X-Nico

25 unusual facts about House of Commons of the United Kingdom


A. Sabhapathy Mudaliar

This issue was raised in the House of Commons by William Caine, the MP for Camborne at the time.

Albert Poggio

Thanks to his political contacts, Poggio had always gained "research assistant" passes that have allowed him free access to the UK House of Commons and its dependencies.

Baron Forres

Williamson was the son of Stephen Williamson who represented St Andrews and Kilmarnock in the House of Commons.

Canadian nationality law

In 1931, with the final approval by the Imperial Parliament's (including the House of Lords and House of Commons sitting in London) legislating on behalf of dominions and other territories of the British Empire, and later British Commonwealth of Nations, for the ratification of the "Statute of Westminster of 1931", the United Kingdom ceased to have legislative control over Canada.

Donald Logan

He said much later that he was also present at the House of Commons on 20 December 1956 and was the only person there who knew that the Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, lied to the House about Britain's foreknowledge of Israel's attack on Egypt.

E. Gerald Corrigan

In February, 2010, Corrigan faced inquiry in the House of Commons Treasury committee in London, England for Goldman's involvement with currency swaps executed with the Greek government.

Eric Daniels

He was questioned about the banking crisis during a session of the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons on February 12, 2009.

Flora Reid

He was also a member of the United Kingdom House of Commons from 1916 to 1918.

Frederick Yeates Hurlstone

He was always much opposed to the constitution and management of the Royal Academy, and gave evidence before at the Parliamentary enquiry into the constitution of the Royal Academy in 1835 and again in 1836 to the select committee of the House of Commons.

FV103 Spartan

It was reported to the House of Commons in 2006 that 478 FV103 vehicles were in service with the armed forces of the United Kingdom in April of that year, with 452 of them in deployable state.

Helena Wojtczak

The book was launched at the House of Commons, at the TUC Conference 2005 and at the National Railway Museum.

John Charles Felix Rossi

In 1816 he was one of the experts questioned by a select committee of the House of Commons enquiring into whether the government should purchase the sculptures from the Parthenon then in the possession of Lord Elgin.

John Etty

In June 2007 John Etty was invited to a reception for former Bevin Boys at the House of Commons, hosted by Gordon Banks MP, John Etty and wife Kath were introduced to the Prime Minister at No 10 Downing Street on 25 March 2008, with John Etty receiving his Bevin Boys' Veterans Badge from Gordon Brown.

London Road, High Wycombe

The first recorded match on the ground was in 1891, when High Wycombe played the House of Commons.

Navsari

He was an elected Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom between 1892 and 1895, and the first Asian to be a British MP.

PatientPak

In addition to the Early Day Motions, several Parliamentary Questions (PQs) have been tabled in the House of Commons asking about the possibility of the NHS providing personal antimicrobial products to be supplied to hospital in-patients.

Peter Gooderham

In that role he provided information to the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development on the work of the Quartet on the Middle East and Hamas.

Royal Commission for the Investigation of all Grievances Affecting His Majesty's Subjects of Lower Canada

The commission's work became the basis of the ten resolutions which John Russell, then Whig Secretary of State for the Home Department, submitted to the House of Commons on 6 March 1837.

Sir Christopher Robinson

He was no orator, and did not shine in the House of Commons.

Solomon Curtis

The committee held two live oral evidence sessions broadcast on BBC Parliament in Portcullis House at the House of Commons, Solomon was described by local press as being a "stand out character that capably extract vital information and bounce back on detailed points".

Stella Whitelaw

She was Secretary of the Parliamentary Press Gallery at the House of Commons and lives in Surrey.

Thomas Dromgoole

In 1813 he made some vigorous speeches on the subject, overthrowing Grattan's contention in the House of Commons that the veto was approved in Ireland, and materially contributing to the temporary defeat of the Catholic Emancipation Bill.

Thomas George Fonnereau

It was written mainly to prove that a purely democratic government is inappropriate to the circumstances of England, and that the existing system was ‘founded on a concentration of the various interests of the country in the House of Commons’.

Thomas Wemyss Reid

While working on the Leeds Mercury (1870–87), he won the right for provincial newspapers to be admitted to the House of Commons press gallery.

William Holms

William Holms (born 5 February 1827) was a Scottish businessman and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1884.


1984 in LGBT rights

10 — In the United Kingdom, Chris Smith comes out as gay, becoming the first openly gay member of the House of Commons.

Alan Marre

When the Court Line group collapsed in August 1974, complaints were made to the Ombudsman about statements made in the House of Commons by the Secretary of State for Industry, Tony Benn.

Archibald Church

In July 1931, Church introduced to the House of Commons a Ten Minute Rule bill promoted by the Eugenics Education Society.

Campbell Case

On 6 August it was announced in the House of Commons that the Attorney General for England and Wales Sir Patrick Hastings had advised the prosecution of Campbell under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797; however, under pressure from a number of Labour backbenchers, the government forced the charges to be withdrawn on 13 August.

ChangeFIFA

Joining forces with Change FIFA, Damian Collins, Conservative Member of Parliament for Folkestone and Hythe and member of the House of Commons' Culture, Media and Sport Committee, has called for Sepp Blatter's re‑election as FIFA president to be suspended and a "reform agenda" to be introduced at football's ruling organisation.

