What is the role the of Parliament in the British System of Government? What significant differences are there to the Government in Germany?

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: B, University of Brighton (School of languages), course: Identity & Culture, language: English, abstract: According to Wikipedia the term parliament: '[...] is derived from French parlement, the action of parler (to speak). A parlement is a talk, a discussion, hence a meeting ( an assembly, a court ) where people discuss matters. The British Parliament is often referred to as the 'Mother of Parliaments' because it has been a model for most other parliamentary systems'. Political systems can be distinguished into three different kinds. Presidential systems as in the United States, parliamentary systems as in the United Kingdom and Germany and semi-presidential systems as in France. The different systems have many similarities and are based on democracy. Although the political system of the United Kingdom and Germany both have a parliamentary system, they vary in many ways. This essay aims to show some of the significant differences between the German and British Parliament. First, the two parliamentary systems will be presented in terms of composition, function and tasks. Second, the consequences resulting in the difference in aforementioned properties will be considered. Undoubtedly, there is more to consider when discussing political systems and the point of view regarding to the task of this essay just allows a narrow consideration. [...]