Tag Archives: uk parliament

Harmony in politics

By Lord William Wallace | Tue 17th December 2024 - 4:50 pm

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if politicians from different parties sang, in harmony, from the same hymn sheet? That may seem like a Christmas thought but a workday impossibility.

Well, some of the time some of us do. 20 years ago, a Labour peer who knew how many of us were singers but found that the parliamentary timetable prevented us from being in the same church or hall at the same rehearsal time each week suggested that we form a choir within the Parliament estate. I was sceptical of the idea, but turned up in the crypt chapel just off Westminster Hall for the rehearsal, and have been singing with it ever since.

There are many good voices among the several thousand people working in and around Parliament. After all, one of the basic skills shared by singers and politicians is the confidence to stand up before an audience and project your voice. David Lammy, like me, was a boy chorister (he in Peterborough Cathedral, me at Westminster Abbey). Bernard Jenkin almost became a professional singer; his sister did become a professional, and has been a soloist with Parliament Choir concerts. Sarah Teather, who sang with the choir when a Liberal Democrat MP, was a wonderful soprano; she also sang solos for us.