Online guided tour transcript

- [orchestral music]

Hi, my name is Maherban. And together with my colleagues, Max and Sophie, we'll be your guides on this virtual tour of the UK Parliament. Today, you'll get to venture into the famous Palace of Westminster, the home of British politics and democracy. So let's jump straight to it.

We're going to go now to New Palace Yard to begin our story. So you've heard me call this place the UK Parliament, and the Palace of Westminster. It is both. It is the home of the UK Parliament, has been for centuries, and it is a royal Palace. And, in fact, there's been a royal residence on these grounds for over 1000 years. And it was the Scandinavian King, Canute, who was the first monarch to build a royal residence on these grounds. And a generation later, the Saxon King, Edward the Confessor, renovated that building further whilst he was building Westminster Abbey just across the road. And from then on, it was home to all of the English Kings and Queens up until the year 1512, when a small fire forced the then King, Henry VIII, to move out.

So, let's step into that royal Palace now and follow the Kings and Queens of old. So here we are now on our first stop. This is Westminster Hall. This is the oldest and coldest part of the Palace. And it was completed way back in 1099, if you can believe. And it was commissioned by the then King, William II. And William was the son of the famous William the Conqueror. And this was his son's way of showing off his royal power. Because if you think, in those days, there were no high-rises and no skyscrapers, so this hall would have been seen for miles around, which is exactly what the King wanted. And he used this space to throw lavish banquets and hold his royal court.

Now, please direct your attention to the fabulous roof above our heads. This is the famous hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall, and this was completed in 1399, and commissioned by the later King, Richard II. Richard, like his predecessors, believed that he was King by the grace of God, and this roof was his way of showing off his divine connections. Because as I zoom in further, we see these angelic figures, which jut out of the buttresses around the roof. There are 32 in total, and they represent the Lord Jesus and his 12 disciples. And they actually used to be painted gold, if you can believe. This was Richard's way of showing that he was King by divine command. But why is this hall really here, and how do we get to the stage of Kings having total power? Well, think back to what I said before we entered this hall. We had the Saxon King, Edward the Confessor. When he reigned, he did not have total control. The Saxon Kings needed the help of their leading council, known as the Witan, to govern the country, and this council also chose the successor. And the common people in those days, men and women, had various social rights and protections under the law. But this all changed in 1066, a pivotal day in British history. In that year, Edward died and had left no children. And there was a succession issue as to who should be the next King. Eventually, a Saxon Nobleman named Harold Godwinson was chosen, but there was another claimant.

Across the English Channel, in the Duchy of Normandy, the Duke, William, believed he should be the King of England. And in that year, he assembled an invasion force, crossed the channel, and defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings, and was later crowned William I. And he took the mantle, The Conqueror. But William didn't just bring over his army with him, he brought his loyal followers as well, his Barons and his bishops, and together, they carved up their new kingdom. Because William understood that as one man, he could not be everywhere all at once. So he divided his kingdom into plots and gave each plot to one of his Barons and his bishops. And they would hold those lands and in return would provide the King with taxes, military support, and above all, their loyalty. And it was these new aristocrats and landowners who became the forefathers of our House of Lords. Because we must remember in those days there were no mobile phones, and no instant messaging service. So to get news about the country, William had to physically gather all of his Barons and his bishops together in great councils known as parliaments, from the French word, parler, meaning to talk. Yes, William brought over his own French language with him and English was not spoken in the English government until many years in the future.

It's important to note that these new early parliaments were controlled by the King and met wherever the King was. And what about the common people? Well, they lost their pre-conquest rights and were reduced to the status of peasants, tied to the land with no voice and no vote. Now, this system of autocratic rule continued for over a century, but fast forward 100 years, and we've got another King on the throne, John. And like his forefathers, he believed he didn't have to answer to anyone. But he was such a poor ruler, he angered his Barons so much that they actually rebelled against him.

And in 1215, they forced him to seal a great charter of liberties known as the Magna Carta. Now, the charter stipulated that no free man could be imprisoned, have his property taken away from him, or be executed without first having a fair trial by his peers. The charter also stipulated that the King couldn't now govern the country without calling Parliament more regularly.

And Parliament had to now be consulted when taxes needed to be raised. Now, the charter didn't change much around the time because the only free men in those days would've been the King and the Barons. But what it did do, was set a precedent that the King could be challenged, and his royal power curbed.

Now, fast forward a generation and John's son, Henry III, is on the throne, and he hasn't learned any lessons from his father, and he's another poor ruler. He angers the Barons again. And he angered the leading Baron, his own brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort. Simon and the Barons were so fed up with Henry that they actually arrested him and threw him in jail and began to run the country themselves. But they knew that they did not have the Crown in their possession and needed more support. So when Simon convened a new parliament shortly after, and invited the Barons and the bishops, he incredibly also invited the middle-classes to Parliament for the first time.

The poorer knights of the shire and local burgesses, who were middle-class businessmen. Now, Simon's experiment didn't last very long. He was killed in battle, and the King was put back on the throne. But when Henry's son, Edward I, comes to the throne, he realises things need to change, no more rebellions. So he starts a tradition where the common people can petition the King via Parliament. They can air their grievances. And this was important because if the King didn't agree to these grievances, or Parliament's demands, they could withhold his taxes.

