Parliament - the government building covered by art

Visiting the Houses of Parliament is something that I had not done during my previous time spent in England and so entering through the Sovereign’s Entrance and seeing the buildings and their artistry for the first time was quite impressive. For one thing, it gave me an entirely new view of Queen Victoria as a much younger woman who looks a lot more pleased with life in her portrait. Victoria was queen when Parliament, also known as Westminster Palace, was rebuilt and opened in 1845 following a fire.

The building is covered with statues and paintings and small details, I saw a statue of my favorite queen of all time Eleanor of Aquitaine with the rest of her family, including her husband Henry II and son Richard the Lionheart, in the oldest part of the castle remaining, where William Wallace was put on trial and that retains details of what the castle was like when Henry VIII, the last occupant of the castle, lived there. One the things I was most interested by about the way the statues were situated was that they were representing all parts of the families together; one forgets that Queen Elizabeth II has a husband because really it just doesn’t seem like he has much to do (also our guide said he was quite grumpy looking, I assume this is why), but for every queen except Elizabeth I there is a king and children to go with.

I also very much enjoyed the large amount of Tudor Roses detailing the rooms and floors, as this is the combination symbol of the county I lived in, Lancaster (the red rose) and of the neighboring county, York (the white rose). The train stations in Lancaster and York are festooned many times with their respective roses in a nod back to the War of the Roses that put the Tudors on the throne, and while the united rose adorns Westminster Palace there is still a rivalry between the two counties and of course I am always in support of the red (and that is who won, the Tudors were in Lancaster). Just for mention, the roses were brought into the popular consciousness by Shakespeare in Henry VI, which is one of the few of the histories I’ve read (both parts, even), and was very happy I did that when I got to Lancaster and asked about the décor.

Beyond art, Parliament offers a glimpse into the British government, where your vote only counts if you show up, this of course seems like an obviously useful system, but in many countries one does not have to show up to vote, even if they are as important to the system as a Minister of Parliament.

There are of course the two main bodies, the House of Lords where the queen gives a speech once a year and which has been shaken up since Prime Minister Blair, as now one does not need to be a hereditary Lord to be a member, one can also contribute to culture ala Andrew Lloyd Webber and/or be a woman. This shake up can be seen as somewhat nonfunctional, as now the House of Lords has about 760 members. They can’t all show up at once and if they did, there would be nowhere to sit and really, if you’re in the House of Lords I would think you’d expect a seat.

The House of Commons, which is only slightly less picturesque than the House of Lords (go figure), cannot be entered by the Queen, ever, and had the most contemporary statues of Prime Ministers in front of it, including Margaret Thatcher (this just made me think of that Elvis Costello song about tramping down the dirt on her grave, she does not have the best of reputations). The House of Commons has around 660 members who also cannot all sit down simultaneously, unlike the House of Lords, they are elected for five year terms. The members of the House of Commons also get thirty minutes per week to meet with the Prime Minister and apparently they use this time to scare him witless with questions – our guide said that many times he’d seen Tony Blair shaking quite a bit.