There are two chambers of the British Parliament; The House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Lords is supposed to be the upper house, but the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 restricted their power and they now have to abide by the ruling of the so-called 'lower house' - the House of Commons, having previously had an absolute veto on laws that came from the Commons. This law was brought in due to the fact that the Commons is elected by first-past-the-post and the Lords is an unelected body; made up of life peers, hereditary peers, and religious officials. Therefore the Commons has the most power on policy-making and agenda setting, whereas the Lords serves to proof-read and amend bills that come through the Parliament before being granted Royal Assent.
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