And Edward went a step further. In 1295, he opened his Model Parliament which was made up of himself, the King, the Barons and the bishops, and the middle-classes that Simon had invited to make a more inclusive organisation. Things take a step further in the year 1341 when we go bicameral: the Barons and the bishops sitting in their own House of Lords, and the middle-class sitting in their own House of Commons. Now, I'm going to pause the story there, because apart from this medieval hall, the rest of the Palace would have been alien to these old Kings and Queens. And that's because in the year 1834, a devastating fire destroyed the vast majority of the Palace, and this hall is all that remains of the medieval residence, and now stands testament to England's past struggles.

So we're now going to see the Palace that sprung from the ashes. The Palace of today. So here we are now on our second stop. This is Central Lobby. And straight away you can see this looks very different from the hall. So what happened after the fire? Well, the Government held a competition where architects from all across the country could anonymously submit their ideas on how to redesign and rebuild a new Palace. Eventually, a young Mr Charles Barry's designs were chosen. He used the portcullis as his symbol of entry because the competition was anonymous, and because his designs were chosen, the portcullis is the symbol of the UK Parliament to this very day.

But Barry knew that he needed help in this herculean task of redesigning an entire royal Palace. So he enlisted the help of another young architect, Augustus Pugin, and together, they redesigned the Palace in a neo-Gothic style to match Westminster Abbey across the road. Now, the foundation stone for this new building was laid in 1840, and the exterior of the building was handled by Barry, and everything inside the building, from the beautiful and caustic tiles beneath our very feet, to this lovely vaulted ceiling above our heads, the wallpaper, and even the door handles were the work of Pugin. Now, unfortunately, both men actually died before the Palace was completed in 1870, and Barry's son, Edward, had to put the finishing touches on the building.

So what is this area used for today? Well, it's here that you may recognise that news crews can come and interview members of the House of Lords and the Commons on important issues of the day. It's also here that UK citizens can come and lobby their Member of Parliament, or MP for short. And to do that, they just need to head up to this desk just here as I pan right, and if your MP is in the building, they can come and speak to you. If they're not, they have to respond to your query within eight working days. And your MPs can also be contacted online and via their local surgeries.

So how does it really work? Well, the UK is divided into voting districts known as constituencies, and there are 650 of them. And after an election, each area returns one MP from that area to represent their constituents, the people who voted them into that position, and representation is one of the key factors of an MP's role. But people do ask me: if this is the UK Parliament, it's situated in London, so how can it really be a parliament for the whole country? Well, the United Kingdom is made up of four nations. We've got England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Now, all four nations are represented here, not just in the physical form of the MPs who come from those areas, but in the very walls of the Palace itself. Because as I pan up, you can see these beautiful mosaics which line the top of the doorways. And these represent the patron saints of the four nations. So to your left, we have St George representing England, down below we've got St Patrick for Northern Ireland, and as I pan around we have St David for Wales, and then finally on the right, St Andrew for Scotland. Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland have what's known as devolved powers, and these were given to those regions in the 1990s. So those areas have control over regional affairs, such as policing, education, and healthcare. For factors such as foreign policy and defence, which are known as reserved powers, they're decided here in Westminster.

So now that we've touched upon making new laws, we're going to head over to the House of Commons now, and I'm going to pass over to my colleague Sophie, who will tell you more.

Thank you Maherban for that excellent introduction to the tour today. We are definitely going to have a look at the House of Commons side of the building, and see exactly where that representation takes place. So let's go.

And here we are in Members Lobby. This is where MPs will come to get ready for their day of work before they go into the main Chamber itself. One of the things they might do is go to these pigeonholes on either side of the room to pick up their messages. And they might also go to this very inconspicuous looking window just next to the right-hand pigeonhole. This is called the Vote Office, and it's not actually where they vote, but we'll be seeing that very soon. This is where they can pick up various different papers, telling them about what is happening within the building. In particular, an order paper which outlines everything that's going to be happening in the Chamber that day, and also any committees taking place.

Now, the first thing you probably noticed about this room is that it looks quite different to the room that we were just in. It's a lot more austere compared to Central Lobby. And the reason for that is that in 1941, during the Blitz, the House of Commons side of the building was bombed and destroyed. And so it had to be rebuilt. And they rebuilt it during the 1950s when we didn't have a huge amount of money with which to rebuild it. It's still pretty impressive. It's more impressive than my living room, but it's not on the same level as what was here before. And you may also notice that the archway right in front of us looks different still. That's because it is the original archway from the original Members Lobby. The decision was taken to incorporate it into the design of the new Members Lobby to demonstrate, first of all, that we could quite literally build upon what had come before, but also to serve as a reminder, to those walking through it in future years, of the consequences of decisions that they make. This decision was taken by the gentleman that you can see on the left-hand side of this archway, who is, of course, Winston Churchill.

Now, the reason he looks a little bit grumpy in his statue here is because this is taken of a photograph of him looking out over the remains of the Commons side of the building after it had been destroyed. To get one of these full-body statues, similar to the one that Churchill has, you have to be considered to have done something very important during your time as Prime Minister. So, for Winston Churchill, I'm sure you can imagine, it was for taking us through the Second World War and also for the rebuilding of the House of Commons side of the building. Over on the right-hand side of the same archway as Churchill, we have David Lloyd George, Prime Minister for the second part of the First World War, and also for the beginnings of the Welfare State. And if we come around to look behind us, we will see there are, in fact, two more of these statues. So on the left-hand side of the archway in front of us now: this is Clement Attlee. And Clement Attlee was Prime Minister just after Winston Churchill. He was Prime Minister for the founding of the NHS.

