ANDREW WHITEHEAD
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      • FOOC: The Miseries of Manipur 1994
      • FOOC: Village Bangladesh 1994
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      • FOOC: Bhutan, not quite Paradise
      • FOOC: Crime and Indian Politics 1995
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      • FOOC: Communism Revisited 1996
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​FOOC: House Rules
at Westminster - 1992

This is a piece I wrote for - and broadcast on - BBC radio's 'From Our Own Correspondent': you can see all my FOOC  pieces here. AW

​HOUSE RULES AT WESTMINSTER - June 1992


In Britain a new Parliament traditionally begins its work after the Queen has delivered what's known as her 'gracious speech', outlining the government's proposed legislation for the session. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition then resume their ritual exchanges across the floor of the House of Commons. But for new Members of Parliament the Palace of Westminster is - as Andrew Whitehead reflects - a bewildering place in which to work:

'Medals may not be worn in the Chamber' - just one of the helpful hints for new Members prepared by the Clerk of the Commons. For those with a forceful debating style, he warns that 'a Member ... must not ... advance on the "enemy" across the red line in the carpet.' And in case you've been wondering - and perhaps a few of the 140 new MPs have been: 'a male Member must be hatless when addressing the Speaker'. Except of course during a vote when, and I quote agian: ' a Member of either gender must be seated and wearing a hat. A proper hat must be worn' - the Clerk insists - 'not an Order paper or other substitute; and he adds 'two opera hats, one for each side of the House, are available on demand for this purpose'.

However, the rules of procedure are as nothing compared with the complexities of the building itself. The New Members' Guide lists seventeen restaurants, cafes and bars, all within the Palace of Westminster, all with their own opening hours and rules of admission. The Members' Smoking Room is strictly for MPs and those peers who were once MPs. Run-of-the-mill peers are allowed into the members' cafeteria, should they so wish; and MPs may invite up to three guests; indeed, officers are also allowed in, but only when Parliament is not sitting.

It's altogether more relaxed in the Strangers' Dining Room: where strangers - members of the public - are not allowed in unaccompanied, but members of the Commons staff with over seven years service can dine there - though only on Fridays, when it's not open for dinner, just for lunch. There is reform in the air: plans to scrap some of the absurdities of Commons procedure, to streamline sitting hours, and - already well advanced - to build more parliamentary offices so that MPs can operate with a modicum of efficiency.

This new Parliament has already seen some changes. Betty Boothroyd is not only the first woman Speaker, she can be expected to bring a bit of joyful irreverence to the Chamber. Celebrated for her teenage career as a dancing girl, she is - in the words of one Parliamentary sketch-writer, which, as a Yorkshireman myself I am happy to endorse - blessed with a 'Yorkshire-born cross of wit and practicality, blending discipline with jocularity'. And just about her first act as Speaker was to dispense with the time-honoured horse-hair wig which gave some of her predecessors the air more of a pantomime dame than the chair of a modern parliament.

Once in place, Madam Speaker's first task was to swear in MPs, beginning with the longest-serving member, Sir Edward Heath, newly honoured with the Order of the Garter. This is the highest order of chivalry and surely one of the few British institutions which pre-dates Parliament itself. How he must delight in outlasting as an MP his successor as Conservative leader, Margaret Thatcher, on whom he continues to heap calumny and contempt.

This swearing-in, over several days, is part of the ceremonial, and it throws up a few surprises. The new Health Secretary took the oath as, I and I must take a deep breath here, Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Mrs Bottomley, while the new MP for Devizes swore allegiance as 'Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, esquire, commonly called Earl of Ancram and known as Michael Ancram'. Not in the least common, by the sound of it.

But all the flummery of parliamentary life has failed to make amends for the sense of shok suffered by so many new MPs. Here they are, still preening themselves on their election success, on the advent of the Parliamentary career which they have sought for so long. And what do they find at Westminster? A dusty, dingy building, hidebound by its history; so short of space that many newcomers - for the time being at least - are working out of a locker room or in a corridor; and little to look forward to but long hours, late nights, and lots of letters from aggrieved constituents.

