Do not deliberately break the law on purpose and try not to do so accidentally. Our unwritten constitution means that laws can evolve along with the accepted wisdom of the day.
Every decade, there is acknowledgement that a substantial harm must be ended. Think of the pain and frustrations felt by slaves when national assemblies took ages to abolish the slave trade and then slavery itself. When the British ended slave owning, who was compensated? Not the enslaved but their owners.
The campaigners for voting rights for all women and for more men were suffragists and suffragettes. The Wikipedia article on the word Suffragette gives a history (or herstory) that goes farther than the Worthing teacher Emily Wilding Davison, famously recorded in the 1911 Census as residing in Westminster Hall, a rather grand description as she was discovered in the broom cupboard behind the Undercroft chapel nearby.
Over the Gaza debate, I have said that were I the Speaker, the decision to modify the order of voting on amendments was one I could have decided to make. Unlike most Opposition Day motions for debate, the SNP obviously were seeking to split not the government MPs but the official opposition, Labour’s backbenchers and shadow front bench speakers.
The Speaker shares responsibility to protect the House of Commons and its elected members. When I was young, demonstrations were banned, not always effectively, in the area immediately surrounding the Palace of Westminster. Before my time, it was illegal to report parliamentary activity word for word. Scrutiny since then has improved with constituents now able to see proceedings for themselves and press present at every moment.
Margaret Thatcher began her parliamentary life with a Bill opening local authorities’ meetings to the media and the public.
I make myself available to all constituents, with private and public meetings. If a group wishes to present a petition, please make arrangements in advance. If coming in numbers, kindly alert the local police. Being one of a group approaching an MP’s office or home may feel like a cheerful outing. To a lone worker suddenly surrounded by a group with banners and possibly with loud voices, it may feel intimidating, if not obviously dangerous.
Constant major Saturday demonstrations in London cause significant diversion of police resources. Their time is needed for fundamental crime prevention and responding to emergencies as well as to protect Muslims and Jews from Islamophobia and from anti-Semitism.
Parliament can show disagreeable difference when MPs and parties are actually in fundamental agreement over the search for a sustainable end to violence, the delivery of humanitarian and to stability and security for Israelis and for Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Negotiations in Paris and Qatar are not concerned about our lack of parliamentary harmony.
This week I am fighting for residential leaseholders. The government Reform Bill is welcome. I want to have it improved in the Commons and made better still in the Lords. I am a leaseholder; I seek no personal advantage.
In addition to my regular advice session for constituents in Worthing on Friday where I will hear concerns, views and priorities, I look forward to meeting with the professional firefighters at Worthing Fire Station where we will discuss how to improve community and residential safety.
At Westminster, this week I am supporting efforts to improve breast cancer care, the continuing practical steps to achieve good quality life for all with HIV and AIDS and to stop new transmissions.
We are launching this year’s Great British Spring Clean with representatives of Keep Britain Tidy.
The BBC sets the standard on impartiality in state broadcasting. When anything goes wrong, they endeavour to put it right. I support them in standing up to those who would rather our television news resembled United States broadcasting rather than impartial public broadcasting.
Like my support for Mr Speaker, I will not damn a vital organisation, nor will I join a mob surrounding someone doing a necessary job within the rules, even when the procedures are openly modified for good reason.
The determination to stand up for a constituent is the habit needed at Westminster too.