And over on the right-hand side of the archway, we have somebody else who is generally instantly recognisable. It is, of course, Margaret Thatcher, for being the first female Prime Minister. Before we continue further into the House of Commons side of the building, I'd like to tell you about something else that happens in this room. Usually, once a year, there is an event called the State Opening of Parliament. This is when the Queen comes to Parliament and she will go into the House of Lords Chamber to deliver a speech outlining what Parliament intends to do over the upcoming year. But she wants the House of Commons to go down to the House of Lords Chamber and listen to her deliver this speech, but she's not allowed in the Commons side of the building. We'll talk more about why that is a little bit later on.

So, instead, she has a representative known as Black Rod. Until recently, the title in full was the Gentlemen Usher of the Black Rod. We now have our first female Black Rod, so she is the Lady Usher of the Black Rod. And on a day-to-day basis, Black Rod's job is to look after the security of the House of Lords side of the building. But on the day of State Opening, Black Rod has this additional role of being representative of the Queen. So, Black Rod will walk through from the House of Lords Chamber, through Central Lobby, through into Members Lobby where we are now, and through to the doors just underneath the damaged archway. Those doors will be slammed in Black Rod's face as a symbol to say that the Commons are the ones who are in charge here, and not the monarchy. Black Rod has a black rod that they will then use to knock three times on these doors. The doors will be opened, Black Rod will go through, and request that the Commons follow her down to the House of Lords Chamber. Now, what has actually happened over several decades of several Black Rods knocking in exactly the same point, a little dent has appeared in the door. And if you do have the opportunity to come here and visit one day in person, then definitely have a look for that little dent. For now, we are going to continue into the House of Commons side of the building.

And although the House of Commons Chamber is tantalisingly close at this point, we can see it just up ahead, we're actually going to head round to the left of that Chamber. So this is the Aye Lobby. And that's "aye" as in the old fashioned way of saying "yes". This is where MPs will come to vote that they agree with a Bill that is currently being passed; they want it to pass. On the other side of the Commons Chamber, there is an identical room to this called the No Lobby. And you can probably guess which way they're voting if they've gone into the No Lobby. They will actually try to resolve the vote in the Chamber itself, to begin with. The Speaker will call out the vote, and if it's obvious at this point which side has won, the Speaker will then call it, there and then. But often, it is not immediately obvious. And in this case, the Speaker will shout out, "Division, clear the lobbies." And a bell will start ringing out across the entire Palace. Once that bell has started ringing, MPs have eight minutes to get from wherever they are to the correct voting lobbies. And traditionally, they would then go through these little benches that you can see just to the right-hand side here. These benches are actually pulled out. You can see there are some little rails on the ground here to create three pathways by three of these little seats. There will be clerks sitting at those seats, and they will take the names of the MPs as they're coming through. Since COVID, however, they have actually been using electronic devices to register their votes that way. But either way, the results of the votes are then announced in the main Chamber itself. And what exactly are they voting on? Well, they're voting on laws. They're voting on new laws they want to either pass or not pass, or maybe they want to make changes to them. Any Bill must pass five stages in the House of Commons. The first of those stages is known as the first reading, where they simply say the name; they outline what exactly it is. The second stage is called the second reading. It's the first proper discussion; the first proper debate on the contents of the Bill. The third stage is the committee stage, and you can probably guess: they take it to committee. They go through it in much finer detail. The fourth stage is the report stage where they report back with anything they've changed, or anything they've discovered during the committee stage. And the fifth stage is a third reading, the final discussion on the Bill. And if it passes all five stages in the House of Commons, it will then go to the House of Lords to go through exactly the same five stages.

And now the House of Lords might make some changes; if they do, they'll send it back to the House of Commons. The House of Commons might disagree with some of those and make some more changes. And it may well be that a Bill goes between the two Houses several times. We have a very technical term for that process. We call it parliamentary ping-pong. And then, once the House of Commons and the House of Lords have both agreed on the contents of a Bill, there's one other person who has to agree. And that is the Queen. The Queen will give what is known as royal assent, which is essentially her official approval. And once she's done that, the Bill can become a law. I'm going to go a little bit further into this room briefly, just to point out what's slightly further up. So you'll see, there are some books along the right-hand wall: there are green books a little bit further up and red books closer to where we are at the moment. These are copies of Hansard, and Hansard is a very important document. It's a record of everything that's said in the House of Commons and House of Lords Chambers. But this is not the entire collection of Hansard. Hansard goes back for years and years and years. And you do not need to come to this building if you want to read Hansard. You can actually read Hansard online three hours after debate takes place. I think it's about time we went to see the House of Commons Chamber itself now. So, let's go.

And here we are in the House of Commons Chamber itself, Now, on TV and on this virtual tour, it looks like quite a spacious, quite a roomy room to be in. But, anybody who's been in here in real life will tell you it doesn't feel as big as you expect it to. It actually feels quite small. And it is a little bit too small. There are 650 MPs, for the 650 constituencies, but only about 427 seats in here. The reality is though, that that is not often an issue because MPs have lots of different things that they need to do, so they won't always be in this room. For example, they may be in committees, they may be talking to you, their constituents, or they may be doing research on the issues that they need to be talking about. So who does sit where, in this room? Let's start with the very beautiful, very ornate chair at the far end. This is the chair for the Speaker, whose job is to essentially preside over the Chamber to make sure everything's running smoothly; very crucially, to make sure that all of the political parties here are fairly represented. And also, he's responsible for making sure that all of the rules in this place are followed. There are rules regarding what you can and can't say in particular, and if you do break one of those rules, he will generally ask you to retract the statement that you have made. If you do not, then he may well ask that you are removed from the Chamber. And if that happens, then that responsibility will lie with the person who sits in this high-backed chair, just at the far end here. This is the chair for the Serjeant at Arms. And the Serjeant at Arms is in charge of security in the House of Commons side of the building. So we have Black Rod in the House of Lords, and the Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons. And then of course, you've got the seats for the MPs themselves.

