﻿Hi and welcome to lesson four, exploring the political system in the UK. Today we're going to look at what an MP does and the role of an MP in the UK's political system. So as usual, you are going to need your notes from last lesson, you're going to need some paper, a pen, a different coloured pen, and a quiet place to work. If you need to get any of those or move, please do pause the video now and make yourself comfy. And then come back and start the video. So today, well, we're going to explore three things. We're going to look at what an MP is, we're going to look at the roles a bit an MP has. And we're going to look at the who, who can become an MP and how you can do that. Okay, so, let's have a look at what you can remember from the previous lessons. Hopefully, you can answer these four questions. So what does MP stand for? What is the name of an area an MP represents? How many MPS are there? And where do MP's debate policy and the laws? And you can either add these answers to your notes or you can just say them out loud or just think about them. It's up to you. So, hopefully you got, Member of Parliament, for question number one. Hopefully you got, constituency, for question number two. Hopefully you got, 650, for how many MPs are there. And question number four, hopefully you got, the House of Commons. Now, don't worry if you didn't get any of those. And well done if you got them all. And well done, if you got the answers right. Okay, so, what is an MP? So, an MP is a Member of Parliament and it's the person elected by all those who live in a particular constituency to represent them in the House of Commons, okay? And I suggest you pause the video now to make a note of that definition, so you have it for a later stage. So, what roles does an MP undertake? So, an MP will divide their time between the House of Commons in London and their constituency. So the area in the UK they represent, okay. So they'll travel between either of them. And the first thing I would like you to do is I would like to make a copy of that table, which is there. And it's got three columns. It's got House of Commons, both, and constituency. And I'm going to show you a list of different things an MP undertakes, so a list of different roles. And I want you to decide if the MP would undertake them in the House of Commons, in House of Commons and their constituency or just in their constituency, okay? So draw the table and add the correct information to the correct column. So, here are the ideas. I'm just going to say, that a select committee is a group of people who focus on one particular issue. So, it might be that it's an education special committee. And that committee focus on issues to do with education. And a bill committee here are people who meet to talk about a new law, okay? And both of those are pretty much done in the House of Commons. But everything else should be, you should be able to figure out, okay? So pause the video now and add these to the column you think they'd go into. Okay, well done for giving that a go. So, here, you can use your pen of a different colour to mark your own work. House of Commons, this is for the lawmaking process. Engage in debate and scrutiny. MPs will go to the Commons chamber and debate laws and scrutiny. Now you might have seen during COVID-19, the House of Commons was moved online for a short period. But now many MPS of back in the House of Commons under strict social distancing measures, so that work can take place there. Also in the House of Commons, they will ask the Prime Minister questions and they'll ask the other Ministers questions as well. And in the House of Commons or in Parliament or in the Parliament building they'll work on select committees or bill committees. Okay. And I'm just going to say at this point, you can contact Ministers or Prime Ministers if you're an MP through writing to them as well. But most of the contact happens in the House of Commons. Both, okay, so, they represent their constituents. So, that's probably the main job of an MP, and that's done in the House of Commons and in the constituency. They campaign for and promote party policies. Whether they are talking about either a party or a policy, like in the Commons, they're talking about it in their constituency. That's a really important thing they do. Support the work of a government department if a Cabinet Minister. So, if they're elected into the Cabinet, so if they're given a role in the cabinet, I should say, they'll do this in London, but they'll also work in their constituency as well. And support the work of the opposition, if in a shadow Cabinet or Minister. Again, they'll do this in London when they're together where they'll all sort of continue this work doing their constituent duties. And just in the constituency, they will meet constituents to discuss the issues they're facing. They will visit places of interest in their constituency, so, schools or hospitals. I don't know, maybe you've had your MP come in to visit your school. So, I know we have, at the school I work at. And they campaign for reelection or support the party or support one of the party candidates. So when it comes around for an election, they will go and visit the constituents in their constituency to try to get them to vote for them. Or if they're stepping down for it, for whatever reason, they will help support that, support a new candidate to get elected for their political party. Now you're going to meet an MP. Bradley is an MP. And I'm going to ask you to watch a little video he made about his daily life. And I'm just going to ask you to add any further information about the role he undertakes to your notes whilst you're watching the video, okay? So exit the