Tag Archives: protocol

Why did Cameron’s and Clegg’s Palace business have to be conducted in secret?

I was pretty grumpy on Monday when I was watching the rolling news coverage. First of all, the BBC had live reporting from Westminster, the only place in the country you wouldn’t find any politicians following the dissolution of Parliament. Ok, so they did find Simon Hughes, but they could have headed a couple of miles down the road to go to him.

Then there were people reporting from Downing Street long after everyone had departed to ht the campaign trail.

But what made my blood boil was the aerial shots of Buckingham Palace broadcast as David Cameron and Nick Clegg made their visits there. We all know what it looks like. The BBC and Sky didn’t really need to spend money on a helicopter to give us pictures of one of the most familiar sites in the country if not the world.

Why on earth were  we not able to see what was going on inside? What’s with the mystery? It wasn’t very exciting, but we weren’t even given a photograph of the occasions. Cameron met first with the Queen, although that was pretty much a waste of time given that the dissolution of Parliament is an automatic process these days. Then Nick Clegg met with the Privy Council he chairs to carry out the necessary formality. When I say chairs, there actually aren’t any as the meetings are traditionally held with everyone standing to make them shorter. 

Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 10 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Nonconformistradical
    "As an aside, “Who will you be deporting, how many and to where?" Good question...
  • Carl Pierce
    I love this well written piece that captures the essence of all the arguments. We have to address the widening wealth gaps with relevant taxes and the loss of ...
  • expats
    @Roland 5th Nov '26 - 4:48pm..Err no, it actually needs fewer people; just that Westminster politicians are too scared to face the truth that they have been gro...
  • Peter Davies
    "It ticked all the boxes" Unfortunately, all American campaign speeches sound like the speech writer has taken the expression literally....
  • Graham Jeffs
    Apart from all that, the farce of unused permissions needs to addressed. Where are they? What types of property are they for? Let's have some transpare...