Home | Literature | Stories

Part Three
By: someoneisatthedoor

The stars indicate whether the Parliament function in an advisory role (*) a legislative role (**) or a consenting but essentially powerless role (***) on any given piece of legislation.

The youth throws a lit cigarette butt, it misses my shoe by less than a foot. I glance up at him, he is staring right at me. We lock eyes for a moment then he turns to snigger with his mates.

Three stars underlined means that under the new constitution the Parliament must give its consent, where it has no say at all today. Three stars with the last two underlined means that the European Parliament must give its consent, where it is only consulted today.

They are a group of dark skinned lads, probably the sons of North African immigrants. The street is full of angled shadows because many of the streetlamps are broken.

The phrase ‘religious heritage’ is preferred, explicitly, to Christian heritage.

One of the lads throws a bottle onto the pavement. I glance over my shoulder to see them laughing at a woman in her twenties who is walking past them, trying not to step in the glass.

Regarding the council of ministers X means a vote with a qualified majority, or 232 of 321 votes, but this will be replaced in 2009. X means that unanimity in the council will change to a qualified majority.

I walk into the shop, trying to be as efficient as possible so I don’t spend longer in here than I need to. The packages on the shelves are crumpled, the magazines well thumbed. The floor is slippery, something has been spilt.

XX can of course be combined with * or **, and a whole series of other combinations are possible

There are over 20 brands of coffee, only one brand of milk. I find it difficult to decide which to buy. I pick one with a nice coloured label.

It isn’t even ironic that the first section is called PREAMBLE

The shop is small, compact but full. This makes it hard to find things.

It is 217 pages long, though this has been trimmed down from the original.

The items in my basket are meagre

One of the authors described it as ‘out of control’ and ‘trying to do it all’

The items in my basket are cheap. The bag into which my shopping is being packed has the name of the shop on it.

And this is the reader friendly edition.

Article Source: http://journal.ilovephilosophy.com

Please Rate this Article

 

# of Ratings = 1 | Rating = 1/5

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Stories Articles Via RSS!
Additional Articles From - Home | Literature | Stories
Sign Up as an Author.
Submit Articles
Member Login
Top Authors
Most Popular Articles
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
New Stuff
Forum
Link to Us
Contact Us

Powered by Article Dashboard