The Commons can be an unforgiving forum for the unaccomplished rator. The maiden speech, new MPs will be relieved to hear, is usually heard in polite silence. Not so subsequent contributions from the floor - greeted occasionally by displays of disagreement, or, more common and more dreadful, by the chatter of an uninterested chamber. The novice will find little solace for this in the Clerk's notes of welcome. He recalls the opinion of a predecessor two centuries ago who remarked that 'the House were very seldom inattentive to a Member who says anything worth hearing'.

​
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        • John Sommerfield, 'More Room for Us'
      • Lynne Reid Banks
      • "Against the Tyranny of Kings and Princes": radicalism in George Gissing's 'Workers in the Dawn'
      • 'Beyond Boundary Passage'
      • 'London' by Dorf Bonarjee
    • A Mission in Kashmir >
      • Full text: A Mission in Kashmir
      • 'The People's Militia: Communists and Kashmiri nationalism in the 1940s'
      • The Rise and Fall of New Kashmir
      • The Making of the 'New Kashmir' manifesto
      • 'For the Conversion of Kashmir'
      • 'I shall paint my nails with the blood of those that covet me'
      • Freda Bedi looking 'From a Woman's Window' on Kashmir
      • Kashmir 1947: Testimonies of a Contested History
      • Kashmir @ 70
      • Kashmir 47 Images
      • Kashmir 47 on film
      • Kashmir 47 in fiction
      • Father Shanks's Kashmir 'Diary'
      • Krishna Misri: 1947, a year of change
      • Shanti Ambardar: Kashmir 1947
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      • Dan Chatterton
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      • James Finlen
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      • 'New World'
    • Clerkenwell >
      • Popular Politics and Social Structure in Clerkenwell >
        • The Residents of Clerkenwell
        • The Occupational Structure of Clerkenwell
        • Clerkenwell and Reform
        • Fenians, Reformers and the Clerkenwell "Outrage"
        • Clerkenwell: Socialism Finds a Niche
        • Clerkenwell: Not Forgetting the Anarchists
      • Red London: radicals and socialists in late-Victorian Clerkenwell
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      • Partition Voices: L.K. Advani
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      • Partition Voices: Bali family
      • Partition Voices: Edward Behr
      • Partition Voices: Benazir Bhutto
      • Partition Voices: H.K. Burki
      • Partition Voices: Sailen Chatterjee
      • Partition Voices: Pran Chopra
      • Partition Voices: K.S. + Ayesha Duggal
      • Partition Voices: Alys Faiz
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      • Partition Voices: Ashoka Gupta
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      • Partition Voices: Bhisham Sahni
      • Partition Voices: Sat Paul Sahni
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      • Partition Voices: Sir Paul Scott
      • Partition Voices: Sheila Sengupta
      • Partition Voices: Mahmooda Ahmad Ali Shah + Sajida Zameer Ahmad
      • Partition Voices: Bapsi Sidhwa & Urvashi Butalia
      • Partition Voices: Air Marshal Arjan Singh
      • Partition Voices: Bir Bahadur Singh
      • Partition Voices: Karan Singh
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      • Partition Voices: Shingara Singh
      • Partition Voices: H.S. Surjeet
      • Partition Voices: Ben and Marguerite Suter
      • Partition Voices: Leela Thompson
      • Partition Voices: K.B. Vaid
    • Kashmir Voices >
      • Kashmir Voices: Asiya Andrabi
      • Kashmir Voices: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
      • Kashmir Voices: George Fernandes
      • Kashmir Voices: General J.R. Mukherjee
      • Kashmir Voices: Abdullah Muntazir
      • Kashmir Voices: Ali Mohammad Sagar
      • Kashmir Voices: Syed Salahuddin
    • Communist Voices >
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      • Communist Voices: Brian Bunting
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      • Communist Voices: Anima Dasgupta
      • Communist Voices: Sailen Dasgupta
