At the entrance is a pale stone bower of equilateral arches and then a brass-plated door opens into a small vestibule and after a turn there is the Chamber. The golden Sovereign’s Throne: empty. Five rows of long benches, red leathered, are stacked on either side. Above, between sets of bar-traced windows, bronze statues of chain-mailed knights hold broadswords and maces. Some of their faces are cast downward as if watching the proceedings below.
From my seat in the guest area, near the entrance, I could see the Labour peers to the right of the throne and the backs of the Crossbench peers and then the rows of the Conservative opposition. A bewigged secretary bent over a desk in the centre of the room. He was browsing Wikipedia on a desktop computer.
When the House is in session the Peers of the Realm come and go intermittently. One made his way from the low wooden gate to a nearby bench, a hand on his walking stick and the other on the railing. His nose dripped, untended. He then drifted into sleep while Lord Bach announced that,Great discounts on our huge range of Castelli Cycling clothing .Welcome to RadioShack Cycling jersey online! ‘the Government does not support or approve of polygamous marriage’. There had been a question tabled by a Baroness concerned about the rights of Muslim women.
The House often sits late into the evening, rising at ten or eleven at night. It’s a strange thought, the upper chamber lit softly by pendulum lights while the Peers lounge opposite one another, holding forth on polygamy, after the Thames outside is moon white and quiet.
That afternoon was my first glimpse of the House of Lords in session, the first time I saw the Chamber, the wood and brass carvings so intricate and detailed it was as if the room itself was a slot for a giant pin-tumbler key. A former Captain in the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army, I was now a speechwriter for one of the noble lords though I was beginning to fear I lacked the required stamina. Climate change and the Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme and then the turmoil of the Scottish banks were debated for over two hours. When Lord Tunnicliffe rose to repeat a Statement on Armed Forces: Reserves first made in the Other Place, I began taking notes, but it wasn’t long before my attention wandered again. My eye was drawn upward to the eighteen knights, armour clad, dispassionate, their weapons lowered or resting on their shoulders. They are life-size, almost shrunken.
The statues in the chamber have been the topic of much debate. In 1850 Lord Osborne said that, ‘such narrow shouldered barons would never have wrung the Magna Carta from the crown’. These icons represent the original signatories and Lord Osborne wanted them to appear more imposing and fearsome. In a similar way, I expected the Peers themselves would be larger than life somehow. One of the Lords I met had been shot by a German machine gun in the Second World War.We work with all Garmin Cycling computers. I was so nervous when I shook his hand that I’m unable to remember his name. Above his breast pocket, on his suit jacket, were loops of black thread used for holding his medals, which seemed to weigh him down. He was bent, unable to stand up straight.
There was something stooped about Lord M as well. We’d first met in the Peers’ Guest Room, a wood-panelled salon with bay windows that face the Thames. Oil paintings of naval battles hung on the walls. He was slouched on a wooden bench, his double-breasted jacket undone and his pocket square halved in a soft triangle. I expected him to be aloof and superior, an Eton educated hereditary Peer quoting Latin epigrams and complaining at large. Instead he listened with an almost embarrassing intensity as I discussed a recent article on the Territorial Army. After Eton he had volunteered to serve in the Household Cavalry rather than attend University.
He had been in Malaysia and Northern Ireland though with a British manner given to understatement, he made light of his experience. ‘It wasn’t like Iraq,’ he said, and went on to describe his time in Northern Ireland as hours of waiting about and setting up checkpoints. He said that his father’s parting advice before he left for Sandhurst was, ‘the whole thing will be ghastly, just stick it.’
‘Did your father talk very much about his service?’ I asked.
‘He was in Palestine with the Guards when the unit was mechanised. The order came down to kill their horses and he said that was the worst moment of his career. Many of the men took it badly and couldn’t do it themselves. They were brought to the desert and he said the horses knew. They knew what was coming.’
It was an anecdote that haunted me. Later, I tracked it down in the library and found a reference in Jane Wellesley’s Wellington: A Family History. Her father Valerian, also an officer in the Household Cavalry at the time, said: I had to take fourteen old black horses of my troop into the Judean hills and shoot them… those fine old creatures who had taken part in all the great state occasions of the last ten years, including the 1936 coronation,Erik's Bike Shop is proud to carry Specialized Cycling, gear and apparel. ended their days on a desolate Palestinian hill, as fodder for the vultures and jackals.
Speechwriting in the Lords was my first job out of the army and I thought it would be a way for me to get beyond the military and start something else,View profiles and information for the Team SAXO BANK Cycling 2012 race team and riders here. something new. But I kept seeing things in the Palace of Westminster that reminded me of military life. Sand from the Normandy beaches is enshrined in the Royal Gallery. Their names are printed on tiny gold plates: Juno, Sword, Gold, Utah, and Omaha. Standing in line for lunch, with a plastic tray in my hand, I noticed the glass cases outside the Terrace Cafeteria are filled with medals from British military history. The most recent is the Elizabeth Cross, given to the next of kin of slain Armed Forces personnel.
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