Parliament

Youngest sister kindly organised for she and I,  a guided tour of the Parliament buildings in Westminster which I duly attended with her yesterday.

The above apparently  represents those who fought successfully for women's rights to vote for members of parliament; Emiline Pankhurst comes to mind: 

The guide was excellent though I was ticked off at one point for discretely attempting a picture with my Iphone in the press room, as generally even there, photos are not permitted.

The paintings throughout the buildings were interesting and one of my favourites was was that above, of the six wives of King Henry VIII. Henry VIII too was well depicted and indeed resembles almost exactly the Henry VIII of BBC TV's Wolf Hall.

The House of Lords  the red benches of which we were able to stand within, is exuberantly decorated with gold and gilt though apparently the  use of 24 carat gold had to be slightly restrained on account of risks to collapse over its weight.

 I recall years ago whilst I was a solicitor at Witham Weld, being taken for lunch within the Lords' dining room by the late Lord Clifford. An excellent treat though he did remark that Witham Weld was probably responsible for destroying more great Catholic families than anyone else (presumably including Henry VIII - lol).

Under the .floor between the Lords and Commons the guide mentioned how the gunpowder plot of 1605 was just discovered the day before the was it 35 kegs of gunpowder, were due to explode.

The Commons was fascinating to enter and one of the advantages of having a guided tour was that we were able to visit many areas specially cordoned off to ensure privacy. Whilst we were in the Commons, standing among the MPs' green benches, the guide pointed out  the discrete memorials to  two recently murdered MPs; Jo Cox (Labour) and David Amess (Conservative) respectively behind the government  and opposition green benches. 

The suicide bill which had passed its first reading stage only the day before, was promoted by the Labour MP. She is the sister of the late Jo Cox which I had not previously appreciated.

As the tour came to an end, I was able to take a photo of the great hall which the IRA some years ago, thankfully failed to destroy:

Youngest sister to whom I am very grateful, and I, then ventured to a parliamentary tea house and thence to the gift shop.

An interesting and educational morning.