Mother of parliaments explained

Mother of parliaments should not be confused with Mother of Parliament.

"The mother of parliaments" is a phrase coined by the British politician and reformer John Bright in a speech at Birmingham on 18 January 1865.

It was a reference to England. His actual words were: "England is the mother of parliaments". This was reported in The Times on the following day.^[1]

However, the phrase is also applied to the Parliament of the United Kingdom because of the adoption of the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy by many countries of the former British Empire.^{[2] [3] [4]}

See also

• History of democracy
• History of parliamentarism
• Parliament
• Parliament in the Making
• Parliamentary system
• Prime minister
• Parliamentary sovereignty
• The History of Parliament

Further reading

• Book: Graham. Harry. The Mother of Parliaments. 2015. 1347470220. 9781347470220. 1910.

Notes and References

1. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, revised 4th ed, 1996, p. 141
2. Book: Parliament. 1957. CUP Archive. 517. none.

   Web site: UK Politics: Talking Politics The 'Mother of Parliaments'. BBC Talking Politics. 23 April 2016. 3 June 1998. none. ; News: Full text of Obama's speech to UK parliament. CNN. 23 April 2016. 25 May 2011. none. ; News: Britain and France Get Poor Marks in Democracy Ranking. Spiegel Online. 23 April 2016. 2 January 2011. none. ; News: A Makeover for the Mother of Parliaments. The New York Times. 23 April 2016. 11 July 2015.

3. Book: Seidle. F. Leslie. Docherty. David C.. Reforming parliamentary democracy. 2003. McGill-Queen's University Press. 9780773525085. 3.
4. Book: Arjomand. Saïd Amir. Constitutionalism and political reconstruction. 2007. Brill. 978-9004151741. 92–94. https://books.google.com/books?id=kYmmnYKEvE0C&pg=PA94. Julian Go. A Globalizing Constitutionalism?, Views from the Postcolony, 1945-2000. none.

   Web site: How the Westminster Parliamentary System was exported around the World. University of Cambridge. 16 December 2013. 2 December 2013.