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[The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards] February 11th 1884

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 15:11:18 -0700 (PDT)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

Now, you are probably wondering why it's taken me a week to blog about
my starring role at the State Opening of Parliament. Answer: "All
duties in the Commons and the Lords are subject to a week's delay
whilst the offical record is written in Hansard!" So now that a week
has elapsed I can tell you about my day.

As I mentioned the State Opening is quite the occasion and so the
Princess and William were both invited to attend (and as it happened at
the same time as William's school was on half term, the whole family
could attend), but due to my starring role we all had to arrive at
Parliament by 9.30am. No sooner had we entered via St. Stephen's Gate
than two very burly Yeoman of the Guard approached me and said "Are you
the Right Honourable Sir Phileas Fogg MP, Member for the St. Marylebone
Division?". I had half an inkling of what was happening and this was
confirmed when the Lord Chancellor (the person who would actually
deliver the Queen's Speech due to Vicky's absence dashed up and
confirmed my identity). I bowed and asked the Lord Chancellor to take a
ruby bracelet to ensure my safe delivery. And so I was taken to the
palace and soon as I arrived, the Crown left and I was shown into one
of the guest rooms and it was there I was able to listen to the whole
speech.

How you may ask? Well, that ruby was in fact a means of communicating
everything that the Lord Chancellor said or heard to this box of
tricks. Sneaky, I know, but a State Opening of Parliament is quite the
occasion and worth a little explaining at the same time (hence the
reason to wait for Hansard to be published).

First of all, the Lord Chancellor (sitting on the Woolsack, his offical
home in the Lords), made a proclaimation, "That it not being convenient
for Her Majesty to be personally here present this clay, She has been
pleased to cause a Commission under the Great Seal to be prepared, in
order to the holding of this Parliament". He then introduced the
Commission made up of the main members of the Lords, himself, The Lord
Steward of the Household, The Lord Chamberlain, the Captain of the
Yeoman of the Guard and the Lord Careington (leader of the House of
Lords). Once introduced, he then beg that the Gentleman Usher of the
Black Rod (or Black Rod as we Parliamentarians call him) to go to the
Commons and tell the MP's to come to the House of Lords. And off he
went through the Lobby of the Lords, through Central Lobby and then
through the Member's Lobby of the Commons where the door to the Commons
was unceremoniously slammed in his face.

Now, you might think that was a little rude of the Commons, but as so
many things are in the Commons it's all tradition and marks the right
that the Commons has to decide it's own rules (and dates from when King
Charles I entered the Commons to arrest some MP's who wanted to disown
the King). Black Rod then bashed the door three times with his black
rod (hence the name) and was granted access. As he enters the Commons,
he bows three times to both the government and opposition benches and
asks that the Commons visit the Lords to hear the speech. And so led by
the Speaker of the House, the two parties leave the Commons and head
towards the Lords, when they get there the Speech is then read.

So what did Vicky have to say? Well, technically speaking very little
as the speech is actually written by the Prime Minister (but did give
me an idea of what sort of parliamentary year was ahead for me). Well,
there's the expansion of the electorate to deal with (quite simple as I
think most of our party agree with the idea), we're going to have a
stab at creating a Greater London Council, and also have a go at local
government reform. As for myself, well it appears to be quite the quiet
session really (I expect I might be asked to go on any royal tours that
might happen).

And so, with the Speech having been delivered, the Crown came back to
the Palace and I was returned to Westminster, and was able to be seated
in the House to listen to Arthur Elliot (the honourable member for
Roxburghshire in Scotland) start off the Parliamentary year with the
Humble Address.

--
Posted By Harry Hayfield to The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards on
4/03/2009 10:34:00 PM

Received on Sat 04 Apr 2009 - 01:11:26 IDT

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