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Constituencies, wards and local councils

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Constituencies (a.k.a. parliamentary constituencies): each electing one Member of Parliament (MP) every 5 years to the House of Commons (Parliament). There are 650 constituencies in the UK.Wards (a.k.a. electoral divisions or electoral wards) is the primary unit of English electoral geography for borough and district councils, county councils or city councils. Each ward elects either one or two councillors to be members of the local council. There were 9,456 electoral wards/divisions in the UK and each ward has an average electorate of about 5,500 people, but ward population can vary substantially.Local council is made up of a number of Councillors (Cllr) who meet regularly to make decisions about the direction of the council and the work it does for the community. As elected bodies local councils are responsible to their local community. Attending a council meeting is the best way to find out what they do and how they make decisions. Members of public can attend public council meetin…
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What does "mortgage" mean?

By Jim Sheng
In the 17th and 18th centuries as people were going to the "new world", America, many of them couldn't afford the boat ride.

So to get to America, they would agree to be indentured servants. They would commit to work for someone for 3 to 7 years, and in the end they would be part of this new free world, at least that was the idea.

You see, in many cases, the indentured servant would become further indebted to their "employer" who would then agree to forgive that debt if they would stay on, many times indefinitely.

Today, we still have indentured servants, more like financial slaves really. But instead of being obligated for 7 years, it's 30, or more. And that's assuming you actually become debt free, but incidentally, many people won't see that day before they die.

In fact, dissect the word "mortgage" and what do you get? Well "mort" comes from the Latin word for death, and "gage" comes from Latin to mean pledge, so a mortgage effectively is a "death pledge", that's often the case.
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Comments

  1. Alan17 January 2013 at 06:40

    Thanks for that, good definition. I knew it was 'death contract' or something like that.

    ReplyDelete

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coat-of-arms

By Jim Sheng
Heraldry probably began with the knights in armour. When wearing a helmet in battle or in tournaments a knight could not be recognised; so he used symbols to decorate his shield and surcoat. The surcoat was the loose garment worn over the armour to protect it from rain or hot sun and actually was the "coat-of-arms"; it was decorated on the front and back with the same device as on the shield.
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The helmet denotes the ran…
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Is Aladdin a Chinese?

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Aladdin is an Arabic name, but he lived in China.  Is he a Chinese?
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The Meaning of Derby City Council Logo

By Jim Sheng
The logo of Derby City Council looks quite abstract and modern. I wonder what's the meaning of it? The lower-left part of the logo looks like a snail (or the initial letter D in Derby?), the upper-right part seems a river, (Derwent river?) these two parts are connected by a straight line at the bottom.

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