Hello, how are you doing today? My name is Mrs. Tomassi and I'm gonna be working with you on your citizenship lesson.

So, we are ready to go.

Let's get going.

Today's title is Should Parliamentary procedures be modernised? And it's part of the unit on what is the Nature of the British Constitution.

By the end, hopefully, you'll be able to describe some of the traditional procedures in Parliament and consider if these procedures need to be modernised.

The key words that we are looking at today is Parliament.

Now, Parliament is the institution of government in the UK.

It comprises of three parts, the House of Commons, the House of Laws, and the Monarch.

Its purpose is to debate, make laws, and scrutinise the government.

Also the House of Commons, which is the elected body currently consist of 650 members of Parliament, where MPs debate, make laws, and scrutinise the government.

And it is the lower house of Parliament and meets in the Palace of Westminster.

You also have the House of Lords, which is the upper house of Parliament, composed of life peers and hereditary peers, who scrutinise the bills approved by the House of Commons.

The House of Lords meets in the Palace of Westminster.

You will see these keywords throughout in bold, so you can always refer back to them just to make sure that you've got the concepts of what each of them are.

So the first learning cycle for today is what are the traditional procedures in Parliament? What is a tradition? Have you heard of this word before? You might have seen it.

You might actually have your own family traditions or you might have seen traditions around you.

So, tradition is a custom.

It's a way of doing something that has been passed down through time.

Now in Parliament, there are a lot of traditions and this is what we're gonna be covering throughout the session today.

They have traditions both in their day-to-day running and during the State Opening of Parliament.

So, we're gonna break it down and we're gonna have a look at both of them.

Here, you've got a photo of King Charles III during the State Opening of Parliament in 2024.

We will see this picture pop up again and we'll have a little look about why he might be dressed in that attire as well.

So the State Opening of Parliament, have you heard of this event before? It is the formal start of the Parliamentary year.

Now, it is the only regular event where the three parts of the UK Parliament meet.

Can you remember what them three parts are? So, the first one there we've got is the House of Commons.

We then also have, there's a bit of a hint.

We saw a photo of them in the last one.

That's the Monarch if you've got that one.

And then if we've had the House of Commons, we've also got the House of? House of Lords.

Now, each of those three make up Parliament and at the State Opening of Parliament, they are all present.

The monarch is there to deliver a speech, and then that sets out the government's agenda for the coming session.

Quick check for understanding.

True or false, the State Opening of Parliament is the only regular event that brings together the three parts of Parliament.

That is true.

Why? It is the formal start of the year and so, it's the time that they all come together.

Now, the state opened in the Parliament ceremony that they currently have has been going on since 1852, when the new Palace of Westminster was open.

So when we're talking about traditions and them going down through generations, obviously, this is a longstanding tradition.

Some of these traditions include so we've got the role of the Black Rod and if you're not sure who the Black Rod is, we will have a look at them in a bit.

The MPs walk to the House of Lords, the Yeoman guard checking the cellars, the monarch wearing a Parliamentary robe and the Cap of Maintenance.

So again, you might not have heard some of them terms, but we will explain them as we go through.

So, we'll start with the Black Rod.

Have you heard of this role before? Now in the House of Commons, we have the Serjeant at Arms and they're responsible for the order and security in the House of Commons.

The Black Rod is just the same role in the House of Lords.

So, they obviously sit in the House of Lords and they're there to keep order.

So in terms of this tradition, the Black Rod heads to the House of Commons to summon of them Obviously, they're in charge of the order, so they're the ones that then go to summon the House of Commons to come back to the House of Lords.

However, on approach, when the Black Rod gets there, as you can see there in that second photo, the House of Commons slammed the doors shut in Black Rod's face on approach.

Now, the reason for this is that it's to represent that House of Commons is independent from the monarch.

Obviously, the monarchists have to send a representative because they're not allowed into the House of Commons.

This representative has arrived and they just wanna make a point to say, "Whoa, no, the monarch doesn't come in here.

We have the power in terms of the democracy." What then happens is that the MPs walk to the House of Lords.

However, again, keeping up with this idea that the House of Commons has that hold, they dawdle, which is this idea that they move slowly.

Obviously, you can't see that completely in the picture, but they're having a bit of a laugh, a bit of a joke.

You know, they're taking their time.

They're not in a rush.

And that's saying that, "Actually, the monarch can wait.

We are not coming to your beck and call and the elected chamber has the power in Parliament." So, they will take their time and they will arrive when they're ready.

This next one is the Yeoman guards and they check the cellars.

So if you've ever seen the State Opening of Parliament, 'cause they do televise it and you can watch videos on it, So, it is open for the public to watch.

You might not see these traditions.

So some of these are done behind the doors of the public, but they still happen.

