01/05/2026
Rotary Weston-super-Mare and History In The Making
On Wednesday 29th April some of our Members were lucky enough to witness history in the making.
Having been invited by our Honorary Member, Dan Aldridge MP to visit him in the Houses of Parliament, a group of us set off at 7.30am to London, transported by Blakes Coaches from Tiverton, driven there by the affable Big Rich. Traffic conditions, together with a vehicle fire on the M4 delayed our arrival time, so the queue, for security had dispersed as we were directed by two very smiley policemen (holding machine guns) through to Westminster Hall to meet Tom, Dan’s Chief of Staff, who was our guide for the Tour.
No sooner had we arrived than Dan came to greet us, leading the way through the corridors of The Palace of Westminster, out on to that famous terrace, overlooking the Thames. Surprisingly it was empty, apart from our party, probably due to the hooley blowing. However, coming from Weston where we are used to real wind, we remained there quite unperturbed.
During the tour which followed, Tom treated us to stories of times gone by, from Manny Shinwell bopping a fellow MP in The Chamber, to the only assassination ever of a serving British Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, when he was shot and killed as he left the same place in 1812, at the age of 49.
Being a Wednesday, Prime Minister’s Question Time was in full flow, so we were not able to access the Chamber. However, suddenly we heard that Parliament was about to be prorogued and were invited to watch Black Rod processing from The Lords to The Commons in order to halt Parliamentary Business for this Session. It was particularly poignant, as also on this day a centuries-old element of Britain’s Parliament came to an end as the remaining 92 Hereditary Peers took their seats in The House of Lords for the final time.
Although no photos were allowed to be taken, some of us were lucky enough to have a front row view, able to watch the little lady walking around with a sword, almost as big as herself, the one TV camera allowed in the Central Lobby (feeding all networks) being operated and most noticeably of all, the heavy presence of security.
All too soon our visit came to an end, with some of us nearly being left behind in Westminster, having lost our bearings, along with the coach taking us home!
Altogether it was a great day out and those of us who went can now say, ‘I was there when…………….’
