A totally amazing day! After an early start (the 07.37 from Glasgow to London Euston!) three Duncanrig pupils and I arrived at Portcullis House on the embankment. We were there for the annual Schools Radio Awards. We met up with Chris who had just arrived from his family holiday in Tenerife! We were then met by Gordon Paterson, Parliamentary Assistant to Michael McCann. He took us on a fantastic tour of the Houses of Parliament starting with Westminster Hall. Built by William Rufus son of William the Conqueror in about 1097, it was where the trials of many people took place, for example William Wallace and Thomas More. Many VIPs lay in state there, most recently the Queen Mother in 2002, and just a few weeks ago the Jubilee lunch was there, attended by the Queen. A suffragette hid in St Margaret's chapel under Westminster Hall on the night before the 1911 census so that she could claim it as her place of residence even though she was not allowed to vote. I loved all this History!
We saw the central lobby - where the expression "to lobby your MP" comes from. Gordon told us an apocryphal tale about the locations of the four stained glass windows of the patron saints of Great Britain:- allegedly the English one is above the entrance to the House of Lords (toffs), the Welsh is above the entrance to the Commons (troublemakers), the Irish is above the exit (they want out of GB) and the Scottish one - leads to the bar! Ha ha! The House of Commons is characterised by its green seats and we saw Jeffrey Archer showing some people around. It wasn't as big as it looks on television. On the door we saw damage on the wood caused by Black Rod's staff when he comes to summon the MPs to hear the Queen's speech. The monarch isn't allowed into the House of Commons after an incident when Charles I barged in looking for some MPs who had offended him. It wasn't long until he was tried and beheaded. So that's why there is the ceremony of the door to the Commons being slammed and Black Rod banging on it. Really fascinating. We only had a peek into the Lords because the afternoon session was about to begin; the sniffer dog was checking the place over. In St Stephens Chapel Lord Falkland's statue has a spur broken on its foot from when a suffragette chained herself to it!
Gordon explained that today was a busy day in parliament; the Lords Reform Bill was being voted on. It was quite exciting to be right there while it was all going on and one of the pupils' parents phoned him to say that we had been visible in the central lobby during the lunch time news! After our tour we walked across Westminster Bridge, along the river and then back across the river to Trafalgar Square.
At 4 o'clock we were back at Westminster for the Schools Radio Awards ceremony. The location was fantastic; on Westminster terrace right beside the water, we could walk outside to see views of Westminster Bridge and the river. The reception was attended by veteran DJ Paul Gambaccini who made a good speech, and elderly but dapper Nicholas Parsons, both of whom we met. There were lots of really nice sandwiches and cakes, as well as drinks. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, presented the awards (we got a respectable "finalist" award but not the main prize). He was very friendly and I had a pleasant chat with him, he said he has to be very firm with the MPs when he is standing in for the Speaker. To round off our day of celebrity we saw Ken Livingstone on the tube later! He chatted to Chris when he spotted our radio award. Later on we had dinner in Planet Hollywood (good music) and at the pupils' request we visited the inexplicably popular four storey M&Ms shop. The pupils' behaviour was excellent all day. After a walk around a rather quiet after hours Covent Garden taking photos of highly decorated phone boxes it was time to say goodbye to Chris who was heading back to Tenerife, and head for Euston Station and the "Caledonian Sleeper" home, complete with (slightly) reclining seats.
