Lockdown Lords
Parliament is a strange and unnatural place in lockdown. No bustling, purposeful corridors of people, no full chambers with lively interactions, no cross-party socialising in a bar – no alcohol allowed anywhere in the palace.
In the Lords there are only 30 allocated seats, all socially distanced. Very few peers actually attend and we are often in danger of not having 3 for a quorum. Most peers loom at us through the 10 Zoom screens around the Chamber. What would Barry and Pugin have made of this desecration of their priceless work? Actually neither of them lived to see it completed, so perhaps their souls rest in peace.
One Good Thing to come out of this is online voting. Peers often queue to go through voting lobbies at unholy hours of the night. Now we log on to our phones, computers, i-pads, possibly in our pyjamas (such sacrilege!). We cannot sit beyond midnight because of the tech teams, but I often find myself on the Jubilee line for a late train home.
But our work is seriously diminished with set speakers’ lists – no impromptu question to unsettle a waffling Minister, no chamber reaction to unacceptable answers. And because our expenses are now dependent on actually speaking, ever longer speakers’ lists fill with people who have no expertise and nothing to add, but who depend on allowances to pay their bills.
As a deputy speaker, I attend to sit on the Woolsack, and to see real people. Roll on a return to normality, perhaps to earlier nights and certainly to proper challenging, debate, personal interaction. Zoom and Teams are amazing tools but as humans we were not meant to live virtually.
In this photo Baroness Anne McIintosh is speaking
Postscript – I had thought the Jubilee line ran through the night and discovered when I got to the Westminster platform recently at 12.28 that the last train was 12.32. So all was well,. Was quite weary after a 12 hour day, so very glad my trusty tube got me home OK! I did wonder how many other 76-year old women worked such silly hours – but I do enjoy it.