The House of Commons The two Houses

The House of Commons
The two Houses of Parliament, the Lords and the Commons, share the same building, the Palace of Wesbninster. The Lords occupy the southern end, the Commons the rest, which includes some hundreds of rooms, among which are the library, restaurants, committee rooms, and offices for MPs.
The House of Commons is made up of 650 elected members, known as Members of Parliament, or MPs. The Commons debating chamber, usually called "the House", has seats for only about 370 MPs. It is rectangular, with the Speaker's chair at one end, and with five straight rows of benches (divided by a gangway) running down one side along its whole length, and five rows on the other side, so that the rows of benches face each other across the floor. One side of the House is occupied by the Government and the MPs who support it, the other, facing them, by Her Majesty's Opposition - all the MPs who are opposed to the Government of the day. The arrangement of the benches suggests a two-party system.
The front bench up to the gangway, nearest to the Speaker's right, is the Government front bench, where ministers sit. Facing the Government front bench, is the Opposition front bench, used by members of the shadow cabinet. There is a long table between the two front benches.
Each chamber has galleries, parts of which are kept for the use of the public, who are described, in the language of Parliament, as “strangers”. It is usually possible to get a seat in the strangers' Gallery of the House of Lords at any time, but it is not so easy to get into the House of Commons Gallery, particularly in the summer, when London is full of visitors. In order to get a place, it is usually necessary to write in advance to an MP for a ticket. Television cameras were first admitted to the Chamber in 1989.
The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker.
The choice of an MP as Speaker is made by vote of the House. A Speaker is customarily reappointed to his office in each new parliament, even if the majority of the House has changed. As soon as a party MP becomes a Speaker he must abandon party politics.
The central rule of procedure is that every debate must relate to a specific proposal, or "motion". An MP moves (proposes) a motion, the House debates it and finally decides whether to agree or disagree with it. At the end of every debate the Speaker asks the House to vote on the motion that has been debated. If there is disagreement, there is a one walking through corridors called "lobbies", being counted as they do so. The "Aye" (yes) lobby runs down one side of the outside wall of the chamber, the "No" lobby down the other side. Six minutes after the beginning of the division the doors leading into the lobbies are locked. This practice of allowing six minutes before Members must enter their lobbies gives enough time for them to come from any part of the Palace of Westminster. Bells ring all over the building to summon Members to chamber to vote. Members often vote without having heard a debate, and even without knowing exactly what is the question; they know which way to vote because Whips (or party managers) of the parties stand outside the doors, and Members vote almost automatically with their parties. The names of Members voting are recorded and published.
Except in holiday periods the House of Commons. meets every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 2.30 in in the afternoon, and normally sits until 10.30 p.m., although it may continue to sit later still - often until eleven or twelve, and occasionally until one or morning or even all through the night. On Fridays it meets at 9.30 in the morning and finishes at 3.30 p.m.
The life of Parliament is divided into periods called "sessions". A session normally lasts for about a year, from late October of one year to about the same date of the next year. MI's have holidays of about four weeks over Christmas, two weeks each at Easter and Whitson, and about 11 weeks - from early August to mid-October - in the summer.
Members of the House of Commons have been paid salaries since 1911. The rate has lately been nearly twice the average industrial worker's wage.