Paying a Visit to Parliament

Midweek, on Wednesday 30^th November, Head of Politics, Richard Duckett, took his cohort of A Level Politics students to London to experience a tour of Westminster Palace. Visiting both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the group got the downlow into how it all works.

Lower Sixth student, Millie, commented “Parliament was incredibly interesting, and it proved an insight into the customs that help govern our country as well as showcasing the beautiful historic building which holds many stories! The Supreme Court had a good exhibition of its history and we managed to sit in on an active case.”

Richard reported back, “An excellent trip – has to be my best yet and I have done a few! We got into a session in the Supreme Court to hear part of the proceedings challenging the Northern Ireland Protocol before going to Parliament. The sun was shining on Queen Elizabeth Tower and the scaffolding is finally down so our legislature looked resplendent in the early afternoon’s blue skies.”

Richard continued, “Our tour of Parliament was led by a most engaging guide, and we managed to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, in the lobby before going up to the gallery and watching Urgent Questions after PMQs.  This also had a Northern Irish theme, focusing on power and poverty over the Irish Sea.  This was followed by a workshop on Pressure Groups and Think Tanks – we got a lot in during our 4 hours in the capital!”

“Our trip to Parliament and the Supreme Court was phenomenal!” enthused William. “We first wandered into the Supreme Court where we listened to the Northern Irish Secretary of State present points in front of the high court which was informative and topical to our studies in Politics at LP. After the Courts, we headed over to Westminster where we had a tour of the House of Lords, the Commons, and all the history hidden between them! During the tour, we were lucky enough to have multiple MPs walk by including the current Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. Unfortunately, we missed PMQ’s by about twenty minutes however we were able to watch the aftermath of it live from the seating above the commons. After the tour, we spent an hour completing a workshop on how the UK can reduce the democratic deficit through groups that are not necessarily directly involved with politics.”

“As someone who is not from the UK, it was truly amazing and quite shocking to see the transparency within UK Government. Anyone can walk in and listen! This visit has put a well-rounded picture in my mind about UK politics that will accompany me greatly as I progress through my A Level. The effects of the trip are already showing as today in our Politics lesson we were presenting on different political parties within the UK. After having a visual of Westminster and how it operates, understanding politics has become much easier.”