Thursday, October 31, 2019

Final questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Final questions - Essay Example She is furious because she is conformed to the fashions, behaviors and values of the time. As a result, she plays havoc and introduces new attitudes and beliefs as well as seduction of the basketball captain Skip. The scenes now begin to change with color and the film gains a new perspective as the society embraces and become contaminated. The cinematography of the film identifies the major theme of the film which is change. The movie touches on many social, political, ideological and religious themes such as race, sexuality, personal freedom, feminism and womens liberation, passion, prejudice and social change. The themes are displayed in a continuous play of events with proper projection. The symptomatic meaning is identified through the color changes from a black and white setting to a colored setting and the transition from a real world to an unrealistic world. The implicit meaning of the film is displayed by the way people react to change. It denoted that people either embrace, reject or resign to the inevitability of change. While some people are inclined to the past, this movie helps us to examine the changes that appear in Pleasantville critically by analyzing our attitudes towards change in general. Cinematically, I found the film effective because the plot is continuous and the essence in daily life is applicable. The scene where Bud helps his mother with the make-up in order to change her skin tone is effective and well displayed in both colored and black and white scenes. The shots are clear and there is a wide angle shot to give way to the house in which they are situated, the distance is well measured and the movement of the camera is both aerial and with a direct view. The montage of this scene is in a traditional sense with a conservative approach to the the customs and based on the need to remain an obedient wife. The

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Organisation Design &Organisation Development Assignment

Organisation Design &Organisation Development - Assignment Example Organisation development dwells more on ensuring that people achieve effectiveness for an organisation to achieve its overall success. Organisation problems can be a set of challenges that hinder an organisation from working at maximum efficiency. The problems could be resulting from poor leadership, which affects the structure of an organisation or the systems established within the same. W.L Gore Associates is a company within the textile industry that applies a unique leadership format. The company does not have a hierarchical system of leadership, which is an ancient command and control system. The challenge that this brings is that there is familiarity when it comes to leadership and team members are allowed to act as they will. Based on this, this essay will focus on this problem and use the functional structure and the classical organization theories in addressing the same. Gore Associates believe in having a horizontal leadership structure in which all employees are equal and do not have to be answerable to anyone. The flat leadership also allows for an inclusive decision-making process where team members have to be consulted before making important decision making (Ruairc, Ottesen, & Precey 2013, p. 116). The company’s CEO also focuses more on being friendly to the employees rather than on getting the job done. The company also works under the assumption that the employees hired are aware of their responsibilities, meaning that supervision should not be a key practice. Employees have the autonomy of planning their work schedules as long as they get the work done, which at times can be chaotic. Essentially, there is no system of operation that employees have to follow meaning that everyone is their boss (Obolensky 2014, p. 72). When it comes to the CEO, the employees get to choose who should be in charge,

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Software Engineering Ambiguities And Omission Computer Science Essay

Software Engineering Ambiguities And Omission Computer Science Essay Ambiguities and omission are statement that can be explained in number of ways. For example, the following statement is ambiguous. The operator identity consists of the operator name and password; the password consists of six digits. It should be displayed on the security vdu and deposited in the login file when an operator logs into the system. According to the question there are so many ambiguities and omission can be found in the given scenario. The main ambiguities and omission includes in given scenario as follows: The structured approach described in study text can be dividing as follows: Preface, introduction, glossary, user requirement definition, system architecture, system requirements specification, system models, system evolution, appendices, and index. The first category of structured approach is preface. In this stage should define the expected readership of the document and describe its version history, including a rationale for the creation of a new version and a summery of the changes made in each version.  [2]  In the second stage of structured approach is the introduction. In this stage this should describe the need for the system. There should be a brief explanation about its functions and will it works with other systems.Acooding to the given scenario the ticket machine is made for perches rail ticket quickly rather than waiting in the que to perches rail ticket. When the user enters the start button he can chooses the destination. After selecting the destination user can se e the availability of trains ,train time, what kind of trains available(slow or fast,overground or underground train).When the customer chooses the destination,train,and the time user can purchases the rail ticket by paying card or cash. In the next stage of the structured approach which is user requirement definition, needs to define the services provide for the user. User requirements can be explained as follows: When user enters the start button he should abele to see the destinations. When the destination chooses he should be abele to see the train time and the ticket price. If the customer confirms the selected destination he should be abele to pay by card or cash. If the customer wants purchases more than one ticket their should be a option to select the numbers of ticket .After that customer should abele to chooses the payment method (cash or card).If the customer user wants to pay by card he should abele to input the card. After input the card if the user change his mind and wants to pay by cash there must be option to cancel the payment method as a card and choose the payment method as cash. If the customer paid by cash change and receipt must be given. The next stage of structured approach involves to given scenario is system requirement specification. This should explain about the functional and non functional requirement s in detail. According to the system requirement the system should be able to display the destination when the user selects the start button. When the customer chooses the destination system should be abele to display the availability of trains, time.and price. If there are no trains for chosen time system should be abele to display the alternatives (eg; replacement bus services). When the customer selects the train the system should be abele display the payment method (cash or card).According to the scenario user can only pay by credit card or cash, but the system should be able to take debit cards as well. Because most people use r debit cards more than credit cards).If the user input a card before choosing the payment method or input a invalid card system should abele to displays the error massage. If user has been paid by cash system should able to gives the change back. After purchasing rail ticket by card or cash, the system should able to print the valid ticket to chosen destination and abele to provide the receipt for the payment which has been done? The next stage of the structured approach is System models, which has been don in question (e.) .The last stage which involves to given scenario is system evolution. This refers to the fundamental assumptions on which the system is based and anticipated changes due to hardware evolution, changing user needs.etc..(Eg: if the user wants to purchases the ticket online at home he should be able to log in to the system and purchases the train ticket. (c.)Write the user requirements definitions. The user requirements for a system could be divided to functional and non functional requirements, because it helps to the user to understand the system without technical knowledge. User requirements are defined using natural language, tables and diagrams as these can be understood by all users. There are so many problems can be generated when requirements are written in natural language. Lack of clarity It is something difficult to use language in a precise and unambiguous way without making the document wordy and difficult to read. Requirements confusion- Functional requirements, non-functional requirements, system goals and design information may be clearly distinguished. Requirements amalgamation- Several different requirements may be expressed together as a single requirement User requirements can be defined as: the software must provide a means of representing and accessing external files created by other tools.  [3]  According to the above scenario user requirements can be explained as follows. When the user presses the start button he should be able to choose the options (For example customer selecting a specific destination, the destination is in which zone, etc) When the customer chooses the destination user should be able to find out the train times and what kinds of trains (fast train or slow train, underground train or over ground train) are available for that time. If trains are not available or delays at that time user should be able to find out the alternatives such as when is the next train available?, Is there any replacement bus service available?, etc.. After choosing the destination, train and the train time, user should able to see the ticket price. User should able to choose the payment method (card payment or cash payment) to purchases the rail-ticket. If the user wants to pay by cash he should able to enter the cash and confirms the cash payment. After confirming the cash payment, rail ticket should be printed and receipt for the payment and change needs to be given. If the user wants to pay by card he should able to input the credit card or debit card and enter the validation pin. User should be able to get the rail ticket and the receipt after payment has been made. (d.)Write the system requirements specifications. System requirements are expanded versions of the user requirements that used by software engineers as the starting point of the system design.  [4]  Normally they add details and explain how the user requirements should be provided by the system. According to the given scenario software requirements can be highlight as follows: When the user enters the start button the system should be able display the destinations. When customer chooses the destination the system should be displayed the train availability, what kind of trains available (fast, slow train or over ground, underground) of chosen destination and the departures time. If there are no trains available at that time the system should able display saying that there are no trains available at chosen time enter the more option button to check the alternatives. When the alternatives selects system should be abele to display the alternatives(eg.take the replacement bus 472 towards London bride and take the northern line towards Morden -estimated time 1 hour and 32 minutes) If the trains available, after the choosing the destination and the departure time, the system should be able to display the ticket price for the all kinds of trains. For example if the user wants to take underground train within zone 1-6 the travel card will be  £6.30. When the customer selects the ticket type for the chosen destination the system should be able to display the payment method (pay by card or cash). If the customer chooses the payment method as cash system should display how much user needs to pay totally and also should display a massage saying input the cash for perches the ticket) When the customer input the cash the system should be able to charged exactly for the ticket price and change need to be given. Because most of the time users do not keep exact amount for the ticket.mostely they keep  £10 or  £20 notes. If the customer chooses the payment method as card he should confirmed the payment method as card and needs to input the card. When the customer enters the pin the system should abele to verify the card and take the money from users account, but the card is invalid there should be a error massage should be displayed saying you have entered a invalid card please enter the valid card. I f the validation is successful system should de abele to charge from uses account and provide the receipt. (e.)Draw a sequence diagram showing the actions performed in the ticket-issuing system. You may make any reasonable assumptions about the system. Pay particular attention to specifying user errors. Sequance diagram (f.)Write a set of non-functional requirements setting out its expected reliability and its response time. Requirements that are not directly concerned with the specific functions delivered by the system known as none functional system requirements. None functional requirements are not only concern with the software system to be developed, some may concern with the process that should be used to develop the system. There are three non-functional requirements. They are Product Requirements: Which specify the behaviour of the product? Ex: how fast are the system executed and how much memory dose it requires? Speed can be measured by processed transaction, event response time and screen refresh time. Organisational Requirements: requirements driven by polices and procedures in the customers and developers organisation. Ex implementation requirements such as the programming language or design method used. External requirements: Requirements that are driven from factors external to the system and its development process. Also the time that the user take to get familiar with the system and number of help forums that are available, robustness of the system , how much time it take to restart the system in case of a failure occurred. Reliability that measures mean time to failure. Rate of failure accuracy availability and portability of unavailability. Portability of percentage is non-functional requirements that are important when designing a ticket issuing system. (g.)Develop a set of use-cases that could serve as a basis for understanding the requirements for ticket-issuing system. Use Case (h.)Briefly describe the requirements validation process. Discuss all the checks that you have to perform to validate the above requirements in ticket-issue system. Requirement validation concern with the specification of the system that customer wants is functioning according to the requirements. Requirement validation also examines the specification to ensure that all software requirements have been stated unambiguously; that inconsistence, omission and errors have been identified and correct them. Following checks have been carried out on requirements Availability checks Since this is a ticketing system that is used by public. There are multiple users with multiple requirements. Therefore the requirement validation should be favourable for all users. However some users may find there requirements are fulfilled and some may not. Consistency Checks There should be no contradictory constrains or descriptions of the system function. Completeness Checks To check all the requirements have been achieved Realism Checks Once the requirements being gathered it is important to check that the system can be implemented with the current technologies and also it is possible to finish the project with the given time period with the allocated budget. Verifiability To reduce the potential of dispute between customer and contractor, system requirements should always be written so that they are referable (i.)Create a semantic data model for the above scenario. Data model (j.)What is the impact if when the customer pays cash, he is allowed not to have the exact amount? According to the given scenario if the user pays by cash he needs to pay the exact amount. For example if the rail ticket is  £6.30 user must pay exactly  £6.30.Specialy the cities like London most people dont carry change with them they keep  £5,  £10 or  £20 notes. It is a user requirement to get the change back if the user inserts cash more than exact amount. System should abele to give the change back. However in the real life most of the ticket machines, if you put cash you get the change back.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Pros and Cons of Home Schooling Essay -- Education Classroom Teaching

