BUCSIS trip to the House of Lords

Lord Young of Cookham: “The Conservative Party Today: Britain, Europe and the World”

On Thursday 5 May 2016 the students and staff of the Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS) were kindly invited to visit the Houses of Parliament by Lord Young of Cookham as part of BUCSIS’s series of Prebend House talks.

For many of the students, 19 in total, this was their first visit to Parliament, for both home and international students. Our group watched from the public gallery in the House of Lords for over an hour with issues including the junior doctors’ strike, High Speed Rail Two, and social care for the elderly all being debated. Our group was then given a talk by Lord Young on the state of politics in Britain, the EU referendum, Britain’s role in the world, and about the House of Lords, of which many fall into the realm of intelligence, security and diplomacy. Lord Young’s talk was then followed by a question and answer session in which BUCSIS students were able to ask Lord Young his views on a range on further topics and also express their own views.

Afterwards, our group was to watch a debate in the House of Commons but due to it being an important election day, the House had finished debating for the day, but instead the staff of the Speaker of the House of Commons gave a tour of the chamber itself enabling students to stand in the positions of power in Britain and get a real feel for British politics first hand.

The trip was hugely successful with all of the students remarking about what a great and successful trip it had been.