marymonica

This is my first post, but I have been reading the forum for the past few months as I've been planning a three week trip to England, Scotland and Ireland (just a small part of each!) and I want to thank you all for your amazing generosity in sharing your travel knowledge and experiences. You have helped me tremendously, and I congratulate you on a wonderful forum!

The question I have is, my sister and I have been allocated passes for the House of Commons for Wednesday, 8 June and the lady at Australia House told me this would take in Prime Minister's Question Time at 12 noon. But the passes don't guarantee entry and the info sheet that I received said sometimes on PM's Question Time days visitors can't be admitted until after 4 pm, because it's so popular and because MPs' personal guests take priority.

I was just wondering if anyone has BTDT, as it *would* mean spending one of our precious mornings in London queuing up with perhaps not much prospect of success. I would love to see the PM, especially as he is such a formidable debater, and I'm happy to queue, but I just can't seem to find out if overseas visitors have a realistic chance of getting in to see Question Time.

janis

As the info you already have says " . . . sometimes on PM's Question Time days visitors can't be admitted until after 4 pm, because it's so popular and because MPs' personal guests take priority."

I would have said about the same thing - a pass gives you a pretty good chance, but it is not a guarantee.

starspinners

My sister and I have BTDT. This was before 9/11.

The protocol may have changed since then ,but here is what we experienced:
We had Cards of Introduction from the US Embassy in London. We, too, were informed that the cards don't guarantee entry in time for the PM's question and answer session.
We were told to present ourselves at the St. Stephens's Entrance at the appointed hour. We were directed by the guard to wait just to the left of the entrance. There was a very long queue of people without cards of introduction who were also waiting to get in for general tours.
When the doors opened we quickly walked up the steps, showed our cards to the guard directly inside the door and he told us to proceed to yet another guard. We were then assigned a number and told to wait on a bench inside St. Stephan's Hall. We were numbers 2 and 3. About 2 dozen other hopeful
card holders entered St. Stephens's Hall after we did. They were all assigned numbers, but I know for a fact that not all of them were allowed inside the Stranger's Gallery before the Q&A session was over.

We'd waited on the bench for what seemed like 10 minutes when the guard who had assigned us numbers indicated that persons 1-5 ( or some such) could go up to the next level. The woman who had been assigned number 1 obviously had been to a Q&A session before because she took off like a shot when our numbers were called. She seemed very familiar with the drill.

We climbed a staircase and were shunted into a small area with a desk where we had to sign a form which asked for name ,address, &country of citizenship.
Then we had to leave our handbags and coats ( it was October) with the police officer behind the desk. Next we were patted down by a police woman.
And finally we were allowed to take our place in the Stranger's Gallery and to watch and listen to Tony Blair field questions.
The gallery was quite full that day.

It was fascinating to us to watch a session of the House of Commons; if you do decide you can fit it into your schedule I believe it will be one of the highpoints of your trip.
Each embassy is allotted only four cards of introduction for any given day; so it is a treat to even secure one.

marymonica

Thank you - you've been so helpful!! It's lovely to hear from someone who has been to Question Time and can explain how it works - and I'm so glad you regarded it as a highlight of your trip. I know now we're very lucky in terms of getting the passes - I didn't realise each embassy is only allowed to give four. And it is something I really want to do - I love history and to see the place where the values of freedom and democracy have been fought for and handed on around the world will be very special.

PatrickLondon

I'm all for security, but after all that I can understand why there are moves afoot to persuade Parliament to make its procedures a bit more public-friendly:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpo...491588,00.html

starspinners

Hello Marymonica,
I neglected to mention something in my previous post.
When my sister and I were waiting for our numbers to be called, we ( and all the other card holders) were allowed to walk into the Central Lobby to watch the procession of the Speaker and the Mace into the Commons chamber.
I hope this is still allowed as it was a bit of interesting tradition to witness.
Be sure to return right away to your spot on the bench though... it would be terrible to miss hearing your number being called.
There was a brief recess after Mr Blair had answered his questions and that's when many people left the Stranger's Gallery. We stayed a bit longer, but left after another 20 minutes or so. Then we returned to St. Stephens Hall and had a leisurely look at all the paintings and statues of statesmen.