So, if I show you the benches which are just to the right-hand side of where the Speaker sits, this is referred to as the Government side of the room. The Government party is the political party that won the largest number of seats at the last general election. And if I come around to the other side of the room just opposite the Government side, this side is referred to as the Opposition side. What's known as the Official Opposition will sit on the benches just to the left of where we are looking. This is the party that won the second largest number of seats at the last general election, and other political parties will sit, generally, on the benches to the right-hand side here. And remember there are lots and lots of political parties represented here. And I'm sure you may well be wondering, where does the Prime Minister sit when the Prime Minister comes? Well, the Prime Minister of course is part of the Government party, so will be on the Government side of the Chamber. If we have a look on the table in front of us, we'll see there are these two really beautifully designed boxes on either side. These are called despatch boxes, and the Prime Minister generally will sit in front of the despatch box on the Government side of the room, and it will generally be the Leader of the Opposition sitting in front of the despatch box on the other side of the room. This is also a key point to point out, that Government and Parliament are not actually exactly the same thing. They are very much linked, but they're not the same thing. 

The Government does contain some Members of Parliament, generally the ones who sit along this front bench here. These are the ones who take the ministerial positions within different Government departments such as the Department for Transport, and the Department for Education. They are responsible for running all of these different departments and essentially running the country.

Parliament is here to represent you, to create new legislation, and to scrutinise the work of the Government, and that's one of the main things that they actually do in this chamber. In particular, they have Question Times at the beginning of every day where different Government ministers will be posed questions by other members of this House. And on Wednesdays at midday, the Prime Minister is questioned in this room. Some of you may have noticed that there is actually an entire level above where the MPs sit, and different people sit in different areas of this level. So in the seats above where the Speaker sits, this is where journalists will sit, and where the Hansard writers will sit, that official record that I was mentioning. In the benches that are directly above where the MPs sit, you will have special invited guests of MPs, and also sometimes Members of the House of Lords if they want to see what's happening here.

And if I turn around to the other side, up at the very top here, we have some more seats. And these are arguably the most important seats in the House. This is the Public Gallery. And any member of the public can come and watch what is happening in this room when the House of Commons are working here. And if you ever want to do that, I absolutely do recommend you do so. It's a really wonderful experience. All you need to do is come to the entrance and ask to come and watch a debate in here. And as soon as space is available, you'll be allowed to go up and watch. However, we've just had a look at one side of the building so far, the House of Commons side. There is another house, the House of Lords. So, I'm going to pass to my colleague, Max, to look at what they do.

Thank you very much for that, Sophie. I'm going to be talking a bit more about the House of Lords and also about the royal apartments, where, once a year, we have the State Opening of Parliament. We're going to go down to the Royal Gallery.

So, the State Opening of Parliament is a big public ceremony that happens here at the Palace of Westminster once a year. It's the only time the Queen ever comes to visit us, and she'll give a speech to both Houses of Parliament, assembled in the Chamber of the House of Lords. When Her Majesty arrives, she will arrive at the Sovereign's Entrance, which is at the base of Victoria Tower. Victoria Tower is the larger of the two towers here, with the other one being Big Ben. Victoria Tower is named after Queen Victoria, the monarch for whom, or under whose reign, the modern Palace was built. And it houses the Parliamentary Archives. So she'll arrive at Sovereign's Entrance and she will ascend a staircase up to the Norman Porch, a room just through the doorway where my mouse cursor is now. She'll then head into the room right at the very back of the Palace through this open door to the left-hand side, which is the Robing room. The Queen will often arrive, dressed very elegantly, but she must of course don her Robes of State, including her crimson parliamentary robe, and the Imperial State Crown. Well, she would traditionally, at least.

Both quite hot and quite heavy; the crown alone, weighs somewhere between three and a half and four kilograms. So the Queen has, in more recent years, decided not to actually don the crown, but have it carried in front of her on a pillow. When the Queen is ready, she will enter into this space. This is the Royal Gallery. Now we're seeing it on an average day, a normal working day, but it will look remarkably different during the State Opening. For one, the desks, that I'll show you in a minute off-screen, will be removed and a carpet is rolled out across the middle of the floor, across which, the Queen will process.

Along each side of the room will be sets of tiered seating, which are for invited dignitaries to watch the Queen as she processes towards the House of Lords to give her speech. On an average day though, this room is an open-plan, hot-desking area for Members of the House of Lords. Despite the size of the Parliamentary Estate, we don't have enough space to give dedicated offices to all Members of the House of Lords, and many of them have offices nearby in the city of London, or elsewhere in Westminster and other places. But they can use the desks in this room to do any paperwork that they might have to. It's right next to the Chamber, which makes it ideal. The reason this space is called the Royal Gallery: well, it was originally going to be called the Battle Gallery actually, because we were going to have more paintings like this one on the side here, and its twin on the other side of the room. These were both pieces of artwork by Daniel Maclise, commissioned by Prince Albert, and they depict the Battles of Trafalgar and the Battle of Waterloo. The one here is of the Battle of Waterloo. Both these battles were fought by Britain against Napoleon's France in the early 1800s, with Waterloo actually being Napoleon's final defeat. If you want to see better copies of these images, you can find them easily online or on the Houses of Parliament website. Instead of completing the rest of the collection, the remaining panels have been occupied with portraits of monarchs, coronation portraits of monarchs, going all the way back to George I, with portraits of royal consorts along the opposite side of the room.

