A day in the life of the Lord Speaker - how the House of Lords works Video Lecture | How does UK Parliament's Education Service works? - Personal Learning

I think the biggest myth about the House
of Lords is that it is a lot of old men
dressed in ermine robes sipping tea and
that they're all hereditary and that
couldn't many be further from the truth
I came into the House of Lords in in
2004 my background is in international
development and human rights and I think
that that is always a useful skill to
have when one is debating and revising
legislation which after all does affect
people and their lives I get to work at
a sort of tweed 8:39 in any one day I
might do several of the following have
meetings I meet with the political
leaders in the House and the chief whips
I meet with the senior authorities in
the House of Lords and I meet with
individual peers who come in to talk to
me
I meet with schoolchildren I will meet
with various interest groups I most
probably will meet with the speaker of
another Parliament I then sit on the
woolsack now this is a major part of my
day I process through the house and I
follow the mace into the chamber of the
House of Lords and I open the house so
I'm always in the house when oral
questions take place and this is the
most lively part of the House of Lords
day and then in the afternoon I might
have a foreign ambassador come see me a
foreign speaker and evening there may be
errors and the property to three
receptions the speaker also has a
ceremonial role for example when the
Burmese political leader National League
for Democracy won Sun Tzu Chi came to
address parliamentarians and I was able
to give her a vote of thanks and I will
make a speech of welcome or whatever it
might be just sort of add a little bit
of glamour let's say to the to the state
visits also it's a very very full day
and I very rarely leave the house before
let's say 9:00 Hoppus 9:00 in the
evening
I would think that the majority of my
day is spent having conversations with
people of one sort or another talking to
the public at large inand school
children in particular in different
groups is rewarding in part because it
means that you're in touch with with
with the wider community I learn how
current legislation is actually
affecting the work that they do and to
some extent I can feed that back because
during my day I tend to meet all the
political leaders in the House of Lords
so I'm constantly exchanging views with
them and hearing what they have to say
but also expressing my own views which
I've gathered in talking to those groups
the thing that really is very
heartwarming is to watch the way in
which individual peers in the House of
Lords have such extraordinary expertise
and you're working together peers from
the old political parties to achieve a
particular outcome and I think what it
demonstrates is that the House of Lords
is predominantly concerned with issues
rather than with party political matters
so it is driven by the content of bills
rather than the fact that it has to vote
according to a party political dictum I
really do feel it's quite a privilege to
be able to be on the inside of political
decision making of watching how politics
progress how bills are achieved and how
they affect the wider community