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Edexcel Government & Politics - Unit 2 Governing the UK (09/06/16)

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Original post by namjoonu
Anyone have a link to the unofficial markscheme??


If there is one I don't wanna see it 😂


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So was the constitution question about have reforms gone too far or not far enough???? Like devolution/house of lords all that stuff
Also what was the parliament a and b answers
Original post by Luchamb
So was the constitution question about have reforms gone too far or not far enough???? Like devolution/house of lords all that stuff


could talk about uncodified vs. codified
Original post by Ringles
Hi everyone, i know its tedious but could someone please estimate me a general mark? not expecting high either.

For the Parliament questions;

A - describe three committees
1. Departmental select committee - described (think i put example something about health committee in the box)
2. Public Accounts committee - Described
3. Legislative Committee - weak description

B- assess the effectiveness of congressional committees (might have been "How effective" not assess)
1. Firstly the Legislative Committee is weak at performing scrutiny because dominated by party aka patronage etc
2. Public accounts Committee - better as chair is opposition leader, perform oversight (made up some irrelevant example about the financial crisis)
3. Department Select Committee - after the reform stronger etc.. (quite weakly done though)

C - Something about assess how parliament are controlled by the Government? (not allowed committees)
Small introduction (not very good 3/4 lines about fusion of powers)
Yes - Patronage and whips and Collective Responsibility - But Parliament sovereign, reject bills
Yes - if has a big majority - example Tony Blair etc - But if small e.g 2016, cant pass through
Yes - if has mandate then House of Lords Salisbury Convention etc - but if a coalition then not in place.. and vote of no confidence
Conclusion - depends on size of majority

The Constitution essay;
Small introduction (not very good either)
1. Codified to protect rights better etc - but disadvantages e.g lose flexibility
2. Electoral reform - FPTP creates tyranny of minority as people elected under 50% (bad representation) - but proportional systems creates coalition and possible weak government
3. HOL reform - make it an elected chamber better scrutiny etc - but too many checks, too many elections so turnout falls with apathy.
4. Conclusion - in need of reform to protect rights better and improve the legitimacy of the UK system.


Did it have to be those reforms??
Original post by MBenjamin
could talk about uncodified vs. codified


Yeah but could it also be the reforms like devolution and stuff?
Original post by kcereda
What did people write for the Judiciary 40 marker? I don't think many people did it and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing


I think I messed up

Pro Judiciary

Independent- thing about not being able to be put under pressure by media or ministers while something is sub justice e.g Abu Qatada where as politicians try to appeal to the public

Protect the rule of law under which everyone is equal even government e.g Herceptin case NHS trust acting ultra vires

Gov have had a bad track record at protecting civil lib going against the advice of the ECtHR and bringing in the 2006 terror act in the wake of blemarsh case

Pro Gov

Accountable vs judges not

Judges un representative small section of society represented (oxbridge white men...) meaning some groups being treated unfairly

Gov have done a lot of things that have helped protect civil rights e.g HRA 98...
Original post by mollyadtr
If there is one I don't wanna see it 😂


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I'm so worried now that I haven't even secured a D grade for Politics. :frown:

As I think about all my answers more in this exam, the more I pick apart my answers and question whether even anything I said was correct/made sense/in-depth, comparing to what you guys put down in your answers. Especially since time really was a negative for me in this one... If only I started my 40 marker first, I could've talked about a lot more.

Argh, I don't even know if I need 2 D's or 3 D's to stay on next year for Year 13.
Original post by UKStudent17
I'm so worried now that I haven't even secured a D grade for Politics. :frown:

As I think about all my answers more in this exam, the more I pick apart my answers and question whether even anything I said was correct/made sense/in-depth, comparing to what you guys put down in your answers. Especially since time really was a negative for me in this one... If only I started my 40 marker first, I could've talked about a lot more.

Argh, I don't even know if I need 2 D's or 3 D's to stay on next year for Year 13.


Oh **** you have to get a certain grade to go onto next year? I really hope you get the grades you need, we've all been studying so hard

I agree that's exactly what I'm doing and it's making me doubt every little thing 😕

I feel like the sources were longer than they have ever been which surprisingly took up a lot of time to read. I don't know what they expect of us we aren't all super fast readers, in some ways it's really unfair


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For the constitution 40 marker wasn't it basically should there be more reform or should we keep the constitution as it is at the moment. I'm wondering whether we had to talk about past reforms from 1997 onwards?
Original post by AhsanIqbal14
For the constitution 40 marker wasn't it basically should there be more reform or should we keep the constitution as it is at the moment. I'm wondering whether we had to talk about past reforms from 1997 onwards?


Apparently it was about the reforms from 1197 onwards but the fact that it didn't include the date completely mislead me into codified/uncodfiied argument


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Original post by Luchamb
Did it have to be those reforms??


No, its a very vague question :smile:
Original post by mollyadtr
Apparently it was about the reforms from 1197 onwards but the fact that it didn't include the date completely mislead me into codified/uncodfiied argument


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The question wasn't abut assessing past reforms though, so I can't see how it would be about assessing 2007 onwards when they emphasis used future reform, ie. devolution - upcoming Scotland Act, electoral process - English votes for English laws, EU referendum, Cameron's proposal for a British Bill of Rights.. The only placed I thought to mention the past is devolution, ie that Scotland elected to remain part of the Union which satisfied that question for now but EU referendum may shake that up making a synoptic link.
Original post by MBenjamin
Don't worry you're not the only one and you wouldn't be wrong either. I've seen lots of posts where people have written about uncodified vs. uncodified. You'll be fine!


