The Job

I had my first day of my Parliament internship on Monday. The office is so sweet. These are the views out of the window! (Big Ben and Parliament, West Minster Abbey, Big Ben)

It was pretty scary being there. First of all, security is super rigid. I have a pass that I swipe plus a pin number I have to enter. Then I find out that the MP I'm assisting, Alun Michael, represents a district in Wales. I found this out right away when they had me answer the phone and some Welsh lady called in. To this day I still have no idea what she was saying to me. Hopefully I warm up to the accent soon. Alun also walks around the office speaking Welsh to people on the phone. It really is a different world for Wales.

I spent the morning reading examples of speeches, newspaper articles, and letters to get the style of what they do in the office. Then Owen, one of the staffers went down to lunch with me and walked me over to the houses of Parliament. We went to the oldest part of Parliament (its the building on the left in the first picture) which was built in 1066(?) There are plaques all over the floor where famous events occurred such as Charles I's trial in 1649 and such. Owen also told me the coolest story of all. He is not sure if it is true but he was told that when they cleaned and refurbished the original rafters sometime in the last few decades, they found pig's bladder tennis balls. These date back to Henry VIII when he would use the hall to practice tennis. That was by far the coolest story I have heard about the building so far. He also took me through some secret corridors and showed me a few of the secret pubs that exist there. It is so strange to see all the art that is hanging in random corridors there. I saw a drawing dating back to the 1400's just hanging on this wall. I am going to have to go exploring soon. I believe I will be going on an official Parliament tour tomorrow morning.

When we got back to the office, he had me start to work on answering constituent letters. The one I worked on was about the possible expansion to Heathrow Airport which is the biggest debate in England right now. I also sat and watched the questioning taking place in the House of Commons even though it was quite boring.

I did catch a glimpse of David Cameron, the leader of the Tory party, during my interview last week! I have a big feeling that the conservatives will take hold of Parliament after the next election. Things are certainly changing in Great Britain.