Now if we think about checking the cellars any, do you know of any significant events that happened in the Palace of Westminster that involved the cellars and why they might, the guards might have to check them.

If you think about, if you know about Guy Fawkes, then that is why.

So, they go down to the cellars and they check specifically for explosives.

And there's the photo of them preparing to check the cellars and it is to commemorate Guy Fawkes' gunpowder plot.

So, another check for understanding here.

Can you match the image to the key event in the State Opening of Parliament? Did you manage to get it? So, we've got the role of the Black Rod is there the image on the far right.

We've got the guards on the left there in the lovely red attire.

And then, you've got the MPs walk to the House of Lords there.

So, we also have some other traditions that go on during the event, which is these Parliamentary robes.

Now, I showed you the image at the start of the monarch and said, "We'll explain that a little bit more." So, the monarch arrives as State Opening of Parliament and when they arrive, they have their own entrance and they go through to the Robing room.

Here, they put on the state crown and their own Parliamentary robes before entering the House of Lords to deliver the monarch speech.

That is the photo of the King there in the robe where with the state crown on.

There is also something called the Cap of Maintenance and the Sword of State.

Now when the monarch travels to the State Opening of Parliament, the Cap of Maintenance and the Sword of State follow in a coach in front of the monarch.

Now the Cap of Maintenance, it is a cap.

So, it is type of hat.

And the sword, they're used as a symbol of the authority of the monarch in Parliament.

So obviously, the monarch themselves is not to be in Parliament.

So, there you've got symbols to represent that they are still part of the UK Parliament, although they cannot be in there themselves.

True or false, the Cap of Maintenance represents members of the House of Commons in the State Opening of Parliament.

That is false.

Why? So, the Cap in Maintenance is symbol of authority of the monarchy, not of the House of Commons.

Now, moving on.

So, that showed you the State Opening of Parliament and the traditions in that single event.

Now during Parliament's day-to-day runnings, they still have traditions that they follow.

And again, these can date back to a very long time ago.

Some of these include the Speaker's procession, daily prayers, and voting in the House of Commons.

So, we'll take a look now.

So, starting with the Speaker's Procession.

Do you remember who the Speaker or what the Speaker's role is? So, the Speaker is there to chair the debates and they allow the MPs to speak in the House of Commons.

Now, each day, they open the house with a ceremonial procession.

For example, as you can see in the photo.

Now, the history of this tradition is unclear, but the route has been the same since World War II.

So it starts, you've got the Doorkeeper, the Serjeant at Arms there in the photo with the mace.

Then you've got the Speaker, the Trainbearer, and Secretary.

And they move slowly from the Speaker's house to the Lower Waiting Hall, Central and Member's lobbies and finally to the Chamber.

When they make their way through to the Central lobby, the police, a member that is on duty, will shout out, "Hats off, strangers." So anybody that is in Central lobby 'cause remember, Central lobby can have members of the public in it.

It is open to the public.

And obviously, it might have other members, et cetera, in that Central lobby.

They would be asked to take their hat off, which again is a sign of respect to the authority.

And that still happens today.

So if you go up and visit Parliament and you happen to be there during the procession, you would, and you had a hat on, you'd be asked to take it off.

Prayers, so this one goes back all the way to the 1500s.

Now, every day before the houses sit and before the Parliament sessions begin, Christian prayers take place.

Members of either house don't have to attend and member of the public aren't allowed in during this time.

So the idea is the MPs and Peers, they stand for the prayers and they face the wall behind them.

Now, this idea is not fully understood why they face the wall behind them.

However, it's led to believe that when the prayers first took place, members would carry swords.

And if they were to kneel for the prayers, well, they wouldn't be able to because they would have a sword.

So this is where then it's believed that they faced the wall behind them instead.

Interesting fact.

That leads on two voting in the House of Commons.

Again, this is very traditional of how it is done.

So imagine in the House of Commons, the debate is finished.

The speaker has put the question out there, MPs shout "Aye or no." The speaker then shouts, "I think that ayes or noes have it." And so in that, they're basically kind of saying, you know, whichever one was louder, it sounds like they've got more.

And if this judgement is challenged further by lots more shouts, then the Speaker calls a division saying, "Clear the lobby." At this point, what they're saying is that they're going to move to vote.

So, the division bell rings.

The annunciators display a green bell and the doorkeepers lock the exit doors from the lobby.

Now, then what happens if they're gonna go through and they're gonna pick which corridor they are gonna go down.

So, they will have aye or a no corridor.

And they will go down and that is the way the clerk will count their vote.

So when voting in the House of Commons, MPs can vote, a, yes or no, b, aye or no, or c, agreed or no? It is b, aye or no.

Now, moving on to the first task.