So, during the State Opening, the Queen will process through this space, and we'll follow her route as she heads toward the House of Lords. So we're now looking at the Prince's Chamber. Dominating this space is the rather large statue of Queen Victoria, commissioned as an act of love by Victoria's loving husband, Prince Albert. He wanted it placed here because Queen Victoria would be able to see it the moment she left the Robing room, and it would be staring at her as she processed through the Royal Gallery. When Queen Victoria was very young, she seemed quite nervous about going into the House of Lords, so the intention behind this statue was that it would inspire Queen Victoria; fill her with confidence; remind her that she was the Queen, the most important person in the country. It arrived, it was placed on this spot, and Queen Victoria did not like it one bit. She felt that it wasn't a very flattering likeness. The rest of the decoration theme for this room is the English Tudor dynasty. Along one side of the room here, we've got all of the Tudor monarchs from King Henry VII, the founder of the dynasty, through to Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch. Perhaps most famously though is our man in the corner here. And that's, of course, Henry VIII and his six wives. We've got his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in the corner; the reason that she's here is that she's between the portraits of her first betrothed, Arthur, the Prince of Wales, who was the elder brother of Henry VIII. He was supposed to be the King of England, but he died before he was able to take the throne, which meant that Henry was now the heir to the throne, and he married Catherine instead. They would be married for 18 long years until Henry sought a divorce. Henry was desperate for a son, and Catherine had only given birth to one daughter, Princess Mary. Henry would have to write to the head of the Church, the Catholic Pope in Rome, to ask for a divorce. The Pope refused. Henry, as a result, will have to come to Parliament to work with them to pass two acts: firstly, the Act of Supremacy, which will place him above the Pope in the church hierarchy of England. And secondly, the Act of Uniformity, which would require everyone to swear an oath of allegiance to the new Church of England and to Henry as its head. Henry would go on to be married a further five times to Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. He did eventually have a son, King Edward VI, in the corner here. It was Edward VI that gave the Palace of Westminster over to Parliament to use as their permanent address. Henry VIII had been forced out by a small fire and it had remained vacant until about the middle of Edward's reign. Edward died young. He reigned for only seven years, dying at 15. He was succeeded by his eldest half-sister, Queen Mary I, commonly known as Bloody Mary. Now, I've done a lot of research and I can confirm that the cocktail is named after Mary, not the other way around. She was staunchly Catholic, and married to the even more staunchly Catholic, King Philip II of Spain. When she passed away, well, they had a rather unhappy marriage, but when she passed away, Philip felt that he had a much better claim to the throne of England than the person who had taken that throne, Queen Elizabeth I. So he sent his ships, his Armada, over to England to try and invade. They were decimated by a storm, and what was left was finished off by the English Navy. We can see this depicted in a series of paintings at the top, and these paintings are recreations of tapestries that used to hang in the old Palace. Queen Elizabeth, after this event, it was seen as an act of divine providence, and she remained a rather popular monarch throughout her reign. What was perhaps slightly unpopular though with many of her advisors was her refusal to take a husband. She would die unmarried. Well, she was married to the country, or so she said, but she had no husband, and therefore no children. So there was a small succession crisis, but it was resolved when Parliament decided that it would invite her cousin, King James VI of Scotland, down to England. He seemed like a perfect candidate. He had lots of experience being a King. He had the right religious beliefs. He was just the right man for the job. So he was invited down to England, and he became King James I as well. So he became King James VI and I. And this would start the personal union between the kingdoms of Scotland and of England. Early on in his reign though, King James VI and I would run afoul of the religious tensions in the country. A group of Catholics upset at the coronation of their new Protestant King attempted to assassinate him in the most elaborate way possible. The plan was to fill a cellar underneath the Palace with 37 barrels of gunpowder, and detonate them during the State Opening, destroying the Palace of Westminster, killing the King, and probably actually destroying most of the City of Westminster, as well. It was foiled when one of the conspirators wrote a note to his favourite uncle, a Member of the House of Lords, advising this uncle that he should not attend the State Opening that year. The uncle got suspicious, had the cellars searched, and they found Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators, with a lit match and the gunpowder. Since then, we still celebrate Guy Fawkes Night on the 5th of November every year. We recognise the foiling of that plot during the State Opening of Parliament, as well. Members of the Queen's ceremonial bodyguard unit, the Yeomen of the Guard, who are not necessarily Beefeaters but they dress very similarly to them, will do a ceremonial cellar search. They go down into the cellars of the Palace, searching for any conspirators with barrels of gunpowder. As of yet, I can confirm that we've had no incidents since that year. So, we'll head in towards the Chamber of the House of Lords now. Sophie very kindly showed us the House of Commons, and there are many similarities in this Chamber, but perhaps one of the biggest differences is this, here. This is the throne and the canopy. Both are made of English oak, covered in 23 and a half carat gold leaf. On State Opening day, the throne will traditionally be moved to one side, and an almost identical replica placed next to it. The replica is almost identical because it's deliberately one inch shorter because it's intended for someone slightly less important than the Queen. Recent monarchs have started the tradition of being accompanied on State Opening day by an aide-de-camp companion, a right-hand man. Traditionally, this role has been fulfilled by the royal consort, but Prince Philip would step down from those duties several years before he passed away, with the role instead being fulfilled in recent years by Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and the heir to the throne. Things looked slightly different, though, during the State Opening that we had over lockdown. The throne remained where it was. There was a small end table placed next to it, and on that, the text of the speech was already laid out. Normally, it's presented to Her Majesty in