Pros and Cons of Home Schooling Every parent is faced with the decision of whether or not to home school their child. While some families may find home schooling as being very helpful and beneficial to their child’s education, others may find that it is crucial their child be sent to a normal school. Some parents are hesitant to send their children to public school because of crime and lack of discipline and also because they fear that the quality of education is declining. Parents may also feel that sending their child to school will aid in their social development. Home schooling has both advantages and disadvantages which aid parents in this difficult decision. Home schooling has been proven to result in higher test scores for students. This could possibly be a result of a more individualized learning environment where personal attention is always given. According to two Time reporters, â€Å"the average SAT score home schoolers in 2000 was 1100, compared with 1019 for the general population† (Cloud and Morse). The amount of time a child has been home schooled has a direct correlation with their performance on standardized tests. â€Å"Home-schooled pupils who took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills outscored public school students by 37 percentile points.† â€Å"On the Stanford Achievement Test, the advantage was 30 percentile points.† (Viadero) It is clear that home schooling does not hinder a child’s education. While home schooled children may achieve academically ...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Labor Orgnizations

I intend to explain in great detail the major issues relative to the unionization process, the act, which governs, and the independent agency, which polices it. I will also show what organizations do to make it difficult to implement the process relative to unfair practices. The NLRA (National Labor Relations Act) was enacted by Congress in 1935. It has the power to regulate interstate commerce and to govern the employer/employee bargaining and union relationship on a national level. The NLRA was amended by the Labor Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act in 1947 and the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure (Landrum-Griffen) Act in 1959. Most employers and employees involved in businesses that affect interstate commerce in any way are regulated by the act. The NLRA gives employees the right to determine for themselves whether they wish to be represented by a union. If the majority of the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit indicate that they support a union a certification of representative is issued. Generally, this designation or †showing of interest† contains a statement that the employees want to be represented for collective bargaining purposes by a specific labor organization. The showing of interest must be signed by each employee and each employee's signature must be dated. These elections are conducted under laboratory conditions to ensure that the election represents the free choice of the employees. Violation of the laboratory conditions, or of the 24-hour silent period rules may result in the NLRB invalidating the election results. The twenty-four-hour silent period is intended to give the employees time to reflect upon their choice free from electioneering pressures. The NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) is an independent federal agency established to enforce the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). As an independent agency, they are not part of any other government agency such as the Department of Labor. Congress has empowered the NLRB to conduct secret-ballot elections so employees may exercise a free choice whether a union should represent them for bargaining purposes. A secret-ballot election will be conducted only when a petition requesting an election is filed. Although representation elections conducted by the NLRB are the most common means through which unions acquire representation rights, an employer may also voluntarily recognize a union as bargaining representative for a group of employees when the union demonstrates majority support. This can happen provided that the employer has no reasonable doubt of the employees' preference and that recognition is not granted for the purpose of assisting one particular union at the expense of another seeking to represent the same employees. A bargaining unit is 4a group of two or more employees who share a †community of interest† and may reasonably be grouped together for collective bargaining purposes. The NLRB is responsible for ensuring that any election in a representation case is conducted in an appropriate unit. A unit is usually described by the type of work done or jobs classification of employees for example, production and maintenance employees or truckdrivers. In some cases, the number of facilities to be included in a bargaining unit is at issue, and the number of locations to be involved may describe a unit. For example, in the retail industry, the NLRB may need to determine whether employees at a single store or whether a bargaining unit consisting of several stores is appropriate. Generally, the appropriateness of a bargaining unit is determined on the basis of the community of interest of the employees involved. Union or employees may file a petition for a decertification election. This petition, which can be filed by anyone seeking an election to determine whether the authority of a union to act as a bargaining representative of employees should continue. The signatures of 30 percent or more of the employees in the bargaining unit represented must support it. These signatures may be on separate cards or on a single piece of paper. Generally, this showing of interest contains a statement that the employees do not wish to be represented for collective-bargaining purposes by the existing labor organization. Each employee must sign the showing of interest and each employee's signature must be dated. When a petition is filed, the NLRB will determine whether the contract bar rule precludes holding an election. If it doesn't the NLRB must then determine an appropriate bargaining unit. The