Lords, MPs and Politics Across The Pond-Jly 13

Today we librarians again battled the Tube's horde to travel from nearby Waterloo Station, south of the Thames, to the north bank's Victoria Station for a guided tour of Parliament. Our guide, a former Royal Navy sailor, impressed us with his wit and knowledge of British government, statesmen and history. Our first stop was the House of Lords where we learned that many Brits are unhappy with some of the changes former Prime Minister Tony Blair made in the composition of that body. Before Blair's changes, membership in the House of Lords was limited to inherited-title-only Lords. After Blair's changes, membership was no longer limited to Lords. Life Peers were now eligible for membership. Women for the first time could join. Current membership is 760. This upper house, explained our guide, does not initiate legislation but is limited to amending, approving or disapproving legislation sent over by the elective House of Commons. Once every early November, in the House of Lords, the Queen gives her State of Parliament Address. This is the only time she is allowed in this chamber. The Queen's House of Lords throne is beautiful.

The House of Commons, said our guide, is an elective body. Members are elected for five-year terms. There are presently 660 Ministers of Parliament (MP) coming from the Labor and Conservative parties. The Prime Minister (PM) is an MP elected by members of the majority party. Prime Ministers are required
to meet at least 30 minutes a week before this lower house to field questions from any MP. According to our guide, this "grilling" many times rattles even the most confident PMs.

After the tour, I left the group to see Westminster Abbey across the street. This enormous church, begun in 1245 by King Henry III, is crammed with chapels, altars, memorials, tombs and stained glass windows. Buried here are Elizabeth I, 1553-1603, her half-sister Mary Tudor, 1516-1558, and Mary, Queen of Scots, 1542-1587. Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling are buried in the Poets' corner.

A minor thrill at the end of my tour near the great west door was my discovery of a memorial dedicated to "John 'Longitude' Harrison, Clockmaker, 1693-1776."
Harrison is famous for inventing a precise and reliable marine clock. His invention was the answer to a centuries-old problem of finding one's longitude at sea. I had just finished for class Dava Sobel's Longitude which details Harrison's efforts. Fittingly, Harrison's memorial has a longitude line etched through his name.