Today we went to the Parliament to see the House of Commons in action. The session started at 14:30 and the queue started at 13:30. We slept late and took an AZ car service to the train station and got our day travel passes including train travel and London transports.
We arrived at the Waterloo station with time to stop and have lunch. We had lunch on the second level in the same cafe where we had a snack with Shelly yesterday.
After lunch we made our way over to the Parliament and found the entrance. We were at the front portion of the line. They opened the line at 13:30 and let us into the visitors area. We showed our Cards of Introduction from the US Embassy and they said we did not need the normal visitor cards. Once inside we went through Westminster Hall and then into the entry hall. For the House of Commons they were lining people up on a bench against one wall. He asked to see our card and we showed him the embassy cards and we were told to sit on the other side of the hall, across from everyone else. We had our own short line :-) Other people tried to get in it, they were told no. Some of the looks like, "Why do you not have to queue"?
When it came time for the Speaker of the House of Commons to come through he came over and told us we could go in first and get a good spot to watch the Speaker walk through the chambers. It is called the Speaker Procession. Two people walk in front of the Speaker in high step, one carrying the Mace. Three people follow the Speaker. Once the Speaker passes an archway they let people start entering the visitors area. We had to check our bags and phones but keep our coats. Once into the visitors area we found a good seat and sat down to watch. The session was already started. The visitors seating is on the second floor overlooking the chamber below. There is a glass protective wall to keep visitors from throwing items onto the chamber below. Sound is provided by a speaker system.
The visitors crowd was enough to fill about half of the visitors gallery, with many being children of all ages, mostly high school I would say. That was really cool, it would be great if we could do this in the US!
For the first 60 minutes we listened to the opening questions about the education system. The members of the opposition and the ruling government were asking questions to Nicky Morgan, the "Madam Secretary of State for Education" and other government officials. It was very interesting to see how the process worked, and how the Speaker acknowledged each person who wanted to speak. Questions and comments were civil, and compliments were thrown about graciously, but when someone would severely criticize another, the barbs were quick to come back in the other direction, along with some laughing at times.
The Speaker closed the arguments after the scheduled one hour and they started the Urgent Questions. There were two Urgent questions today.
The first urgent question began about 15:30 and was concerning the arrest of three people during a recent peaceful protest when a Chinese official was in town. The members of Parliament were asking Mike Penning, the "Minster of State for policing, crime and criminal justice and victims" why were the people arrested. Their phones were seized, and their homes were searched while they were in jail. Also their computers and laptops and computer equipment were seized from their homes. The people had apparently done nothing illegal. One, a Chinese dissident, who had been an organizer of Tiananmen Square protest, was only holding up two A4 size cards stating a protest of some sort. The other two people, both London citizens, were holding up a Tibetan flag. The Minister would not comment with any specifics, stating it is an open police investigation and the politicians should stay out of it, and they should wait and let the investigation complete and then they would have their answers. This went on for some time, and at one point the Minister stated to the Speaker that he suggested this questioning should end. The Speaker told him that the MPs (Members of Parliament) have a right to ask these questions, and they are sound questions of good judgement, and this will go on for some time. The Minister obliged and the questions continued, with little more information coming from the Minister. After 30 minutes the Speaker halted the questions.
The second urgent question began about 16:00 and had to do with a data breach and the theft of personal information from a company called "TalkTalk". Apparently this is the third time in three years. The MPs were asking the Ministers about what is the government doing to make companies responsible for protecting data, is the data required to be encrypted, what has the government done to help companies to prevent data theft, and other similar questions. This went on for some time.
We left about 16:20 as the questions were still going on.
It was great to see Parliament in action, and we really enjoyed it. Looking into the governmental process of another country is very enlightening. We could learn some things from this open process!
Next we went to find Pat a pair of skinny jeans, like the pair she picked up in Ireland. We went to Debenhams at Bond Street tube station and after trying on several pairs she found two pair she liked. Yes!
Then we went on to dinner. Pat had the great idea to go to the Chinese restaurant we went to two years ago when we visited London, Kam Fung, on Red Lion street by the Holborn tube station. On the way there we stopped into the Red Lion Pub and had a beer. We had also stopped here two years ago. It is a very tiny pub on the corner of Red Lion and Holborn street. Then we walked up Red Lion to Kam Fung. The food was as good as last time, and we recognized one of the waitresses. We had the wonderful hot and sour soup with the white rice cake crackers, and pot sticker dumplings. For entrees we had Kung Pao Chicken and Chili Crispy beef. Wonderful!
We found our way back to Waterloo and took the train home. We gave Shelly a call on Skype and spoke for a while. She made it to her hotel with a little excitement caused by some train outages this morning.
We have had a fantastic week in London and we are very grateful to Shelly for letting us stay with her and her spending her time with us while she was in town. We leave tomorrow, Tuesday, to head home. The city seems to be really good for Pat as she just as fast as the rest of the people in the tubes and train stations. I had to keep up!
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