then on, those who were granted the titles of nobility by the royal family were only "lifelong aristocrats" (all were granted the titles of barons), that is to say, they could only enjoy their titles of nobility themselves, but not inherit them. In the past, most of the "lifelong aristocrats" in Britain were politicians, and some were scientists, educators, big business owners, former MPs and even trade union leaders. After leaving office, government cabinet ministers (including the Prime Minister) could get a noble title as long as they wanted. It can be said that today's "noble" is not yesterday's "noble".

According to the new social class division system published by the National Statistical Office of Britain on December 1st, 1998, the social status of "authentic" aristocrats-land aristocrats, together with innkeepers, innkeepers, taxi drivers and house decorators, was ranked fourth among the seven social classes, behind stewardesses, football players, general staff, secretaries, computer operators and telephone operators.

On November 24th, 1998, Queen Elizabeth II announced to the members of the House of Lords and the House of Lords at Westminster Parliament Building that, with her consent, the government would further reform the House of Lords in 1999 to make it "more democratic and representative". On January 2, 1999, Baron Jay, the leader of the House of Lords, read out the government's House of Lords Reform Bill in Parliament, which included canceling the seats of 759 hereditary nobles in the House of Lords before the next parliamentary election in 22, and allowing the public to elect candidates for the House of Lords.