Hi, everyone. And welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】.

Hi,安澜.

Hi, everyone.

So what are we gonna talk about in this episode? Hang on a minute. You have the general election coming up, right? 英国要大选了吧.

Yep. In early July, we have our general election.

Do you still vote? I mean you don't even live in the UK.

I still vote. Yes.

And, you know, I don't really follow the politics that closely, however I do enjoy sometimes watching in news, all these fights that go on in the parliament when they're trying to debate.

Yes.

All these hear, hear.

Yeah. That's mostly for the big debates, the ones that make the telly. But most of them are quit quiet.

就是英国议会里面的 Debate还是挺有意思的, 比如说他们去怼，就是现任的首相这样的什么的. So, let’s, I thought can we talk about these traditions in your parliament?

Yeah, of course. The British parliament has been around for centuries. So you could imagine that over that time, some quite unusual traditions have developed and some quite unusual rules as well.

But first of all, let's rewind or recap. We talked about the parliament before.

Yes.

我们原来讲过英国政府的构成, 讲过议会. Let me review, let me see if I can still remember this.

Okay.

It's divided in two parts. You have two houses就有两个, 一个上议院, 一个下议院，叫做House of Lords and House of Commons.

Yeah, that's right.

其实就是贵族院和平民院，对吧?

Yeah.

And those people who are shouting, that's House of Commons. I guess.

That's the House of Commons. So the House of Commons is the most important House because those are the people who are directly elected.

Oh, because House of Lords is passed on.

Some of them are passed on. Most of them are what we call Life Peers(终身贵族). So if they've been former politicians, they get “promoted to the House of Lords”. The House of Lords, essentially it's a way of kind of reviewing laws passed by the House of Commons.

So if the House of Lords don't like a law or they don't like a proposed bill, then they send it back to the House of Commons. Think of them almost like a editing service.

I see.

So a lot of the big decisions, the big policies and new acts, new laws are still proposed, first of all, by the House of Commons.

All of the new.

All of the new. I see. Let's start with this whole what we see on TV. You said that's the big debate that's not like an everyday thing.

No. No.

So when you see the House of Commons really really sore, that's normally for the big debates such as Prime Ministers question time.

It’s just Prime Ministers question time, it just sounds like 安澜's bedtime story.

Pretty much. So once a week, the Prime Minister has to answer questions in the House.

Once a week as frequent as that?

Yeah. Absolutely.

What if he is traveling to other countries?

Then the deputy Prime Minister will do it.

So there will always be someone, someone is gonna be there.

There will always be someone. So it's a chance for the opposition to essentially attack the Prime Minister.

I see when you say question time, most of us probably thinking is question and answers提问时间, but it's question as in almost like 审问时间.

That's right.

It's like being interrogated. You did this wrong? Why did you have this policy? Why did you do that?

Well. They wouldn't say you. So MPs can't use you.

What do they say, Prime Minister?

They will say the honourable member for plus the area they represent.

What about the Prime Minister, for the country?

He would be the Prime Minister or His Ministers would be the Right Honourable Member.

Hang on. I'm getting a bit confused. When they are trying to attack the Prime Minister during Prime Minister's question time.

Yeah.

What do they say? They say “Mr. Prime Minister”?

No, they would say the Prime Minister or the Right Honourable Member.

The Right Honourable Member meaning the honor of the right and wrong, right?

Yeah. That's to show that person is a Minister and they also are in the Cabinet.

I see, Cabinet就是内阁对吧?

Yeah.

But you are saying if they represent a special area, for example, their Minister of Education, 比如说是教育部长教育大臣的话, 那么就是the Honorable Member for Education.

Yeah, or for the Department of Education.

For the Department of Education, I see, that's actually very interesting.

So although I'm gonna say some nasty things to you and question you, but I'm still going to be polite in the beginning.

Yes. And they can't actually insult people. That's because politicians what they're doing is they're not speaking directly to the person that they are attacking or debating with. They're speaking to the Speaker.

Who's the Speaker?

The Speaker is technically he or she is the representative of the crown and the Speaker represents the House. So he or she is the one who's in control of control in the MPs, making sure the debate is going smoothly. They're the ones that pick who is going to speak.

So they’re like the referee.

They're like the referee. Yeah.

And they stand in middle.

They sit in the middle.

They sit in the middle, and then you have the two sides and then both sides will only speak to the Speaker.

Yeah. So they will say Mr. Speaker or Madam Speaker.

Do you know what this reminds me of? Yes, it reminds me of like a courtroom. 就有点像说法官大人, 然后这两边是原告被告, 但是也有点像两个孩子吵架, 然后跟妈说“是他推的我！”

Pretty much, that is exactly what it is. And you'll notice that everyone else is shouting but no one is applauding, no one is clapping their hands. That's because traditionally that's not allowed in the House of Lords and Commons.

Why?

It's just not allowed.

It's just one of those traditions.

It's just one of those traditions.

Oh. That's why. So when they approve of something他们如果听见了好的, 他们赞成的话, they say “Hear, hear!”.

Yeah. That's the traditional way of saying “I agree”.

It's h-e-r-e or h-e-a-r?

Hear as in I hear.

I listen to you. It's like, it’s basically like对对，收到，这种感觉， hear, hear.

Yeah. And they're normally kind of waving their papers in the air and that's to show that they agree.

So they can't clap.

They can't clap. They can’t boo. So instead, they sort of growl and they go “Er....r”.

So if they disagree they will go “Er....r”. They can say boo.

No, or they just laugh.

Haha.

Yeah.

But it's so dramatic.

It is. It is.

It sounds like a courtroom melodrama.

Absolutely, it's quite funny.

That's why because I was thinking how do you get all these people to do exactly the same.

So basically, when they hear something they don't like from the opposition party, they would actually not boo them, they would actually heckle them.

They heckle them. Yeah.

Heckle这个词我们原来在讲, 现在的stand up这种单口喜剧人的这种表演里面说到过, heckle其实就是在底下嘘这个人, 但是他们boo, 不是这样嘘, 他们就“Er...r”

They wouldn't say anything, because they not allowed to. But they would just sort of mutter amongst themselves and laugh.

Being passive aggressive.

Being very passive aggressive.

I see. And I guess the other rules would be probably you're not allowed to, hopefully you're not allowed to drink or eat in there.

No eating or drinking, but the Chancellor is traditionally allowed to drink alcohol when delivering the budget speech.

The Chancellor, that's the one who's in charge of the finance.

Yeah.

就是你们的财相.

Yeah.

叫什么Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Chancellor of the Exchequer.

财政大臣或者是财相 the Chancellor is traditionally, of course, allowed to drink alcohol when delivering the budget speech. Is it because he or she needs liquor courage?

Probably. Because delivering a budget is never easy. It's a very very long speech.

And I definitely can imagine there will be people who are heckling.

Yeah, cause it's things like raising taxes or it's allocating funds, it’s a budget speech.

It's touching a lot of people's cheese.

Well, exactly.

I see.

But so far this is fantastic.