The British House of Lords is generally seen as an unimportant political actor. It is unelected and has a formal veto over only very limited forms of legislation. According to Lijphart this gives the UK a system of ‘weak bicameralism’, and contributes to its position as a majoritarian democracy. The alternative classification system offered by Tsebelis treats the UK as essentially unicameral, w...

OBJECTIVE To examine mortality in members of the two UK Houses of Parliament compared with the general population, 1945-2011. DESIGN Retrospective cohort analysis of death rates and predictors of mortality in Members of Parliament (MPs) and members of the House of Lords (Lords). SETTING UK. PARTICIPANTS 4950 MPs and Lords first joining the UK parliament in 1945-2011. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUR...

666 BMJ | 1 OCTOBER 2011 | VOLUME 343 After a third reading and heated debate in the House of Commons, the Health and Social Care Bill was passed by 316 votes to 251 on 7 September. It received its first reading in the House of Lords, little more than a formality, the next day but will be subject to far more rigorous debate at its second reading in October. Despite more than 1000 amendments in ...

elamite documents, and evidence of elamite writing in general, are rare from this period. however from susa under the sukkalmah period, there are some 550 legal documents in akkadian in various legal subjects, like sale, lease, and judicial procedures; this provides the historian with a unique opportunity fir the study of elamite legal and social institutions. the present essay will edit and tr...

WHEN Baroness Burton of Coventry rose in the House of Lords on Wednesday, May 13th, 1964, to call attention to the problem of leisure, she reminded the House of a debate during the previous month on the need for an increase of automation in British industry and commerce, and for effective planning to meet the inevitable changes which it would cause in our society. She said that in 1957, she had...