contract bar rule is a written labor contract, which bars an election during the life of the bargaining agreement. Unions may also acquire representation rights through unfair labor practice proceedings. The NLRB may issue a bargaining order when the effect of unfair labor practices by employers prevents a fair election from being held. The unionization process is not always welcome by employers and sometimes-illegal activity will go on to make it difficult to implement the process. Section 8 of the NLRA outlines specific behavior, which is unacceptable for employers. Cornell and Harvard Universities did research on employer coercion, harassment and firings, due to union campaigns, these findings were:  § One in four employers fires workers who are active in union campaigns-in all, it's estimated that at least 10,000 workers are fired each year for exercising the freedom to join a union.  § Ninety-one percent of employers, when faced with employees who want to join together in a union force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda. 80 percent require immediate supervisors to attend training sessions on how to attack unions; and 79 percent have supervisors deliver anti-union messages to workers they oversee.  § Eighty percent hire outside consultants to run anti-union campaigns, often based on mass psychology and distorting the law.  § Half of employers threaten to shut down if employees join together in a union. Martin Jay Levitt, who had been among the fiercest hired guns brought in to fight organizing campaigns, said there were more than 7,000 attorneys and consultants who made their living busting unions. All told, the union busting industry had grown more than a billion dollars a year. Levitt, who planned and ran more than 250 union-busting campaigns across the country before renouncing the profession, described in detail the manipulation, dirty-tricks, abuse of the law and disregard for lives that are all part of a corporate campaign against a union drive. â€Å"Some corporate executives I encountered liked to think of their anti-union consultants as generals. But really the consultants are terrorists. Like political terrorists, the consultants' attacks are intensely personal,† he wrote. â€Å"Terrorists do not make factories and air strips their victims; they choose instead crippled old men and school children. Likewise, as the consultants go about the business of destroying unions, they invade people's lives, demolish their friendships, crush their will and shatter their families.† Levitt's standard operating procedures not only included investigating police records, personnel files, medical records and the family lives of union proponents to find a way to discredit them, but in the absence of any good ammunition he would simply concoct something to do the job. â€Å"To fell the sturdiest union supporters in the 1970s, I frequently launched rumors that the target worker was gay or was cheating on his wife,† he wrote. â€Å"It was a very effective technique, particularly in blue-collar towns.† Sharon Fisher's voice quivers when she talks about it. Ed Platt gets angry still. Ron Heller was shocked when the police looked the other way. Debbie Shallenburger says it's un-American, what happened to the hard-working citizens of her community. It's been a year since UAW members recessed their 17-month strike at Caterpillar plants in three states. But in and around East Peoria, Illinois, home of Caterpillar's corporate offices, Local 974 members and spouses still talk about the gang of thugs who brought terror to their quiet communities. They would cruise up and down the streets of Peoria, East Peoria, and suburbs like Washington, Pekin, and Metamora, often parking in front of the homes of UAW members. They would videotape family members in front of their own homes, at restaurants and stores, while they were driving. They learned the names of children, and called to them by their first names. They even left a flashlight inside the locked car of one worker's daughter, just to show that they had been there. It was all part of a huge intimidation campaign, and it got even rougher on the picket line where gang members assaulted women, provoked men to fight back, and used videotape to get workers fired. When they went to the local police for help, they were treated like criminals. Later they learned that the state police were against them, too. Who are these goons who roamed the streets of working class neighborhoods, protected by the law while terrorizing decent, law-abiding people? They're employees of Vance International–the same gang of thugs hired to clamp down on coal miners in West Virginia, schoolteachers in Cleveland, aerospace workers in St. Louis, and, today, newspaper workers in Detroit. When spying and provocation aren't enough, Vance's APT goons resort to violence like the assault that has left Detroit newspaper striker Vito Sciuto permanently scarred and still suffering violent seizures more than a year after brain surgery. Sciuto, a mailer, was smashed in the skull with a heavy piece of wood when 20 APT thugs formed a tight V-shaped wedge and marched out of a distribution center gate into a circle of peaceful pickets. The goal that night, a Vance employee told a reporter, was â€Å"to hurt people.† Detroit police watched the Vance riot, but no arrests were made. I feel once again that I have thoroughly covered the questions given. I put quite a bit of time into researching each part of the question. I was appalled at a lot of the information that I read, especially at Caterpillar and in Detroit. The examples I chose were the best out of many, which I had found. I really got into this essay and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. (Seriously)

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

What is a Referendum and what are the arguments against them?