an embroidered pouch. And Charles, rather than sitting directly next to his mother, sat on the chair that we can see to our right-hand side of the throne here, with his wife, Camilla. When the Queen arrives, the Members of the House of Lords are already here and in session but, as mentioned before, the MPs from the Commons are still down at their end of the building. So, a signal is sent down to Black Rod, who goes down to the Commons, gets the door slammed in her face, knocks on it three times, is allowed in, and she will summon the MPs up, and they will gather just below the archways at the far end of the room here. That's the Bar of the House. Once the Queen is finished, she will be the first to leave, go back to Buckingham Palace, and enjoy the rest of her day. The MPs will go down to their end of the building, starting to debate the contents of the speech, and the House of Lords will briefly adjourn to remove their crimson parliamentary robes, and start debating the contents as well. I should mention, of course, that the speech is not written by Her Majesty. It's not like her Christmas address. It's written by the Prime Minister and the Government, and it outlines the major policy issues that Parliament will be debating in the coming year. So now I'll talk a bit about how this Chamber operates as a functioning legislature. Directly in front of us here, this is the Lord Speaker's Woolsack. The Lord Speaker forms a function very similar to the Speaker of the House of Commons, except their job is slightly more relaxed. In the Commons, they tend to shout over each other; try and rile each other up, and it can get quite loud. In the House of Lords, they're far more chivalrous. They tend to give way to one another when they're speaking. There is a strict order for who speaks when. They always refer to each other as "my Lords", rather than using insults and things like that. So the Lord Speaker tends to be here just for formalities, and doesn't often have to call the House to order. There is another woolsack just in front. And I'll move us around to get a slightly better view of that. We've got this double rectangular woolsack here, which is for the Law Lords, or at least it was for the Law Lords. It used to be that the most senior judges in the country would sit in the House of Lords to advise it on legal matters. Nowadays, they sit as the judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, in a building separate from Parliament. And they're now a separate institution. So if anyone's got a better name for the Law Lords' Woolsack here, please do let me know because now it's just overflow seating for anyone who needs it. The reason these are both called Woolsacks is because, traditionally, they were sacks filled with wool. The wool was there to remind the Members of the House of the importance of the wool trade through our economy; through our history. Nowadays, these are hollow boxes so that we can fit all the electronics inside, covered with wool and then upholstered over the top. On the desk, we have two despatch boxes used for frontbenchers in this House to rest their notes while they're giving speeches. We don't have any Secretaries of State, no leaders of Government departments here. We do have some junior ministers in the House of Lords, but, generally speaking, the front benches in the House of Lords will be departmental representatives: People who are maybe not making the decisions of a department, but know everything that's going on in that department and can answer questions on the department's behalf during Question Times. We've got three chairs for the three clerks, and then a set of benches in the middle that we don't get in the House of Commons, and I'll get onto those in a minute. But for now, I'll do the party arrangements. So we've got the Government party sat to the right here. The Official Opposition get the large centre set of benching here, and the third parties sitting on either side. But in the House of Lords, we've also got a group of peers known as the Crossbenchers, who sit here on the crossbenches. Now, they're not a member of any party, mainly because they don't have any strong affiliations or feelings towards any of the parties. Some Crossbenchers, such as Betty Boothroyd, are not supposed to be a member of a political party. So, there are two traditions: one, when you are elected Speaker of the House of Commons, you must resign from your party and you're not supposed to join another one again. When you resign as Speaker of the Commons, you will traditionally be given a peerage, and come and sit in the House of Lords as a Life Peer, and I'll explain that term in a few minutes. Now, these traditions are not always upheld, and traditions, and the functions of Parliament, are constantly changing, as and when the House feels as though they need to make changes. So, I mentioned the term, Life Peers. That's just one of the three different kinds of Peers. And I'll talk about these three groups, starting with the smallest, which are the Lords Spiritual. The Lords Spiritual get the fancy bench over here with the armrest. They're the most senior bishops of the Church of England. And as such, they sit directly on the monarch's right-hand side there, as you can see. The second group are the Hereditary Peers. Before 1999, they made up the majority of the House, of some 700 or 800 individuals. But since then, the number has been cut all the way down to 92, where it remains today. The Hereditary Peers are people who have inherited their titles, and the right to sit in the House of Lords, from their family lineage. That was seen to be somewhat undemocratic in the 1990s, hence the reduction and the limit of 92. The House now is made up mostly of Life Peers. Life Peers have not necessarily inherited a title and the right to sit here in the House of Lords. There's no reason they couldn't, in theory, but their children won't inherit their title, either. They are given the right to sit here in the House of Lords for the term of their life, hence the phrase, Life Peers. And they are experts in whatever they've spent their life doing. Some have been doctors, teachers, lawyers. We've also got some very famous sportspeople sitting in the House of Lords. Lord Sebastian Coe, the lead organiser of the London 2012 Olympic Games, sits here in the House of Lords as an expert on sport. Another expert on sport would be Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Britain's premier wheelchair racer, who is also an expert on disability rights. We've also got some people that are very unique: people like Lord Bird, who, many years ago, was sleeping rough on the streets. He decided that he would found a charity to help himself and others like him in similar situations. So he founded a magazine called The Big Issue, which you may have seen being sold, just outside of train stations and London Underground stations, either in London or all around the country. So, when the Queen is here, she's not allowed to leave, or go any further than, the House of Lords. Specifically, she's not allowed to cross the Bar of the House here, and that has a story that I will let Maherban tell you now.

