Why Is The British Parliament Weak

From both domestic and international perspectives, the British Parliament is widely vied as relatively weak. According to Graham Brady MP, only a third of the public think that the Parliament is effective to hold the government to account. He claims that after serving 18 years in the Commons has given him the thought that the Parliament is weak and ineffective. According to Kreppel’s statement in Typologies and Classification, many contemporary analyses maintained the classic relative opinion that ‘the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament serve as the emblematic examples of a strong and weak parliament respectively’. Richardson and Jordan’s (1979) well-known characterisation of Britain as a “post-parliamentary democracy” seemed to remain …show more content…
However, this was only until 1998, when a process of devolution started to transfer executive legislative powers to the other three nations of the United Kingdom, which are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Devolution has been defined by The Royal Commission on the Constitution as ‘ the delegation of central government powers without the relinquishment of sovereignty’. In other words, devolution means power is given from Westminster to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, providing them greater control over their own affairs, as well as the authority to make their own laws in certain areas. Yet, this does not promise full independence as Westminster still retains power over key areas such as defence. Devolution started when the Scottish Act 1998 is introduced and created Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament. Additionally, the Government of the Wales Act 1998 created Welsh Assembly, which has few powers than the Scottish Parliament. Northern Ireland Assembly created by the 1998 ‘Belfast Agreement’ also known as the ‘Good Friday Agreement’. The Assembly has been suspended a number of times but came back into power in May 2007. The Scottish Executive and Scottish Parliament have been constantly called for further government and law-making powers to be transferred since the devolution in 1998. A commission …show more content…
The Scottish Act 2012 delegated more powers to the Scottish Parliament. Furthermore, this Act changes the name of Scottish Executive to Scottish Government formally. Through this Act, greater tax-raising powers were devolved; new powers to make legislature on matters relating to air weapons were delegated and Scottish Ministers were granted powers on misuse of drugs, speed limits and the administration of elections to the Scottish Parliament. After the referendum of Scottish Independence in