Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament (officially the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is the national legislature of the United Kingdom, as well as the legislature over the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. There is also a complex and dynamic system of power sharing between the Parliament and the devolved legislatures.
House of Commons
The lower house of the Parliament is the House of Commons. There are 650 members elected from single-member constituencies.
The constituencies are classified as either 'counties' or 'boroughs' (or 'burghs' in Scotland).
TODO: learn some government!
House of Lords
TODO: learn some government!
The house is led by a Lord Speaker. They are elected by the body, and largely serve an administrative and ceremonial role. This arrangement was established by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, which split the speakership from the continuing position of Lord Chancellor. (The Chancellor remains the nominally highest office and head of the Ministry of Justice.)
The central seat is called the woolsack. It serves as a synecdoche for the Lord Speaker (or until 2005, the Lord Chancellor).
History
Under Anne, and in context of negotiations between Whigs and Tories over the Hanoverian succession, statutes were passed to establish limits on royal offices. Ministerial portfolios were a primary target of this system. Notably, Army and Navy commissions were excluded. Accepting such a position required a member to immediate vacate their seat in the Commons. They then had to compete in a ministerial by-election. These elections were traditionally ceremonial and uncontested, but over time became both contentious and costly.
Ministerial by-election were suspended during World War 1. Then in 1919, Law introduced the Re-Election of Ministers Act aiming to abolish them entirely, but he compromised on only eliminating the requirement for the 9 months following a general election.
Law's original bill was resurrected in 1926 and passed as an amendment, finally abolishing ministerial by-elections.