Can you describe two of the traditional procedures in Parliament from the list below? So, you've got the role of Black Rod, MPs walk to the House of Lords, and Yeoman guard searching the cellars.

Then explain why they are significant to the State Opening of Parliament ceremony.

If you take some time now just to pause and then once you have finished, we can continue and feed back on how you got on with that task.

How did you find that? Now if you chose to do the role of the Black Rod, your answer could look like this, "So during the State Opening Ceremony, the Black Rod is tasked with summoning members of Parliament, MPs, from the House of Commons to attend the monarch speech in the House of Lords.

However, when the Black Rood approaches the doors to the House of Commons, the doors are shut in their face.

This is significant to the State Opening in Parliament 'cause it symbolises the independence of the House of Commons from the monarchy." If you chose the MPs walk, your answer could look like this, "So the MPs walked to the House of Lords to hear the monarch's speech.

They choose to make a point and dawdle to show that the House of Commons, who are elected by the citizens, are more important than the monarch in the democracy.

This is significant to the State Opening because it demonstrates the importance of democratic values in the UK." So again, it's that idea of having the independence from the monarchy.

And finally, if you chose the Yeomen guards searching the cellars, your answer could look like this, "So before the state opening ceremony, Yeoman guards conduct a search of the Palace of Westminster's cellars.

This tradition dates back to 1605.

So again, if you remember following a gun powder plot when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament.

This is significant to the State Opening 'cause it ensures the safety of the Monarch and everyone attending the ceremony." Hopefully, you found that okay, and then we are able to move on to our next learning cycle, which is should the procedures in Parliament be modernised? So now, we're gonna have a look at some of those procedures that we've already seen and have a bit of a discussion of whether or not they should be kept or whether or not they should be changed and modernised.

Now, some people believe that the Parliamentary procedures should be modernised.

Reasons for this include that the procedures don't represent the UK's multi-faith population.

Can you think of any of them traditional procedures that might not now represent multi-faith population? For example, in the prayers, the procedures are seen as a waste of time.

Are they just time wasting and there's no benefit to them now? And they are considered expensive and they're seen as being outdated.

So, we are gonna have a look at some of these now.

So going back to the prayers in Parliament.

So in 2024, we've got the National Secular Society who wrote to the Speaker of the House of Commons and asked for the practise of saying Christian prayers to be reviewed.

The reason for this is 'cause they're saying, "It fails to uphold equality, fairness, respect for individual human rights and freedom." They're linking it to the British values.

And again, they highlighted a motion in 2019 that backed by MPs from across the political spectrum to end Parliamentary prayers.

The reason for this as well is that obviously, if you can remember back when we looked at the traditions, prayers are voluntary.

However, if you remember in the House of Commons, there are more MPs than there are seats.

So in some ways, people might want to attend them to ensure they've got a good seat in the House of Commons, which also ties in with why some people might want this modernised.

Now, we've got the Office for National Statistics here, which said almost 46.

2% of the population in England and Wales identified as Christian in 2021.

And this has been on the decline over the years.

So again, what they are saying in terms of linking it back to what the National Secular Society have asked is that there's now a higher percentage of people who do not identify as Christian.

Therefore, the prayers are not relevant to the majority of the people in the UK.

Another Parliamentary procedure is voting.

So again, if we go back to thinking about the tradition, do you remember how the UK Parliament votes? We've got the ayes and the noes, and then we go down the corridor and that's how the vote is counted.

However, we have Scottish Parliament who are doing things very differently.

You've got a vote in there of the debating chamber at Holyrood where the members of the Scottish Parliament meet.

And it's a little bit different.

So again, it might look more modernised.

And once the debate's complete, same procedure there.

Presiding officer will ask the question.

So, they're looking for what the response is and then they can choose to vote yes, no, or they can abstain.

And when we say abstain, it means that they can say that they're just not going to choose to vote.

And then once they've asked, they're given their answer by touching a screen.

So if you haven't looked at the images there, they have their own screen and they can touch the screen and their vote is casted.

Now again, if you think about that, which procedure is gonna take more time? Is that gonna be the Scotch Parliament or the UK Parliament? It's probably gonna be the UK Parliament because, as I said, they all have to exit out and everyone has to cast their vote.

You could also say that it's more obvious as well what people are voting for, because you can physically see what corridor there are going down.

However, in the Scottish Parliament, it might be more discreet in that sense that you might not feel as pressured to walk down a corridor and maybe change your mind compared to being able to just vote straight in front of you with what your thoughts are is possible.

So, check for understanding.

When voting in the debate in favour of Holyrood, MSPs can vote, a, yes, no, or abstain, b, aye, no, or abstain, or c, agreed, no, or abstain.

It is yes, no, or abstain.

So question there, is that more modern? The next one that we've got here, do you quickly remember what them two are? So the top one there, if you remember the dawdling along to listen to the speech.

