Davaughn’s Diary

13 Mar Davaughn’s Diary

Tuesday 5th February

The Year 12 Politics class and I took a trip down to Westminster to pay Parliament a little visit. Security there was extremely tight, having to drink any liquid to prevent poisonings as you “wouldn’t drink the untestable”. I even had to go through without my belt! However, it was all not in vain as this year we got to sit on the seats of the Supreme Court Judges (just to rub it in the faces of the Year 13s as they never got such an opportunity), the same place where they ruled the prorogation of Parliament unlawful. Now that was an experience which seemed almost impossible to reach, the fact that we can visit places of extreme importance like the Supreme Court or Parliament, but I guess that’s what it means to live in a democracy.

After dilly-dallying in the SC, we took a little detour to No.10 Downing Street, just before the actual visit to Parliament, to see if we could catch a glimpse of our busy Prime Minister, but being in an enclosed area, we couldn’t see anything.

The security process of Parliament was very much the same as for the Supreme Court going through the metal detectors and the rest of it. But the tour of Parliament was really fascinating. One of the highlights was going to watch a small debate in the House of Commons where we got to see David Davis, a Conservative Party politician who served as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from July 2016 to July 2018. We also saw Richard Burgon, Labour MP and Tim Farron, former leader of Lib Dems. Also present were newly inaugurated MPs of constituencies like Keighley’s new MP Robert Moore following the 2019 general election.

After the tour, we had a little fun and games in a workshop hosted by the staff of Parliament for educational purposes. In this workshop, we were looking at elections and different types of election voting methods and the pros and cons of each as well as what type of government may be formed as a result of these methods. The class was split into teams to demonstrate but also to act in a point system of a game, which my team won of course.

To end it all, we had to say goodbye to our Parliament friends and make our way back home. Everyone was exhausted, but it is undeniable that the trip was very fruitful and educational. I am sure that the Year 12s found the trip insightful and it proved very useful to consolidate my knowledge in politics for my own exams.

Davaughn Year 13