Government

§ The minister of Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Hilary Benn, whose jobs focus on the UK Climate Projections and the Government’s plans to adapt to the challenges it will cause.

§ Secretary of State for Transport‘s minister: Lord Adonis, who’s responsibilities are involved in the security on the road ,delivery of Government's transport commitments and Long-term transport strategy, including high speed rail and carbon

§ Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs’ minister: David Miliband, who is responsible for relations with foreign countries, matters pertaining to the Commonwealth of Nations and the UK's overseas territories and the promotion of British interests abroad.
§ Secretary of State for Work and Pensions’ minister: Yvette Cooper, whose jobs refer to reduce the rate of unemployment and ensure people’s pension when they retired.

§ Secretary of State for Defence’s minister: Bob Ainsworth charged with making and executing Defence policy, and with providing the means by which it is executed, the Armed Forces. He is Chairman of the Defence Council and of its three Boards, (the Admiralty Board, the Army Board and the Air Force Board).

§ Home Secretary for the Home Office’s minister: Alan Johnson who is responsible for immigration control, security and order. Also, responsible for the police, United Kingdom Borders Agency and MI5, It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism and ID cards.

§ Secretary of State for Health’s minister: Andy Burnham, who is responsible for NHS , social care delivery , system reforms, Finance and resources and Strategic communications.

§ Chancellor of the Exchequer’s minister: Alistair Darling, who is the head of the treasury and control the finance of Britain.

§ The Prime Minister's responsibilities: First of all, the Prime Minister is the head of the UK Government and is ultimately responsible for the policy and decisions of Government. Moreover, as head of the UK Government the Prime Minister also oversees the operation of the civil service and Government agencies, appoints members of the Cabinet, and is the principal Government figure in the House of Commons.

The Welsh Assembly

Today, we visited the Welsh Assembly which is a national assembly for Wales, located in Cardiff Bay .Also, is a fantastic building which is built with traditional Welsh materials such as slate and Welsh oak and other sustainable materials such as glasses .In addition, this building represents sustainability and democracy and it is a place for welsh politicians and people to discuss about their rights and to make decisions.

The Welsh Assembly is sustainability and friendly building because of the following reasons. First of all ,the inside of the building is still very bright without any electricity light because it is made of a lot of glasses ,so there is much natural sun light. Moreover, the roof of the building which is specially designed can recycle the rain to use for the toilets of the Assembly. Finally, It doesn’t need heaters or air-conditioners to control the temporary of the inside Assembly because the temporary is controlled by the natural source which is from the under of floor.

The Welsh Assembly’s responsibilities are involved in many areas such as education, health, environment and culture and so on. However, it also has some disadvantages; for example, they haven’t got enough power from London Parliament.

Scrutiny of Parliament

An overview of the three main ways Parliament holds government to account
There are three different ways that Parliament holds the government to account: these three ways are questions, debates and committee which examine and challenge the work of government
The first one is questioning government ministers. In the Commons, the Prime Minister answers questions every Wednesday and ministers from each government department answer the questions orally on a rota basis. In the Lords, government ministers are questioned every day.
Questions may be answered in two different forms: oral forms and writing forms.
The second on is debating. Debates in the Commons look at national and international issues and can be on any subject. The Lords debates and revises major legislation, and also general debates and discuss subjects of topical interest.
Committees: examine issues in detail, from government policy and proposed new laws, to wider topics like the economy. Committees made up of around 10 to 50 MPs or Lords.

The role of ‘questions’ to Ministers in the House of Commons and House of Lords

Members of Parliament oblige minister to explain and defend the work, policy decisions and actions of their Departments. However, the House of Commons and the House of Lords question the government in different ways:

Questions from House of Commons, which is called ‘Order of Oral Questions’, relate to the responsibilities of the government department.

Questions from House of Lords are not as the Commons dose, the Lords focuses on questions to the Government as a whole.

The role of Select Committees

Select Committees check and report on areas ranging from the work of government departments to economic affairs. The aims of Select Committees are offering advices, to producing reports and altering legislation.

Besides,Select Committees work in both the Commons and the Lords:

The Commons Select Committees are always focusing on examining the work of government departments which include spending, policies and administration.While the Lords Select Committees concentrate on four main areas: Europe, science, economics, and the UK constitution. They spend most of their time on investigations of specialist subjects.

Halloween

Halloween means All Hallows Eve, or the night before the 'All Hallows', also called 'All Hallowmas', or 'All Saints’, All Soul observed on November 1.It is celebrated on October 31^st in every year. Its original date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain .The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1, which means the end of summer, the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter .Beside, a time of this year was often connected to human death. On the night of October31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth and it is a day which is easier for Celtic priests to make predictions about the future.

Moreover, there are a number of interesting things about Halloween, for example, the colours black and orange have become associated with the celebrations because of the darkness of night and the colour of fire of pumpkins. Finally, There many activities on the celebrating of Halloween, including trick-or treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, ghost tours, bonfires and so on.