The Cholmondeley Room (pronounced Chumly) and Terrace are the largest reception rooms in the Lords for hosting a party. On a beautiful summer evening 250 people or so can gather on the rooms overlooking the river side and enjoy the glorious views.25 years ago I used to lecture to young doctors in a seminar room at St Thomas’ Hospital directly opposite, timing my lectures to Big Ben. I often used to see folk gathering on the parliamentary terrace and wonder what was afoot. It’s one of the great privileges of being in the Lords that we can host receptions for charitable organisations we are associated with or simply because we like their cause . Well there was no drifting about on the terrace yesterday evening, the weather was dreadful but we did have a cracking good party.
I hosted the fund-raising launch of the new UK branch of the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC-UK)(
http://www.mdac.info/), a Budapest based organisation advancing the human rights of children and adults with actual or perceived intellectual or mental health disabilities. Focusing on Europe and central Asia, they use a combination of law and advocacy to promote equality and social integration. Already there have been notable successes.
MDAC staff presented on their human rights work, with a focus on Bulgaria, a country on which MDAC-UK has chosen to focus their fundraising efforts in the first instance. Disabled children in Bulgaria today often live in the kind of inhumane appalling conditions we got used to seeing in Romanian orphanages in the early 90s. The guest of honour was comedian and former mental health nurse Jo Brand, who gave a moving and at times hilarious speech. The event finished with Chair of the MDAC-UK Trustees barrister Jeannie Mackie asking people to dig deep into their pockets, even in the current financial crisis.
Around 250 people attended the event. They came mainly from the legal and medical professions, as well as from commerce, the media, and trusts and foundations. The event was paid for entirely by personal donations from MDAC-UK Trustees. Let’s hope the truly distressing state of many Bulgarian institutions moves some pockets as well as hearts.
As always Baroness you serve us well by giving greater awareness to mental health issues. The MDAC-UK web page by the way has no content. The Lords also has extensive other facilities that peers may avail themselves of for little or no cost.
Such venues might also be an opportunity to lobby peers on issues in the hope that they might go on to give political awareness to their cause and further their interests. One such occasion has been Baroness Symons, a former Labour minister and a director of British Airways, use of private dining facilities.
However, it is not just the Lords that should promote refurbished rooms perhaps the Tower of London is somewhere that needs attention too; a place of quiet contemplation and sanity such that members of the firm might enjoy whilst they consider how their terms of endearment give political comfort to those who fight our troops abroad.
Given this is a computer based medium artificial intelligence is something upcoming in terms of research. I would like to see a machine give help to Parliament when it creates and scrutinises legislation by searching out relevant information intelligently.
An AI’s interpretation of artificial intelligence is to declare such as a ‘Blind Idiot’. There are other examples too concerning language translation. If an AI were to have a nervous breakdown how would we treat it?
The challenges on mental health await new frontiers whilst the foibles of existing language often lead us to challenge our very own perception of reality.
Ref: Peers let firms into Lords to live it up
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3559288.ece
Chapter 7: Facilities for Staff
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldhandbk/hdbk10.htm
Examples
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlindIdiotTranslation
Baroness Murphy, I wish you well as you continue your hard work.
I did have a look at the aims of this charity on the Charities Commission site and it seemed more of a lobby group than a charity in the accepted sense. Please accept I’m in no way undermining their aims although it is true that I have a blinkered view of what charitable status should mean.
I apologise if this seems churlish, given the matter in hand. You may remember I have more than a passing interest in such matters and if this organisation can help change the dreadful conditions then good on you.
Senex, ladytizzy, I should have been more specific about what MDAC does as they have a lot of cases fought and some won. Try http://mdac.info/en/impact. I am impressed with their energy and outcomes
Senex, you are right that the Lords facilities can be used by peers who have particula interests in the independent sector too. We are obliged to sign a declaration that we have no pecuniary interest in the event before booking the reception rooms but of course no doubt much private business is conducted in the dining rooms without anyone asking. The dining guest rooms are not subsidised, they charge the going rate for a London restaurant in the same class. But those of us who don’t have private business of this kind use the dining rooms to entertain people from Vol Orgs and the public sector we are associated with. It’s one of the things our daily allowance is for. It gets more of the public into the Lords to share at least part of the beauty of the buildings.