Thank you for that, Max. So now we're going to head back into Central Lobby and continue the story of the relationship between the monarchy and Parliament. So we're now back in Central Lobby, and just a few moments ago, as my colleague Max said, it was the son of Henry VIII, Edward VI, who gave this empty Palace, at that time, to Parliament as a settled meeting place. So, no more moving around: Parliament has found its home. And over the coming centuries, relations with the King and Parliament were largely cordial.

But, fast forward to 1641, and it's a different story. In that year, we've got another King on the throne, Charles I, and he believed heavily in his divine right to rule without the need of Parliament. He wasn't a very good King, and five MPs from the House of Commons had written a list of grievances against him in a document known as the Grand Remonstrance. And the aim was trying to get Charles to change his ways. When Charles read this document, he was furious. "How dare these lowly MPs tell me how to do my job? I am the King." And in response, he gathered some of his men, marched on this Palace, burst into the Commons Chamber while it was in session, and sat in the Speaker's chair, and demanded to know where those five MPs were, who had spoken out against him.

Now, luckily, those five MPs had actually been tipped off, and had fled before Charles arrived. And the Speaker, Speaker Lenthall at that time, refused to agree to Charles' demands of giving up those five MPs. And in a rage, Charles dissolves Parliament; he shuts it down. And this sparks off the English Civil Wars: years of bloodshed between the King and his supporters, against Parliament and its army. And the whole purpose was to decide who was going to run the country, who had more power: the King, or Parliament. Well, after years of bloodshed, Parliament won, with the help of its New Model Army, under the command of Oliver Cromwell, who was an MP. Oliver Cromwell and his supporters captured Charles, and actually put him on trial in Westminster Hall.

Yes, Parliament had actually put the King on trial. Cromwell and his supporters argued that Charles had betrayed the country and spilt the blood of his own people, and they sentenced him to death. And Charles I was taken to Banqueting House, just a few steps away from the Palace, and he was beheaded. Parliament killed the King. So what happened next? Well, Parliament decides to abolish the monarchy: no more Kings and Queens in this country. And Oliver Cromwell is named Lord High Protector of the country. And England becomes a Commonwealth. Now, Cromwell was a Puritan, very religious, and in this time, pubs and theatres were shut. And on a Sunday, people had to stay home and read their Bibles. So people weren't having much fun. After a few years, Cromwell passed away, and his son, Richard, took the mantle of Lord High Protector. He wasn't very popular, and he didn't really want the job. So he abdicated, and when Parliament reconvened, they decided, "let's bring the monarchy back". And they invited the exiled Prince Charles, son of Charles I, who was now without a head. And this became known as the Restoration in 1660, and Charles II returned to England, and we now have a King again. And luckily, Charles II wasn't anything like his father. He was a good time fellow, and preferred partying and drinking rather than running the country. He had many children, just none with his wife, and after he passed away, he was succeeded by his younger brother, James VII. Now, James had married a Catholic woman, and had sired a Catholic heir, and also later became Catholic. Now, this was a big problem because Parliament wanted to remain faithful to the religious reforms that were started by Henry VIII. So, incredibly, Parliament secretly invited James' daughter, Mary, and her Dutch ruling husband, William of Orange, to invade England, topple James from the throne, and protect Protestantism in the country. And they did this, and it became known as the Glorious Revolution because not much blood was spilt.

When they invaded, James fled, and William and Mary were offered the throne. But before the throne was given to them, Parliament presented them with a special document, the Bill of Rights. We're not going to have any more wayward monarchs running the country and ruining things. So the Bill of Rights meant that England would now have a more constitutional monarchy, and Parliament would be the executive of the country. And William and Mary agreed. So that is how we have achieved a constitutional monarchy in this country. So, now that we've found out how Parliament got its voice, we're now going to head over to St Stephen's Hall, where we will find out how we got ours. So this is our next stop.

This is St Stephen's Hall. Now, this used to be part of a royal chapel that was used by the monarchy when they resided here in the medieval times. And it was this space that Edward VI gave to the House of Commons as their first permanent meeting place. So it was in this space that Charles burst in to arrest those five MPs. And it was this Chamber that was destroyed in the 1834 fire.

Now, the statues that you see lining the walls: they represent MPs and Prime Ministers who would've spoken in this earlier Chamber. And the paintings depict scenes from pivotal moments in British history. But I want to go back to two earlier paintings, that my colleague mentioned. Those two massive battle paintings in the Royal Gallery of the Napoleonic Wars. That conflict took place in the 1800s, and the vast majority of the people that you saw in those paintings couldn't vote, even in the 1800s.

So what changed? Well, after those battles in the Napoleonic Wars, Britain changed dramatically. Mass industrialisation and urbanisation meant many more people were moving to booming cities, getting better jobs, better pay, and wanted a bigger say in running the country. And the Government was very scared of these calls for change. And this culminated in the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, when thousands of peaceful men and women, who were campaigning to gain the vote, were attacked by the British military. Eventually, the Government had to bend, and it later passed the 1832 Reform Act, where all UK males aged 21 and over could now finally vote, as long as they had property worth ten pounds.

