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Language: en-GB

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The Houses of Parliament are the home of democracy in the UK,

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It's really windy here.

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Here is something you might not know.

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Members of Parliament are not allowed to resign.

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Well, technically they are not allowed to resign.

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They do, of course, the last one to resign as I recall this was Chris Huhne

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who pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and promptly left his post.

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But technically he did not leave in resignation.

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Because in 1624 there was a resolution in Parliament that MPs could not do that.

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Because back then Parliament didn't have much power, it only met for a few weeks at a time

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and getting to Parliament for those around the country was an arduous and weeks-long job.

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So, MPs were banned from resigning.

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But in 1680 there was also a resolution which meant that if you took a payment for a job from the Crown,

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the odd legal entity that includes the government and Her Majesty.

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If you took a job from there you were ineligible to be an MP and you would be expelled from the House.

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Now what this means is that when Chris Huhne resigned he did not 'resign' he was appointed as the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborrough, and Burnham.

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A wonderful title that means nothing, has no duties, has no pay --

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but means that techincally he is employed by The Crown and is therefore expelled from Parliament.

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Even Tony Blair didn't resign, technically he was expelled.

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And that is something you might not know.

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[English captions by: Hugo]
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