Parliamentary News

On 19 May 2009, I went to visit Parliament. The tour around Parliament itself was quite spectacular – by far the most ornate of all of the places I have had the pleasure of visiting. When you go in, you have to go through a mild security check. Security takes a digital photograph of you and then prints the picture on your “Visitor’s Pass” ticket, with a barcode and all. This, you wear around your neck on a simple black rope necklace.

What really raised my interest was when, at 11:31 a.m., a gentleman who works at Parliament (I don’t know his status, other than he is an Irish-Scot) approached my group. This man saw us and motioned to us that he wanted to tell us something. He brought us into a huddle and, in a whisper, said, “You need to know that today is going to be an historic day. You are all here on a very special day, indeed. Word has it that the Speaker (of the House of Commons) is going to resign this afternoon.” I felt incredibly privileged and had a gut feeling that such news was true and soon-to-be-fact. Historically, no such resignation in the modern body politic has occurred, so this was a first in many respects, said the man at Parliament.

I wanted to stay and sign up to be a part of the 2:30 Parliamentary session and would have stayed had we not had a play to see at the Globe Theater. My friends were skeptical of the news – they thought the man was pulling their leg, but I knew it was an auspicious day to be exactly where I was. I told my professor the news, who seemed nonplussed. Then I passed my note about the pending political stir to our AIFS staff member. I asked her if she had heard about it. She hadn’t. She must have thought I was on something because it was far-out news.

Sure enough, later in the day, when I got back on the Coach Bus, our driver, Keith, informed us that the Speaker of the House of Commons had indeed resigned. Random dates started getting bantered about – was the last time this happened, 1600’s or not since 600 years? The person at Parliament was adamant about telling us that this was indeed a first. I wish we had a little more time between events so that I could have written about this in a more timely manner since all news, once uttered, is no longer news, but rather, history. Still, I have my small moment of “knowing.” Priceless.