House of Commons
After the Union between England and Scotland in 1707, Scottish peers, even those who did not sit as representative peers, were barred from sitting in the House of Commons.
Irish peers were not subjected to the same disability after 1801 as their Scottish counterparts. Irish peers who were not representative peers could serve as a Member of Parliament for a constituency in Great Britain (but not in Ireland), provided they gave up their privileges as a peer.
The Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords; it also permitted all Irish peers to sit in the House of Commons for any constituency in the United Kingdom, as well as to vote in parliamentary elections, without being deprived of the remaining privileges of peerage.
Read more about this topic: Representative Peer
Famous quotes containing the words house and/or commons:
“O, if you raise this house against this house
It will the woefullest division prove
That ever fell upon this cursed earth.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I am really sorry to see my countrymen trouble themselves about politics. If men were wise, the most arbitrary princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny. Princes appear to me to be fools. Houses of Commons & Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools; they seem to me to be something else besides human life.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)