What is the House of Lords? Jump Start Video Lecture | How does UK Parliament's Education Service works? - Personal Learning

hey the House of Lords isn't some giant
house party for rich old men but who are
the Lords and why do we have them the
Lord started off as a kind of Advisory
Council to the king who was much more
powerful back then they met up at
Westminster every now and then to
discuss matters of state but in 1215
King John a Robin Hood Fame was forced
to sign the Magna Carta sharing power
with the nobility trade became more and
more important leading to the rise of a
new merchant class by the 14th century
Edward the third had two groups of
advisors divided into chambers the
Lord's and the Commons made up of lesser
Knights and merchants this is why we
have two houses in parliament as time
passed the Commons became increasingly
dominant and the King became less
powerful in 1649 King Charles was even
executed by the Commons the balance of
power between the houses swung firmly
towards the Commons from that day on
inheriting seats made the people feel
like the Lords were only for the
privileged a society moved on and
cultures changed the questions arose how
have these people earned their place how
can they represent the public in 1958
the life peerages Act introduced women
into the house and radically changed
twos in the lords from then on any man
or woman could come into the house based
on what they had achieved in their
career the Lords Act of 1999 reduced the
number of faretta Tory peers in the
house and stopped Lords passing their
seat to their own family a panel was
made to help the prime minister decide
who is brought into the house so that
now the house is made up of people from
all walks of life
political peers crossbench peers as well
as hereditary peers and bishops they all
use their experience from inside and
outside
of parliament to check and challenge
governments so what does the House of
Lords do on a daily basis
the house has three main functions to
question and challenge the work of the
government to work with the Commons to
shape laws and to investigate issues
through committees and debates to help
improve the way the country is governed
the House of Lords is currently the
second busiest legislative chamber in
the world right after the Commons its
chamber is laid out in the same way as
the Commons the government party on the
one side the opposition on the other
peers who don't belong to any political
party are known as crossbenchers as they
sit on the cross benches opposite the
woolsack the woolsack is the Lord
speakers seat back when we'll used to be
our main trade this seat was supposed to
remind the laws to protect our trade it
was and still is stuffed with the wool
from hundreds of sheep from around the
Commonwealth strange seats aside the
Lords is different to the Commons
because there's no majority for any
political party the party in power does
not necessarily have the most seats as
the Lords are not elected they're less
caught up in party politics and can
concentrate on their three main
functions so most people have some
preconceived idea of what the Lords are
but the reality is quite different what
do you think
you