Michael Martin

While the Speaker of the House of Representatives is a partisan figure - belonging to and advocating the point of view of the majority party, the House of Commons Speaker is expected to be the servant of the House, particularly backbenchers - and shun their previous political party. In fact it is usual for a retired Speaker to be given a peerage - and in the House of Lords they sit as Cross-benchers. Michael Martin has been Speaker since 2000, and has indicated that he wishes to continue in the job after the next General Election. His election was controversial, because Conservatives claimed there was an informal rule that the two major parties took turns to provide the Speaker. Betty Boothroyd, his predecessor, had also been a Labour MP. (In fact the tradition was only of 30 years length).


Speaker Martin comes from Glasgow (b 3rd July 1945), the city he represents. [Currently Glasgow NE, before the last redistricting in Scotland it was a Glasgow seat known as Glasgow Springburn]. He was a sheet metal worker at Rolls Royce Aero Engines, who played an active role in his union. He entered Parliament in 1979. After serving on the Speaker's panel - chairing House of Commons committees, he became Deputy Speaker in 1997. Earlier he had served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Denis Healey.

In his spare time Mr Martin's interests are hill walking, folk music, local history - and he plays the Highland pipes. His son (he also has a daughter) is the Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow Springburn constituency.

Michael Martin is the first Catholic to be the Speaker since the Reformation. The House of Commons elected its first Speaker in 1376 - and Mr Martin is the 156th person to hold that position. By virtue of his position he has a residence within the Palace of Westminster. Each day before the Commons starts business the Speaker's Procession makes its way from the Speaker's House - via Central Lobby - to the Chamber.

Further information about the Speaker can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/m02.pdf

Nancy Pelosi

While Parliament and Congress are taking a break, Washminster will profile some of the key players in each legislature. Please do post any comments or additional information. Our first subject is Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives in this 110th Congress.

Ms Pelosi represents the 8th District of California, which covers most of San Francisco. She moved to California with her husband, Paul - who was originally from the Golden State.

The future Speaker was born into politics. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, was himself a member of the House of Representatives when Nancy was born. After serving in the House between 1939 and 1947, he was Baltimore's mayor for 12 years. She attended Trinity College in Washington DC, majoring in Political Science. Ms Pelosi was an intern for Maryland's Senator, Daniel B Brewster, working alongside Steny Hoyer, now Majority Leader in the House of Representatives.

After moving to California she played an active part in the political life of the State, chairing the California Democratic Party in the early 1980s. Elected to Congress for the first time in June 1987, she has worked her way up to the top of the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives. She was elected whip in 2001; Minority Leader in 2002 and when the Democrats regained the majority for the 110th Congress she became the first female Speaker. The scholar and commentator Norman Ornstein has described her as one of "the most savvy political figures around".

Ms Pelosi has set the record for the longest continuous period of service in history on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Personal Website: http://www.house.gov/pelosi/
Speaker's Website: http://speaker.gov/
Blog: http://www.speaker.gov/blog/

Ministerial Residences

In the United States there is the White House; Camp David; Number One Observatory Circle for the Vice President - in the UK there are a number of ministerial residences.

Number 10 Downing Street contains a residential flat, as does Number 11. Number 10 was originally offered as a personal gift to Sir Robert Walpole, which he declined for himself but accepted as a residence for the First Lord of the Treasury [now the formal title held by the person popularly known as the 'Prime Minister']. Number 11 has been the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1828, though Brown and Blair swopped flats in 1997.

The official country residence of the Prime Minister is Chequers, an Elizabethan mansion which was bequeathed to the nation in 1917 by Sir Arthur Lee MP, a soldier, diplomat & politician (and husband of an American heiress)who eventually became Viscount Lee of Fareham (1868-1947). It rests at the foot of the Chilterns not far from Princes Risborough.

Chevening in Kent has become the country residence of the Foreign Secretary, although the Earl of Stanhope left it to the nation in 1967 on condition that 'it was occupied by either the Prime Minister of the day, a Cabinet Minister or a descendant of King Charles VI'. It is a 115 room mansion in an estate of 3,500 acres near Sevenoaks. Some people believe that it was designed by Inigo Jones.

Dorneywood in Buckinghamshire has been regarded as the country residence of Chancellors of the Exchequer, though Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott had use of it between 1999 and 2006. It is built in the Queen Anne style, but only in 1920. It has provoked mixed feelings - a former Deputy Director of the Conservative Research Department wrote in a letter to the Times - "Then (1950s), no one seemed to want it. Anthony Eden lived there briefly, but spent most of his weekends on the telephone to Chequers bickering with Churchill over foreign policy. Harold Macmillan, the next in line, turned it down. Eventually, however, it won the heart of Willie Whitelaw, even though Alan Clark, visiting him in 1986, ticked him off rudely for liking "this dreary redbrick house in flat country". However the BBC reported that, "When Alec Douglas-Home became prime minister in 1963 he was said to be reluctant to forsake the property for the antique surroundings of Chequers."

In London there are three ministerial flats in Admiralty House and Number 1 Carlton Gardens is regarded as the official London residence of the Foreign Secretary.

Hillsborough Castle, a mansion located in County Down, is the official residence of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

According to this week's Sunday Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/12/nhomes112.xml the allocation of residences has not yet been finalised, claiming "When ministers return from the summer recess, a scramble for properties reminiscent of the most cut-throat battles of the Monopoly board will commence."