      • Communist Voices: Denis Goldberg
      • Communist Voices: Grootvlie miners
      • Communist Voices: Indrajit Gupta
      • Communist Voices: Chris Hani
      • Communist Voices: Norman Le Brocq
      • Communist Voices: Lionel Martin
      • Communist Voices: Vishwanath Mathur
      • Communist Voices: Geeta Mukherjee
      • Communist Voices: E.M.S. Namboodiripad
      • Communist Voices: John Rettie
    • Political Voices >
      • Political Voices: Sally Alexander
      • Political Voices: Lou Appleton
      • Political Voices: Murray Bookchin
      • Political Voices: Fenner Brockway
      • Political Voices: Tony Cliff
      • Political Voices: Nellie Dick
      • Political Voices: Leah Feldman
      • Political Voices: Jeffrey Hamm
      • Political Voices: Denis Healey
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      • Political Voices: Mick Mindel
      • Political Voices: Adrian Mitchell
      • Political Voices: Phil Piratin
      • Political Voices: Betty Reid
      • Political Voices: Fermin Rocker
      • Political Voices: Ralph Russell
      • Political Voices: John Saville
      • Political Voices: Alfred Sherman
      • Political Voices: Screaming Lord Sutch
      • Political Voices: Dorothy Thompson
      • Political Voices: E.P. Thompson
      • Political Voices: Tom Wilson
      • Political Voices: Harry Young
      • The Land Song
      • Harry Pollitt on disc
    • The British New Left >
      • New Left: T.J. Clark
      • New Left: Chuck Taylor
      • New Left: Headopoly
    • South Asia
    • Burma
  • Collecting
    • Political Pamphlets
    • Political Journals
    • Political Badges
    • Political Tokens
    • Political Ephemera
  • Radio Gems
    • 'What's Left of Communism?'
    • 'India: a people partitioned'
    • India's Minorities
    • Documentaries and Features
    • From Our Own Correspondent >
      • FOOC: Working at Westminster 1990
      • FOOC: Ulster's Talking Shop 1991
      • FOOC: House Rules at Westminster 1992
      • FOOC: India's Red Fort State
      • FOOC: Keeping Kosher in Cuba
      • FOOC: Italy's Gourmand Communists 1992
      • FOOC: Scoundrel Politicians - 1993
      • FOOC: Kashmir's New Puritans 1993
      • FOOC: The Rajah of Bihar 1993
      • FOOC: Bringing the Gospel to Mizoram 1993
      • FOOC: Netaji, India's Lost Leader 1994
      • FOOC: A Self-Respect Wedding 1994
      • FOOC: The Miseries of Manipur 1994
      • FOOC: Village Bangladesh 1994
      • FOOC: Indian Beauty 1995
      • FOOC: Calcutta's Communists Discover Capitalism 1995
      • FOOC: Localism in Ladakh 1995
      • FOOC: Bhutan, not quite Paradise
      • FOOC: Crime and Indian Politics 1995
      • FOOC: Sonia Gandhi 1995
      • FOOC: Sri Lanka's Missing Leaders 1995
      • FOOC: India Votes 1996
      • FOOC: Communism Revisited 1996
      • FOOC: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 1996
      • FOOC: Kerala's Jewish Community 1996
      • FOOC: India's Corruption Scandals 1996
      • FOOC: The Maldives Crowded Capital 1996
      • FOOC: India's Polluted Capital 1996
      • FOOC: Jinnah, Pakistan's Quaid 1997
      • FOOC: Mauritius, an Indian Ocean melting pot
      • FOOC: The Hijras Blessing 1998
      • FOOC: Massacre at Baramulla 2003
      • FOOC: An Old Photo from Kashmir 2007
      • FOOC: Prosperity Driven from Detroit 2008
      • FOOC: An Atheist in MLK's Atlanta2013
      • FOOC: San Francisco's City Lights 2014
      • FOOC: Kashmir Revisited 2014
      • FOOC: By Ferry in Burma 2014
      • FOOC: Toyah's Grave 2017
      • FOOC: The Tibetan Colony in Kashmir 2017
      • FOOC: Stars of Tamil Politics 2018
      • FOOC: Koreans in Chennai 2018
      • FOOC: Epitaph to Empire 2019
      • FOOC: Armenians in India 2019
      • FOOC: Lahore's Bradlaugh Hall 2020
      • FOOC: Chennai and the British Empire 2023
    • What's your favourite political song?
    • London Snapshots
  • Writing
    • Bibliography
    • Tramping Artisans
    • Working Class Housing in Jericho, Oxford
    • New Statesman
    • The Freethinker
    • Outlook
    • Asian Age
    • Indian Express
    • miscellaneous writing
  • Gallery
  • Contact