Houses of Parliament - Year 12 - Politics Trip

Year 12 Politics students visited the Houses of Parliament this term where we witnessed debates in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons in addition to meeting a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Dame Eleanor Laing, and attending a workshop.

We began the trip by meeting former student, George Nkazi (GGS 2014- 2021), who gave us the tour, as he is working in the Parliament Education Service during his 3rd year at University. George was very knowledgeable and therefore served as an excellent source of information for us in preparation for the topic of Parliament that we will begin in class soon. We watched the debates for a short period of time where we were able to actually experience real life politics and what it takes to be an MP. On the day we were able to sit in the public galleries, where in the House of Commons there was a debate on the Holocaust Memorial day and in the House of Lords where the debate was on the delivery of maternity services in England. Thanks to another former student of the school, James Holland (GGS 2012-2019), who has also been working at Parliament, we were able to meet his boss, Dame Eleanor Laing. Dame Eleanor was first elected as a Conservative MP for the Epping Forest seat in 1997 and has served as a Deputy Speaker since 2013. She answered questions from students which mentioned how she balances both her roles as a deputy speaker and MP as well as how parliament has changed over the years she has been working there. What was meant to be a short talk in Westminster Hall ended up being an hour of questions, with most students getting involved. After the talk, she commented to Mr Townsend how engaged the students were and how good the questions were. This part of the trip was a highlight for Mr Townsend, in particular, who was presented with a bottle of whisky by James signed by Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and Sir Lindsay Hoyle. We finished our trip with a workshop that taught us how to construct a debate; splitting the group into two parties and focussing on the topic of the recreational use of cannabis, using Mr Haves as our House Speaker, who was even given a wig.

We would like to thank Mr Townsend and Mr Haves for arranging the trip and George Nkazi, James Holland and Dame Eleanor Laing for the time they took to come and see us.

Madeleine Crossland 12RMH, Theo Li 12CNW, and Leila Sandhu 12RMH