And then, we've got the Yeoman guards who is checking the cellar.

And this is why some people believe that procedures shouldn't be modernised.

The reasons include that it reminds us of the democratic system.

So if you go back to the image there of the MPs dawdling is that idea that actually no, we are making a point here that the elected chamber has the power over the monarchy.

It's a celebration of history, like you've got the traditional attire that's used.

So if we look at the reminder of the democratic system, example in the Black Rod, like the doors shut, it's showing that the Democratic system is built on that principle of power resting with the people.

And it's just showing every year that even though the monarch is there, that the people have the power.

So, it's given that message to the citizens.

So again, another reminder of the democratic system and another procedure that is in place is that you have the speaker.

Now, the speaker used to be at personal risk from, if they had conflict with the monarch, when the monarch used to have more power.

So, the new tradition began where the speaker got physically dragged to their chair by other MPs.

Now, what that was showing was that the speaker was like, "Oh, I don't really know if I wanna do this job because something could happen to me if I don't agree with the monarch." So, the other MPs are pulling them into place to show what that is.

Now, the message that it gives today and the reason that it it still happens is because it is showing that the monarchy has been reduced and that it symbolising how the Speaker represents the independence and authority of Parliament.

It's also a celebration of history.

So again, you've got, you know, the Yeoman guards, you get to see the official attire.

And many Parliaments across the world actually celebrate their history, by including traditions in their procedures.

So like we're just talking about the Speaker finds the chair.

Some commonwealth countries, like Canada, also do that as well.

And the State Opening of Parliament dates back to 1852 after the Palace of West Westminster was rebuilt following the fire.

So again, you are continuing to celebrate that history and tradition that's happened.

So true or false, the traditional procedures in the State Opening in Parliament remind us that the monarch holds the most power.

That is false.

Why is that false? Because it is tradition such as black fraud shows that the monarch is not allowed in the House of Commons or to be involved in this decision making process.

That leads us onto our final task for the session.

So, we've got Jun and Izzy and they're debating if Parliamentary procedures should be modernised.

We've got John there who says, "I think the traditions should be modernised to reflect people today." And Izzy says, "Mm, well, I think the traditions help us to celebrate history and to remember what things used to be like." Decide who you agree with more, then give an example of a Parliamentary tradition that you think should be kept or modernised and explain why.

So again, take some time, pause.

You can pick any of them traditions that we looked at and have a think of whether you it should be kept or whether it should be modernised.

When you're finished, I will carry on and we can have a look through some answers.

And so, how did you get on with that one? Now, if you agreed with John and you think that Parliamentary procedures should be modernised, your answer could look like this.

Now, this example is for Parliamentary prayers.

So, it is a tradition where they both sit and begin with Christian prayers reflects historical practises.

"I agree with the secular society that it should be modernised to better represent the diversity of people in the UK today.

According to the official Office for National Statistics, less than 50% of people in 2021 reported being Christian.

Instead of exclusively doing Christian prayers, Parliament should could start sessions with a moment of reflection that allows for inclusivity of all faiths and beliefs.

This would show respect for the UK's multicultural society and ensure Parliament feels welcoming to everyone regardless of their religious or non-religious backgrounds." So, that's an idea there for something that has been kept.

You might looked at voting and promoting time, or you could have looked at maybe the expense that some of the traditions cost.

So example here, if you agreed with Izzy, who thinks that tradition should be kept the same? "So, I agree with Izzy because several Parliamentary traditions have a significant message from our history.

Our system of government has developed over hundreds of years, and the representative democracy we have today is the result of lots of small steps which remove power from the few and shared it with the many.

When Black Rood has the doors of the Commons shut before them and the MP's dawdling on their way to the House of Lords during the State Opening a Parliament, they're demonstrating that the monarch cannot just walk into the House of Commons, because they do not have absolute power.

Therefore, the old tradition should not be removed from modern procedure as they show how far." We've come as a democracy.

Again, that might be similar for any of the other types of traditions we've got.

You know, again, like the voting or the prayers that they are representing, the history and the development and involvement over time.

So hopefully, you've got your head around some of that 'cause there's some very tricky concepts in that.

So to summarise, Parliamentary procedures are traditions that happen in Parliament, either in the State Opening of Parliament, such as the role of the Black Rood, MPs walk to the House of Lords, and the Yeoman guards checking the cellars, or in its day-to-day running, for example, Parliamentary prayers.

Some people believe that Parliamentary procedures should be modernised to promote current British values and to avoid time wasting and additional expenses.

Others believe that Parliamentary procedures should be kept as they celebrate history and remind us of the roots of our democratic system.

Thank you for working through on this session today, and hopefully you have a better understanding of the Parliamentary procedures.