The House of Commons Library has published a paper on ministerial residences which is available at http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/notes/snpc-03367.pdf

Senator Hits Constituent

A rare 'man bites dog' story! In April 1917 the respected, 66 year old Senator Henry Cabot Lodge was in the newspapers for a very unusual reason. He hit one of his constituents! (even John Prescott didn't go that far).

The context was the fevered atmosphere before the United States' entry into the first world war. On the day of the fight President Wilson was to attend Congress to ask for a declaration of war. Anti-war campaigners had converged on Washington from around the country. Officials directed protesters to see their own Senators and Representatives. A delegation from Massachusetts went to the office of Senator Cabot Lodge. Graphic accounts of the confrontation are to be found in the Boston Daily Globe of 3rd August [Headline - Lodge on Top in Fist Fight: Stiff Blow to Jaw Floors Alexander Bannwart], which reported "The Senator was called to his door to hear the arguments of the visitors. There were harsh words and then blows were exchanged between the Senator, aged 67 [in fact he was a few weeks short of his birthday] and Alexander W Bannwart, 36 years old, of Dorchester, Mass, born in Switzerland of Swiss-German parents".

The delegation of seven included at least two ministers, and one woman - Mrs A M Peabody.

Both Senator Cabot Lodge and Mr Bannwart claim the other hit first. Mrs Peabody's account was that "the Senator said, 'the pacifists are cowards in talking of anything else'. Mr Bannwart then broke in and said, 'it isn't the pacifists who are cowards: it is the war people who are cowards'. Senator Lodge came out and went up to Mr Bannwart and said, 'If you call me a coward you are a damned liar' and Mr Bannwart replied, 'I might return the compliment'. Senator Lodge then struck him in the face, a frightful blow - the Senator was frightfully angry. Mr Bannwart struck him, and then a messenger rushed out and, seeing Senator Lodge falling back against the door, jumped on Mr Bannwart and pounded him till blood flowed from two cuts in Mr Bannwart's head"

Alexander Bannwart told a reporter, "I had no idea he was going to strike me. He just hauled me off and hit me as hard as he could. Then half a dozen fellows had a fine time trying to finish me off. That messenger boy had an especially good time"

Senator Cabot Lodge's account was that in response to being called a coward, "I went forward, up close to him and said, 'You're a Liar'. He struck me and I struck him". the Authorities believed Cabot Lodge's version which was backed by another Senator.

Bannwart had been born in Basel, Switzerland and had come to Boston whilst a boy. He attended Andover Academy and Princeton. He played baseball for the Lowell Club in the New England League, eventually assuming control of the club. He had joined after the club had been through a long losing struck, and was nicknamed, then known as 'Al Winn'.

Senator Cabot Lodge was the great-grandson of Senator George Cabot who sat in the Senate in the 1790s. Cabot Lodge was elected to the House of Representatives in 1887 where he sat until 1893 when he became a Senator, serving until his death in 1924. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he was the leading opponent of President Wilson's plan for the United States to be a member of the League of Nations. His grandson was also a Republican politician - a Senator; Nixon's running mate in the 1960 election and Ambassador to South Vietnam during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Moving Houses

Nothing looks as established as the sites of the four Houses that this blog follows - the House of Commons; the House of Lords; the House of Representatives and the US Senate - though all have moved.

Parliament once met wherever the King was, but over time Westminster became its exclusive site. The House of Lords was the first to have permanent accommodation. It met in the Painted Chamber for State Openings of Parliament and normally sat in the White Chamber. The House of Commons only gained its own chamber in the late 1540s - St Stephen's Chapel.

The Great Fire of 1834 destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster, and new chambers were built on the current sites. In 1941 a bomb destroyed the House of Commons and it met in the Chamber of the house of Lords until the current Commons chamber was opened in October 1950. In the meantime the Lords met in the Robing Room at the southern end of the Palace.

Congress has met in three cities. It's first home was Federal Hall in New York. From March 1789 until August 1790 the House of Representatives sat in a room on the first floor whilst the Senate met on the second floor (thus making it the 'upper house').

Philadelphia's County Courthouse, renamed Congress Hall, was the home during the 1790s. Again the House sat on the first floor and the Senate on the second floor.

When Congress moved to Washington in November 1800 on the North Wing of the building had been built. The House moved onto the 2nd floor of the west side while the senate took up residence on the 1st floor, on its eastern side. In 1801 a temporary wooden structure was put up on the foundations of the South wing. It looked like, and by all accounts, felt like an oven - which became its nickname.

The House returned to the North Wing in 1804 whilst a permanent South Wing was constructed. In March 1807 they moved into a chamber on the second floor.

This lasted only until August 24th 1814 when the British burned down the Capitol Building. For the next few years Congress had to sit in a building which stood on the current site of the Supreme Court. It was often refered to as the 'Old Brick Capitol'. The House met on the second floor and the Senate on the 1st.

In 1820 the rebuilt Congress Building reopened. The House sat in what is now Statuary Hall. The Senate returned to its chamber (which was from 1861 - 1935 the supreme Court, previously the Court occupied a basement room below it). With the rapid expansion of the United States these chambers had become too small and two new wings were added in the decade before the Civil War. The House moved into its present chamber in December 1857, whilst the current Senate was occupied from January 1859 (though troops moved in during a recess in 1861 - when they left a few weeks later the chamber was described as filthy and "alive with lice."