lesson, go to the worksheet and you'll find the video and just give it a watch, and then come back, and we'll go through some answers. So, hopefully you've got these. So, like in the House of Commons they will attend specific events. So, for example, Prime Minister's Question time is a weekly event what happened in the Commons. And they also have to vote for things in the Commons. So if they agree with a bill, if they agree with a decision being made, they take part in a physical vote in the Commons. Both, they might, so they might go on TV or the radio in London but they might also do it in their constituency. Meet with a lobbyist. So a lobbyist is someone who's trying to get a specific action or a law into parliament. And the best way to do that is to meet someone who works in Parliament, and so an MP. So, an MP might meet a lobbyist, both in, can be in the House of Commons, maybe in their office, or maybe they'll meet them in London or somewhere else in the country. But they'll also do this when they're back at home, as well. And their constituency, they will travel to and from here. So what I would actually, now, is just have a bit of a reflection on these three questions. I think most important task of an MP is... I think the most difficult task for an MP would be... And I think the most enjoyable part of an MP's job would be... So just pause the video now and answer those three questions from what we worked at so far. Okay, so, your answer is, your answer might be different from mine and that's fine. Just as long as you've given it a go, well done. So I think the most important task of an MP is representing their constituents. This is because, this is what the MPS are elected to do. And if an MP does not carry out this role well, then the general public could lose that trust in politicians. So if the public don't feel their views are being represented, that might make them question the whole idea of our political system. And I think the most difficult task of an MP would be reading and understanding the bill. So when the, so when a new law happens, they produce a bill what get passed between the Commons and the House of Lords and an MP has to read it so they can go and question, the people who are opposing it. But these could be quite long, they could be quite technical. So I personally think that would be the most difficult part. I think the most enjoyable part would be meeting the people you are representing and travelling to different places. So I really like travelling. So I think that would be a good part. And this is because, you know, it must be quite fulfilling to meet those people who elected you to your position. Who can become an MP? In the UK, you have to be a citizen of England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland, you have to be 18 or above 18. Now that is a big question in politics. Should we allow younger people? And we have lessons on that topic. You don't need a certain set of qualifications. So there's no, you must have a degree in politics, like, that isn't needed. Often people do have a certain set of qualifications but you don't need them. You must have the support and the authorization of a registered political party or you must be able to stand as an independent. You must receive 10 nominations of electors in the constituency you'd like to stand in. So 10 people or more support your decision. And you can't be an MPA if you work in some occupations, so, a judge, a police officer, or the armed forces. And that's to make sure powers and things are kept separate. And if you have certain criminal convictions, which mainly result in you being in prison for a year or above, then that also stops you becoming an MP. You don't need any certain formal qualifications. But having some some skills or the ability to do some things might be useful if you are an MP. Now there are lots of these, but I've listed four on this diagram here. So we've got organisation skills, we've got confidence in public speaking, got logical thinking and we've got listening skills. So these are known as interpersonal skills. These are skills you have about how you relate to others. Why do you think that it might be important, considering what an MP does, for an MP to have these skills? What I would want you to do is just jot some ideas down to answer the question, why do you think it's important that an MP has these skills. Why is it important that an MP has organisation skills? Why is it important that an MP has confidence in public speaking? Why is it important that an MP can think logically? And why is it important that an MP has listening skills? So pause the video now and just have a go at that activity, please. Okay, well done for having a go at that. So I'm going to share with you my ideas. Again, you might have something a bit different but that's okay. And if you want to add anything what I've got to your notes then please do so. You might want to use your different coloured pen for that. Organisation skills. So it's important to have organisation skills as you're going to manage lots of different things, and these things are going to take up a lot of your time. So it's important that you manage all these different demands on your time effectively. If you're organised, I think that will really help. Confidence in public speaking. So again, you're going to need to be able to speak in public. So you might have to address a large crowd in your constituency, at maybe a meeting or when you're campaigning, you're going to have to speak in the House of Commons. So you're going to have to put your point across clearly and accurately in front of a large group quite often. Logical thinking. If you're going to be sat out at Commons, debating, you're