Is that not relevant given Cameron's push for a British bill of rights in this term's legislative programme?
Original post by kcereda
What did people write for the Judiciary 40 marker? I don't think many people did it and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing


I liked the question and it would have been my go to had it not been for the fact tha remembering key judicial decisions was a pain in the arse haha.
With the constitution, you don't really have to remember date of xyz, but now I'm confused if I even understood the question correctly like others here 😳, so you probably made the right decision!
Original post by con.brown
For Constitution 40 marker did anyone talk about reforming and replacing the HRA in favour of a British Bill of Rights? I also did further Lords reform to a wholly elected second chamber, and analysing more devolution to Scotland and Wales, 'DevoMax' if you will.


Yup - I only managed to write an intro + 1 paragraph 😭 But mentioned the bill of rights as it's comparable to the US' and thus constitutes a form of a written constitution re: citizens rights.

I'm a little bit baffled how I didn't even think about HoL reform yet everyone here did! 😳
Original post by mollyadtr
Oh **** you have to get a certain grade to go onto next year? I really hope you get the grades you need, we've all been studying so hard

I agree that's exactly what I'm doing and it's making me doubt every little thing 😕

I feel like the sources were longer than they have ever been which surprisingly took up a lot of time to read. I don't know what they expect of us we aren't all super fast readers, in some ways it's really unfair


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Yeah. I just checked my school's prospectus, and apparently to carry onto Year 13 I need a minimum of 2 D's or above to carry on. If I get 2, then I'll most likely need to retake a 3rd, which I'm 100% fine with so long as I can stay. :frown:

I'm confident that I will at least get a D for History (Although I am hoping for maybe even an A, because the questions were reeeeeeeaaaallly sweet) As for Geography, well I'm sure I failed that. I feel like I made a comeback in the Geographical investigations, but I fear it may not be enough. I've been counting hypothetical marks and all the time, I fall short below a D.

It's English Literature and Politics which are basically deciders.. even then I'm not sure at all as to how well I've done. The results are mixed in those subjects.

It's not what I wanted for these exams. My mock grades were entirely different to this.. I'm going back to school in 4 days too for 4 weeks to start Year 13, so basically learning content which I probably won't get to learn in September. :s-smilie:

I'm sorry for being selfish. I can see that many of you are happy with your exam performance today, which you deserve to be, and I don't want to make other people doubtful of their performance either.
Original post by SlimShady96
I'm quite surprised that I haven't come across anyone that talked about the EU in the constitution question. I feel as though they left the question deliberately open due to this particular issue.


I mentioned Brexit but didn't finish the essay and go into implications for that, but linked it (possibly mistakenly) with the British bill of rights too which (I think) would challenge the ECHR as being the most sovereign (but as you can see my knowledge is not solid 😐).
Original post by UKStudent17
Yeah. I just checked my school's prospectus, and apparently to carry onto Year 13 I need a minimum of 2 D's or above to carry on. If I get 2, then I'll most likely need to retake a 3rd, which I'm 100% fine with so long as I can stay. :frown:

I'm confident that I will at least get a D for History (Although I am hoping for maybe even an A, because the questions were reeeeeeeaaaallly sweet) As for Geography, well I'm sure I failed that. I feel like I made a comeback in the Geographical investigations, but I fear it may not be enough. I've been counting hypothetical marks and all the time, I fall short below a D.

It's English Literature and Politics which are basically deciders.. even then I'm not sure at all as to how well I've done. The results are mixed in those subjects.

It's not what I wanted for these exams. My mock grades were entirely different to this.. I'm going back to school in 4 days too for 4 weeks to start Year 13, so basically learning content which I probably won't get to learn in September. :s-smilie:

I'm sorry for being selfish. I can see that many of you are happy with your exam performance today, which you deserve to be, and I don't want to make other people doubtful of their performance either.


I think, as long as you finished answering each question (ie made a judgement, as you pick up points for that), you can scrape a C even if your arguments aren't analysed or fleshed out. I only started the 40 marker with 20 mins to go and managed to only write intro + main para, taking that to D territory so feel comfort, I guess, that someone has done worse than you! :biggrin:
Original post by UKStudent17
Yeah. I just checked my school's prospectus, and apparently to carry onto Year 13 I need a minimum of 2 D's or above to carry on. If I get 2, then I'll most likely need to retake a 3rd, which I'm 100% fine with so long as I can stay. :frown:


Oh man that's really nerve racking 😖
If the questions were good for history I'm sure you'll be okay! What kind of history is it? My college do Russia and China but I dropped it because I prefer modern American history...
Geography is a nice subject I'm sure they'll be fair with marks for the papers. Don't know much about lit but I know you need to know a lot of literature for the exam! Hopefully you did good though.

Fate will be determined in August (I think)
I'm starting next year next week! However we don't need specific grades to move onto the next year so I guess I'm lucky in that sense

It's sad that now it's over there's nothing we can do to make a difference other than worry about the mark :frown:


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