Now, over the next few years, two more Reform Acts would add more men to the electoral roll, but property continued to be the defining factor in if you could vote or not. And after these Reform Acts, the entire population of women in the UK, and working-class men, were still without the vote. And it took a World War to change that. Because fast forward to 1918, we've got millions of young men fighting in the trenches, dying for their country, and yet they still couldn't vote.

So in 1918, the Government decides that things needs to change. And it passes the Representation of the People Act 1918, where all UK males now, aged 21 and over, could vote, regardless of whether they owned property or not. But what about women? Well, their struggle in this country for the vote began in 1832, in that first Reform Act where they were formally barred from voting. Suffrage groups began to spring up over all across the country, made up of women and men. And eventually they all merged into one organisation, the NUWSS, headed by a lady called Millicent Fawcett. And Millicent, and the members of the organisation, became known as Suffragists: Those who campaigned peacefully for the right to vote, by lobbying MPs and holding mass marches and rallies. But as the years slipped by, change wasn't very forthcoming, and many became disaffected in this organisation and left it in favour of a new one, the WSPU. Its members became known as Suffragettes. And this organisation was headed by the Pankhurst family.

Pankhurst and the suffragettes used militant methods to gain publicity for votes for women, by heckling MPs, vandalising pieces of property, hunger strikes, and holding mass marches. And this room that you see before you played host to one of those events. Because in 1909, a group of suffragettes, led by a woman named Marjorie Hume, were actually barred from entering Central Lobby just behind us, because they were women. And in retaliation, they brought out a set of chains that they'd hidden underneath their Victorian dresses and chained themselves to these statues, and shouted, "deeds not words", to highlight the injustices that women faced in those times.

Now, this statue that you see before you of Lord Falkland, still bears a memento of that occasion, because the security services of Parliament actually had to use bolt cutters to free those women, and Lord Falkland, that you see here, his spur was actually broken off in that altercation and has been left unrepaired to serve as a memento of that occasion.

Now, this fever pitch of suffrage activity ended when World War I began. As millions of men went to fight in the trenches, women in the UK filled in their job roles on the home front, acting as munitions workers, police officers, and nurses. And their tireless efforts helped ensure an Allied victory in 1918. Because of this, when the Government passes the fourth Reform Act, giving all UK males the vote, regardless of property qualifications, all UK women aged 30 and over are now allowed to vote, as long as they met certain property qualifications.

Now, the discrepancy in age is because, at that time, wartime casualties meant that women actually outnumbered men in this country. It was also in this year that we have the first female MPs, and a woman named Constance Markievicz was the first female MP to be elected in this country. She, however, was a member of the Sinn Féin party and never actually took her seat in this Palace.

The following year, Nancy Astor was the first female MP in the UK to take her seat in the Palace of Westminster. And women had to wait nearly a decade to achieve electoral parity with men, which they achieved in 1928 with the fifth Reform Act, where all UK females could now vote at the age of 21, regardless of their marital status, or property qualifications.

Things take a step further in 1969 with a sixth Reform Act, when the voting age is reduced to the age of 18, and it's stayed that way ever since. So now that we've found out how UK citizens got their voices, we're now going to go back into the Hall to see where they can use them. So we're now back in Westminster Hall on what's known as the flats. Now, it's here that foreign dignitaries can be given the highest honour by Parliament, because it's here that they can address both Houses, and people such as Nelson Mandela have given an address from these steps. Now please direct your attention up and to the right, to this fabulous art installation that you can see. And I'm going to zoom in to give you a better look. This is the New Dawn art exhibition, and it was commissioned in 2016 by the artist Mary Branson. Now, these circles here are glass blown circles. They represent the thousands upon thousands of written petitions that were signed by men and women and delivered to this Palace, demanding votes for women.

The light show actually changes its display throughout the day, and it's linked to the tides of the Thames. And this goes back to a piece of propaganda from the suffrage movement: that trying to stop women from gaining the vote was as absurd as trying to stop the tides: you can't do it. So we're now back in the Hall. We've come full circle. And this area used to be our law courts. So people such as Thomas More, the Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up this building, and even Charles I, were put on trial in Westminster Hall.

And as we move further down the steps, we can see there are several plaques that line the floor. These represent which monarchs and politicians have had a lying-in-state ceremony here in Parliament. So when a reigning monarch in this country or their consort passes away, their body is taken to Parliament and a 24-hour vigil is held where members of the public can come and pay their respects before the body is taken off for burial. The last lying-in-state that happened here was in 2002, that of the Queen Mother, and influential politicians, such as Winston Churchill, and Gladstone, were also given a lying-in-state ceremony because of their great service to the country. And it's interesting because this used to be where the King's enemies came to be silenced, and now, it's where citizens of the UK's voices ring the loudest, because in the UK, if a petition reaches over 100,000 signatures, it has to be considered for debate in Parliament. And that happens just up those stairs there, as I zoom in, at the Grand Committee Room, which is the House of Commons' secondary debating chamber.

So we've come a very long way, haven't we, in our tour? From the Kings having total control, the Barons jostling for influence, the middle-classes desperate for a voice, to today, our parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy in the UK.

So that's all we've got time for today. We hope that you've enjoyed your tour. Please do visit the UK Parliament website to find out how you can get involved, and how you can visit this building. Until then, stay safe and take care.