going to be able to need to think through things quite quickly, provide a conclusion and then put your point across all in a very short space of time. Again, you going to have lots of decisions to make, lots of documents to read, and you have to have to be able to process these in quite a logical way. And active listening. So you're going to have to listen to things quite a lot as an MP. So if a member of your constituency comes and sees you, you're going to have to be able to sit and listen to them and work through their issue. And again, if you sat in the Commons you listened to a debate, you're going to have to process the information, what you're hearing. So hopefully, you got some similar ideas to that. And if not, you can add any that you might be missing. Our final task for today's lesson is you're going to design a job description for a new MP. And a job description is a document which is given to someone who is applying for a job. So it's their main duties and responsibilities. And you're going to split your job description up into four different parts. You're going to split it up into knowledge, into skills, experience and interpersonal skills. So I've talked about all these, but maybe you want to add some of your own thinking. And if you want to challenge yourself, you can maybe add some essential criteria, so the things that they must have and desired criteria, things that would be useful for them to have. So you can design a job description for a new MP, for these four different categories. Now, this is an example of a job description for someone who is doing a job in IT. So you can see it lists the job, you can see it list their duties, you can see it lists their qualifications. So that's what one looks like from outside politics. You might want to use this possible layout, this table, I do like laying things out on a table. So you've got your duties at the top, and then you've got your knowledge, your skills, your experience and your interpersonal skills. You've got your essential column. So what essential knowledge, what essential skills, what essential experience, what essential interpersonal skills might you need. And then what might be desired, what might be good to have, but not essential. So what desired knowledge, skills, experience and interpersonal skills. So pause the video now and have a go at that. Okay, well done. So I've got some of, so I've got some ideas. Yours will probably be longer than mine, and that's okay. So I've got duties, representing constituents, and attending the House of Commons. I've got knowledge, so, knowledge of the constituency area. The desired might be some knowledge of how the UK political system works, not essential, but might be useful. Skills, your computer literacy, so it's good to be able to use a computer. So maybe Microsoft or Word and PowerPoint, et cetera. And you know, a lot of MPS today use social media. So having some experience of how that works would be useful. Experience, you're going to need to be able to work with people and work in a team. So an MP is supported by people, people that don't work by themselves, they work with all those who support them in managing their workload, or managing their diary, helping them respond to all their queries. It might be desirable to have some experience in politics and working with a large group of people. And again, public speaking and organisation might be essential for interpersonal. Desired, a sense of humour. You know, it's a tough job being an MP. It is probably quite useful to be able to see the funny side of things at times. So hopefully, you got some similar ideas. And well done for giving that task. Okay, so if you would like to further your knowledge of today's lesson, you can decide to do one or both of these takeaway tasks. So, under the supervision of your parent or carer use a search engine to search who is my MP. And with that access the members of parliament website, enter your postcode and read the page and find out more about who your MP is. You could find their name, their political party, their membership of any select committee, anything you want. And you can make a little profile of them to add to your notes, so you've got a real life example to use. You could also play a game about what an MP does throughout their day. So again, if you use a search engine with your parent or carer and search for the game MP for a Day, you will get to play a game where you become an MP for the day and undertake their jobs and make decisions. This is what the members of parliament website will look like when you have got your MP up. So you'll see, you got their contact information, you've got their name, et cetera. Now, that brings today's lesson to an end. And hopefully you can now state what an MP is, you can explain and give examples of the different roles an MP undertakes, and you can also give us some skills and attributes an MP might need. So how you completed today's lesson, don't forget to complete the quiz to test how much you can remember. And hope we see you again for the next one. Have a good day, bye.

This lesson will explore the role of an MP and how they undertake their work to ensure those who voted for them are represented.

Citizenship

Y8 Citizenship

Key Stage 3

Year 8

What do MPs do?

How does the political system work in the UK? 

Politics, parliament and government 

THEME

UNIT

What is the difference between government and parliament?

How do elections work?

What do political parties do?

How is the UK government organised?

How does devolved government work?

Lesson overview: What do MPs do?

Video

Presentation

Worksheet

Exit Quiz

Transcript

6 lessons in How does the political system work in the UK? :