The parliament tour was similarly interesting in a different way. We got to tour the House of Commons and the House of Lords and learn about the interesting history behind the building, the reconstructions in certain places, the interesting fact that by law the queen is not allowed in the House of Commons and that she attends the House of Lords once a year. Did you know that? I bet you didn’t! We won’t give you the answer to that, but we’ll let you work it out!

There were also lots of statues of different prime ministers of the past throughout the parliament, one being of Clement Attlee. One of the young people, Jumel looked at the statue and said to our manager ‘Hey Sharon, that’s Clement Attlee. Hey Sharon, that’s Clement Attlee, I can’t believe that’s Clement Attlee’.

Later we went into one of the board rooms and sat around a round table where we held up cards for answers to quizzes that were posed to us based on the things we learnt during the tour. We also, discussed about the barriers common people face when they want to change policies within the government and how it can be overcome. We also, expressed some of the questions we would ask if we were an MP in the parliament. The day ended with everyone receiving a goody bags and we then had a nice meal out.

©2011 Copyright Rod Leon

7 young people from Attlee youth and community centre visited the launch of the project at the House of Lords on the 23rd May 2011, being the very first time they set foot within the parliament; they described it as a really good experience. Many of us watch the parliament as we drive by, but not everyone gets the chance to actually make a visit inside. We followed our way into room 4, where baroness Oona King hosted us. There were many surprise guests, there were Black and Asian Mp’s such as Conservative MP for East Surrey Sam Gyimah, and Baroness Floella Benjamin all sitting together delivering speeches about how they had to go through many hurdles to reach to where they are today.

There was also the surprise guest who everyone was surprised to see, Actor Rudolph Walker who acts as Patrick in Eastenders. Everyone enjoyed taking pictures with him at the end.

The best part of the trip was when two young people from Attlee (Jumel and Sadik)  asked questions and even the Mp’s admitted that it stumbled them. It showed how young people have a lot of pressing questions they want to ask, but don’t always get the opportunity. And this is infact the purpose of the project, to get young people more in tuned with politics and make their voices heard.