The quiz returns in its usual weekend slot in order to give readers time to submit answers. The focus is on the Queen’s Speech. The first reader to provide the correct answers will be the winner. The prize will be a copy of The Voice of the Backbenchers, unless the winner is Jonathan, who won a copy in the last quiz, in which case it will be another of my recent publications.
1. During the Queen’s Speech, which body of people sit immediately in front of the Queen?
2. Following the Queen’s Speech, the House of Lords meets at 3.00 p.m. and passes certain sessional orders, appoints office-holders such as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Committees, and symbolically gives a first reading to a Bill. What is the title of the Bill?
3. The House then moves to a motion for an Humble Address to the Queen. The motion is moved and seconded by members drawn from which benches? What is traditionally the difference between the mover and the seconder?
4. This year’s Queen’s Speech will be debated over four days. On which day will constitutional issues be covered?
5. Who was the peer who, in moving the motion for the Address one year, recounted the occasion when she was offered a peerage. When her husband got home, she told him to sit down as she had some important news to impart. ‘Oh, you’ve not had an affair have you?’ he asked. ‘Oh no’, she replied, ‘it’s much worse than that.’
1. Judges
2. Select Vestries Bill
3. Long-serving member proposes and newer/rising star seconds
4. The fourth day (the 11th May)
5. Baroness Turner
1. High court judges, they sit on the woolsack
2. Select Vestries Bill
3. They are backbenchers from the government party or parties, the second one being a newcomer
4. Fourth day
5. Baroness Turner of Camden, in 2002
I only spotted the quiz late in the day today. There goes my plan to have a early night!
1. During the Queen’s Speech, which body of people sit immediately in front of the Queen?
a. Recently the Supreme Court Justices
2. Following the Queen’s Speech, the House of Lords meets at 3.00 p.m. and passes certain sessional orders, appoints office-holders such as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Committees, and symbolically gives a first reading to a Bill. What is the title of the Bill?
a. Select Vestries Bill
3. The House then moves to a motion for an Humble Address to the Queen. The motion is moved and seconded by members drawn from which benches? What is traditionally the difference between the mover and the seconder?
a. The government back benches
b. The mover is usually senior to the seconder
4. This year’s Queen’s Speech will be debated over four days. On which day will constitutional issues be covered?
a. Recent precedent would seem to indicate the fourth day
5. Who was the peer who, in moving the motion for the Address one year, recounted the occasion when she was offered a peerage. When her husband got home, she told him to sit down as she had some important news to impart. ‘Oh, you’ve not had an affair have you?’ he asked. ’Oh no’, she replied, ‘it’s much worse than that.’
a. Baroness Turner of Camden
1. Senior judges
2. Select Vestries Bill
3. Government benches (Government backbenchers) Mover is traditionally an older, long-serving peer (they often begin by joking that they must now be an “old codger” or similar) Seconder is usually a younger, more recent entrant to the House and tipped as a “rising star.”
4. Day 4 (Wednesday 11 June)
5. Baroness Turner
A rose by any other name . . .??
http://supremecourt.uk/about/biographies-of-the-justices.html
There will also be a special prize for the first peer on here to complain about the Lords always being depicted in their robes, in the newspapers (despite the fact that they could move to do away with the use of them, altogether).
Matt: There’s a good chance the winner will be me!
Congratulations to JH who got in minutes ahead of Jonathan. Both, along with MWH, provided the correct answers. franksummers3ba came in with four correct answers, but got caught out by the first. Supreme Court Justices sit in front of the Queen, but not immediately in front. High Court judges sit on the woolsack in front of the Queen. The giveaway is that they are wearing wigs. Justices of the Supreme Court do not wear wigs. The other answers are indeed the Select Vestries Bill, a senior government backbencher and a junior one (MWH provides an excellent description) and Baroness Turner of Camden. If JH would like to get in touch, the prize will be despatched to him.