A Visit to the Houses of Parliament

Friday saw the arrival of 16 St Bede’s Upper Sixth Form students at the Houses of Parliament. They were there to learn about and practice parliamentary debating procedure and then to dispute the motion that: ‘This house believes that UK membership of the EU is economically and socially beneficial for the citizens of the country’.

The word ‘parliament’, we were told, originates from the French for ‘to speak’ as opposed to the alternative which was sword fighting! The Lower House of Parliament is still divided by lines that are just over two sword lengths apart to stop things getting out of hand. Fortunately St Bede’s students behaved better than many MPs and restricted their interaction to witty repartee and two to four minute speeches. The debate was held in The Grand Committee Room with Simon Patrick, Clerk of Bills in Parliament chairing. It was a large room filled with television cameras and grand looking seats.
In attendance were students from four schools and they were divided into government and opposition teams with tellers to add up the number of votes for and against the motion. St Bede’s Charlie Pullan bravely started the proceedings as the opening speaker for the government and gave an excellent, witty defence of the EU drawing on its long held ability to maintain peace in Europe and to bring trade benefits to its members. Naomi Pearl acted as a teller and, amongst others, Ben Smith gave a two-minute speech on the effects of EU membership on the military. Alice Lynch also produced an excoriating attack on the motion.

The students were expected to call each other 'the Honourable Friend' or 'the Honourable Member' depending on whether they were speaking about someone on their side or the other. One can never refer to members of Parliament as 'you' or accuse anyone of lying. Honourable Members of parliament are mistaken. They never willing distort the truth according to debating procedure.

The debate was followed by a tour of the Houses of Parliament and told how after the Commons was rebuilt after Nazi bombing action in World War Two, Churchill wanted to keep its original green seats and cosy atmosphere. It is much smaller than it appears on television.

All in all was a wonderful event and has inspired a couple of students to seek a career in politics.