Charles Stourton, 17th Baron Stourton

Their third son, Charles, became one of the first Roman Catholics in the House of Commons and was a leading Roman Catholic layman in the 19th century.

Citizen's arrest

Under the Standing Orders of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, the Serjeant at Arms has the power to take into custody anyone who is in a Members-only area of the House, or who misconducts themselves, or who fails to leave when the House sits in private.

Civil list

The abolition of the Civil List was announced in the spending review statement to the House of Commons on 20 October 2010 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

Clive Betts

At the 1979 general election he stood for election to the House of Commons in the safe Conservative seat of Louth against the Conservative MP Michael Brotherton and lost.

Compensation for Disturbance Bill

The Bill passed through the House of Commons of the United Kingdom but met with a devastating defeat (282 votes to 5) in the House of Lords.

Cranborne Money

Short Money is its counterpart in the House of Commons.

D-Day Dodgers

A rumour spread during the war that the term was publicized by Viscountess Astor, a Member of the British Parliament, who supposedly used the expression in public after a disillusioned serviceman in Italy signed a letter to her as being from a "D-Day Dodger."

David Maclean

Educated at Fortrose Academy, Fortrose, The Black Isle, Highland, and at the University of Aberdeen, he was elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in 1983 following the ennoblement of William Whitelaw.

Don Pacifico affair and case

John Arthur Roebuck led the House of Commons to reverse this condemnation, which it did on June 29 by a majority of 46.

Edward Harney

Edward Augustine St Aubyn Harney (31 August 1865 – 17 May 1929) was an Irish lawyer who sat in both the Australian Senate and the British House of Commons, and who also had a political and legal career in Australia.

Flour bomb

An example from May 2004 was the use of purple-dyed flour in condoms thrown at Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair in the chamber of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom by Fathers 4 Justice.

George Charles Grey

Between his election and his death, he was the youngest member of the House of Commons, having been elected at the age of 22 years 259 days.

Harry Powlett, 4th Duke of Cleveland

Vane entered the foreign service and held posts in Paris and Stockholm before entering the House of Commons in 1841 as a member for South Durham.

Horatio Myer

He had won the Liberal nomination against some opposition, including a campaign to have former Liberal MP for Finsbury Central, Dadabhai Naoroji, the first non-white person to sit in the House of Commons, selected as candidate.

James Snipplet

A member of the House of Commons under Prime Ministers Sir Robert Peel (1841–1846) and Lord John Russell (1846–1852), Snipplet is best known for his impassioned speeches and staunch backroom diplomacy as an advocate for the rights of the poor during the Irish Potato Famine (1845–1852).

John Deedes

As well as playing first-class cricket, William was a Conservative Party politician who was a Member of Parliament for East Kent from 1845–1857 and 1857–1862 following the resignation from the House of Commons of Sir Edward Dering who had defeated Deedes at the 1857 election.

Labour Isn't Working

When the poster was released, the way the photo was taken was leaked and Labour's Denis Healey criticised it in the House of Commons by claiming the people in it were not genuinely unemployed and said that the Conservatives were "selling politics like soap-powder".

Martyn Jones

He is a microbiologist, and worked at the Wrexham Lager Beer Company from 1969 until June 1987 before his election to the House of Commons.

MigrationWatch UK

Giving evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee in January 2006 he quoted an internal e-mail by a member of staff at the Home Office, which stated "I have made this point many times before, but can we please stop saying that Migration Watch migration forecasts are wrong. I have pointed out before that Migration Watch assumptions are often below the Government Actuary Department's high-migration scenario".

Oscar Faber

Notable projects include the Bank of England, the House of Commons, Africa House and India House in London.

River Doe Lea

The river contained 1000 times the safe level of dioxins in 1991, according to a statement made by Dennis Skinner, (MP) in the House of Commons in 1992.

Roberta Blackman-Woods

Elected with a majority of 3,274, Blackman-Woods made her maiden speech to the House of Commons on 24 May 2005, in which she referred to the work of her predecessor Gerry Steinberg, as well as referring at length to the importance to Durham of Durham Cathedral, the University of Durham and the historic legacy of mining within the area.

S4C Authority

In the spending review which he presented to the House of Commons on 20 October 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced that part of the responsibility for funding S4C was to be transferred to the BBC.

Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson

On leaving the Commons that year, Anson was created Viscount Anson, of Shugborough and Orgrave, Co. Stafford and Baron Soberton, of Soberton, Co. Southampton.

Tom Quelch

His 1912 appeal for soldiers to refuse to act as strikebreakers caused a Conservative MP, Oliver Locker-Lampson, to complain about him in the House of Commons.

Torture

During a House of Commons debate on 7 July 2009, MP David Davis accused the UK government of outsourcing torture, by allowing Rangzieb Ahmed to leave the country (even though they had evidence against him upon which he was later convicted for terrorism) to Pakistan, where it is said the Inter-Services Intelligence was given the go ahead by the British intelligence agencies to torture Ahmed.

Umm Qasr

During a debate in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in late March 2003, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon somewhat inadvisedly compared Umm Qasr to the southern English city of Southampton.

Victor Blank

On 12 February 2009, the CEO of Lloyds group, Eric Daniels, was questioned about the banking crisis during a session of the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons.

W. T. Cosgrave

Its manifesto promised abstentionism from the House of Commons in Westminster.