Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 26 February 1992.
Mrs Maria Fyfe
, Glasgow Maryhill
12:00,
26 February 1992
In the past four days since the Prime Minister made his extraordinary remark about taking stock after the General Election, has the Secretary of State for Scotland got around to clarifying what was meant by that?
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
In a general election, each constituency chooses an MP to represent it by process of election. The party who wins the most seats in parliament is in power, with its leader becoming Prime Minister and its Ministers/Shadow Ministers making up the new Cabinet. If no party has a majority, this is known as a hung Parliament. The next general election will take place on or before 3rd June 2010.
