Lord Speaker goes to school
Transcript begins.
Lord Speaker, speaking to camera: My role is a new role. It came about because there were changes made to the role of the Lord Chancellor. He used to look after the judiciary, he used to be a government minister, and he used to be the Speaker of the House of Lords. I have several different responsibilities. One is being in the Chamber and presiding over debates. The most exciting part of my role is what we are calling 'outreach': trying to be part of the agenda of connecting the public with Parliament.
The House of Commons and the House of Lords are very different chambers of Parliament. The House of Lords is not as confrontational; we have a large number of Members who don't belong to any political party, and the government of the day doesn't have a majority in the House of Lords.
I started getting a whole range of other Members of the House of Lords going to schools all over the country, and talking to young people about Parliament in general, and the House of Lords in particular.
Lord Speaker talking to pupils: I was talking about what people's ideas of the House of Lords were, I mean, is it right?
Pupil: I'm also stuck with the stereotype of old men sitting round talking about legislation going through, word-by-word, but it has changed my perception of how important it is as well.
Pupil: I didn't actually know what the House of Lords was; I just knew it was a place that they did important stuff.
Teacher: I think it's very important to engage young people with politics, especially as we know the turnout is very low, particularly young people, and I think anything that can be done to engage people with politics is a good idea.
Pupil: It was interesting because I didn't really know what a Lord Speaker did, before. I didn't even particularly know- I though perhaps it was a tradition that has been carrying on for centuries, but apparently it's very, very new.
Pupil: She said in her speech that there is many ethnic minorities working in the House of Lords, whereas my initial perception was that they'll all be upper-middle class white men, but she attacked my view on that.
Teacher: I think what's really nice about it is the fact that it's really humanised it. What was lovely was that she actually told some personal stories about her youth, and it made them feel that politicians are human people as well.
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