1) What is a Referendum? A referendum is when a citizen (18+) is asked to express their opinion on a certain issue or proposal. Unlike an election this process is not binding and the outcome is open to discussion. A referendum can result in a new constitution, law, amendment, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of direct democracy. 2) A referendum is when a citizen (18+) is asked to express their opinion on a certain issue or proposal. Many have been issued in the past; examples of this are, 11 September 1997. Tony Blair issued a pre-legislative referendum held in Scotland asking whether there was support for the creation of a Scottish Parliament with devolved powers, and whether the Parliament should have tax-varying powers. The reason for this was the Labor party had just won the election and included in their manifesto was the establishment of a Scottish Parliament. 4th November 2004, Tony Blair (Labor Party) issued a referendum in Northern England. The votes concerned the question of devolving limited political powers from the UK Parliament to elected regional assemblies in North East England, North West England, Yorkshire and the Humber. The reason for this was Labor government attempted to introduce regional assemblies, to be directly elected. 5th May 2011, the ‘Alternative Vote’ referendum was drawn up as part of the Conservative- Liberal Democrat coalition, to be asked across the whole U.K. The Referendum concerned whether to replace the present voting system with an alternative one. This was because the Labor government, who were previously in power in 2010, used their majority to pass an amendment to their Constitutional Reform Bill to include a referendum on the introduction of AV to be held in the next Parliament, naming a desire to restore trust in Parliament in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal. 3) Arguments against Referendums In this essay i will talk about the arguments against referendums, the effects and sometimes consequences it can incur. A referendum is when a citizen (18 years and above) is asked to express their opinion on a particular issue. In Britain, referendums date back to 1973 and ever since has been used as a mechanism for feedback on issues regarding laws, voting systems and so on, its a form of direct legislation, used selectively. Those who are against direct legislation will argue that the use of referendums is an opening for politicians to absolve themselves of responsibility for making difficult decisions. When representatives know that ultimately the result of their efforts may be reversed by the process of referendum, they will take little interest in the discharge of their legislative duties. It doesn't even reflect well on the party issuing it. If the measure succeeds at the popular vote the credit for it goes to the people and if it doesn't, the blame goes to the legislature. We elect a Prime Minister, legislatures, to make the decisions of how to run our country. By electing, its an official notion that we trust them to conduct, obviously voting the party who's manifesto we are partial to. Referendums are useful, yes, but how does it make legislatures look when matters such as ‘do you want a Mayer'- 1998, Tony Blair are issued. When was the time when legislatures took the bull by its horns and made decisions for the good of the nation and not based on doing what the people want so they'll get voted in the next election. As Margaret Thatcher once said, â€Å"if you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything wouldn't you and you would achieve nothing†. Referendums seem to be a vehicle to become the apple of the nations eye to the point that in 1997 elections- The Labor party promised in their manifesto a referendum for the establishment of a Scottish parliament knowing that Scotland wanted it but just didn't get enough votes last time. Governments are also unlikely to hold them unless they are fairly confident they will win the vote, which was the case in 2004, the devolution referendum for the North East. Labor wanted to create English Regional Assemblies and thought they would win the vote therefore created three referendums only for the first one to be rejected by the public. And this being the case, the government are unlikely to be neutral participants and the phrasing of the questions can distort the results. So is a referendum really the government wanting us to tick the yes so they can blame us if something goes wrong? Apart from the time consuming, expensive and tedious way that is involved in a referendum, after all that, who's to say that people will vote? One of the criticisms against direct legislation and a really compelling one, relates to the small size of the votes cast at a referendum. The result of the ballot does not fairly represent popular opinion, because in most cases, opponents of the issue will go to the polls in larger proportion than its supporters. Moreover, when people are frequently asked to cast their votes, as is when Tony Blair was elected in 1997, making referendums a much more important part of politics, they'll begin to abstain from voting. Its nice to be included in the decision but people become tired of voting after a while. The result is that the decision arrived at is that of the minority and it becomes difficult to know whether there is any public opinion at all on the referendum. Seeing as the referendum is time consuming, it sometimes involves harmful delays in passing many laws of vital national importance. All this takes away from the educative value of the referendum. When you have citizens who are not interested in public affairs and the issue is of national importance, the referendum becomes a comedy. As was the case in June 1975 when the Labor government had a power split on the issue of Europe and issued a referendum across the whole United Kingdom- ‘Do you want to stay in the EC?' Because of this time gap, while the ballot is lying on your kitchen table, coverage on the issue from the media whether it is newspapers, TV etc. can significantly influence the result. Whereas if the issue would have been dealt with in parliament alone- you would not get the opinion of people who are paid to keep people entertained. The real difference between direct action and the action of the legislatures are the voters cannot assemble and discuss matters and consequently the opportunity to arrive at truth is lost. Truth emerges from the clash of opinions. Which brings us back to the substantialness of referendums. Finally, some could argue that referendums undermine (or have potential to) Parliamentary Sovereignty. Parliament is certainly threatened by the use of referendums. Referendums put the people before the parliament. The sovereignty of parliament becomes the sovereignty of the people, introducing direct democracy into the political system, challenges the indirect, representative democracy that has been the essence of UK political system. If the people vote one way, their representatives another, who should prevail, who is sovereign? In conclusion the manner in which the referendum is used reflects greatly on the government and at times can make you question the quality of the governments political parties. The referendum can be of great use but whether the pro outweigh the cons or vice versa is relative to the issue at hand. Using the drawbacks we've discussed one can assume or hope that if legislatures had an option, referendums would not be their first choice.