The exciting trip to Parliament was a reward for those students who won the Durham round of the Debating Matters competition earlier in the summer.

Anna Jamieson, Wynne Wu, Lucy Bowden and Cameron Passey received a variety of prizes, one of which was a visit to the House of Lords, organised by Baroness Fox who runs the Institute of Ideas. The visit to Parliament took place at the start of term. Unfortunately, Baroness Fox was unavailable at the time, so staff and students were given a private tour of the buildings by Lord Jackson of Peterborough, which was very informative. He explained much of the history of the building and the politics occurring within it. They also took in some of the history of Westminster Hall, the public galleries, the Central Lobby, St. Stephens Hall and other areas of the Palace of Westminster.

Students then had lunch in the Commons dining area, where they discussed various issues concerning Parliament; the Lords, the Commons, the election next year, the possibility of using a different building or renovating the present one in the near future, and whether the Lords should be democratically elected. Whilst in the dining area, they spotted a number of well-known politicians and journalists, and two of the group also had a chat with Jeremy Corbyn for several minutes. There was also a short amount of time afterwards to sightsee central London – places such as Downing Street, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery and Covent Garden before getting a train back to Durham. A thoroughly interesting day was had by all.