Reinventing the House Inside the Commons

This is the House of Commons as you've never seen it before.

BELL RINGS Wahey!

With unprecedented access,

we've been filming behind the scenes for a year.

That's where our laws are set. These are the people that we're run by.

-Division, clear the lobby!

-Clear the lobby!

It's been a year of high drama and nasty surprises.

While I was serving up the sticky toffee pudding and my custard,

a little mouse ran across.

In this episode, a storm blows through the Commons

and the Speaker runs into trouble.

It isn't possible to make an omelette without breaking eggs.

The ancient and crumbling palace is up for hire.

As you can see, it's a slightly more filling effect.

Fundamentally, we are a legislature.

We are not a hotel and catering outlet.

And with a general election looming,

battles erupt over what kind of Commons we really want.

It just confirms to me why politics needs a kick up the backside.

It's July 2014 and in the Commons, the old order is changing.

Outside the Chamber, staff line up to mark the end of an era.

At the end of the debate, our Clerk,

Sir Robert Rogers, will leave the Chamber for the last time.

Sir Robert is the Commons' top official, with an encyclopaedic

knowledge of how Parliament works, but he's decided to retire early.

I would imagine there'll be a few people at the back of the chair

just to see him safely into the Elysian fields of retirement.

One for the bath.

-HE CHUCKLES

-Fantastic.

He's worked here over 40 years, so he'll be very much missed

and it's sort of the end of a chapter.

There.

When I met Robert, he introduced himself to me

and he immediately said to me, "Would you like a Kir?"

And here was this larger-than-life character

offering me a glass of champagne and blackcurrant

and so I knew then that I'd come to work in the right place.

At his leaving party,

Sir Robert doesn't explain why he's decided to step down early.

When I go, I go.

I'm not going to speak to the man at the wheel

and I'm not going to spit on the deck.

Those shall be my watch words. Thank you.

APPLAUSE

On the very same night on the other side of the Commons,

a rather different party is taking place.

ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

I want to see those hands in the air!

The Commons' Speaker, John Bercow, is hosting a charity rock concert

with his colourful wife, Sally, in his grand grace-and-favour mansion.

It's customary for the Commons' Speaker to lay on a farewell event

for a departing Clerk.

It didn't happen this time.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And there have been persistent reports that

John Bercow has been at daggers drawn with Sir Robert Rogers.

BELL TOLLS

The Speaker is the only MP with a house in the Commons.

The job of Speaker goes back nearly seven centuries

and John Bercow is the first to have a young family here

and sees himself as a moderniser.

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

The son of a taxi driver, he's now the highest commoner in the land.

There is a tradition that the Speaker of the House of Commons

has a coat of arms.

My coat of arms is inevitably personal.

The ladder is intended to represent the concept of opportunity

and of social mobility.

I didn't have a huge number of advantages or any wealth to

propel me, I depended very much upon my own efforts and my own wits.

Although I revere the traditions and the past, I don't think

we should live in the past, and there is a lot that needs to change.

Speaker!

The Speaker's job is to preside over the Chamber,

choose who speaks and keep order.

He describes himself as a referee.

Be quiet. If you can't be quiet, get out.

The question will be heard.

What people think of it is neither here nor there.

Sit there, be quiet and if you can't do so, leave the Chamber,

we can manage without you.

He's hauled ministers into the Commons to answer a record

number of urgent questions from MPs.

I think he's being courageous

and I think he takes positions which are, you know,

a lot of other Speakers would never dream of granting an urgent

question, they would have said no automatically.

I think he's absolutely right.

"Bloody well get down here and answer that question."

HECKLING

-I don't know what they're paying him, Mr Speaker...

-Order!

-Order, order.

-But I haven't finished.

-Order.

LAUGHTER AND CHEERING

The Prime Minister has finished

and he can take it from me that he's finished.

LAUGHTER

But many MPs feel John Bercow is his own worst enemy

because of his unfortunate manner.

The outspoken Michael Fabricant

isn't alone in his view of the Speaker, who's a Marmite figure.

Some MPs strongly support him, others can't stand him.

I think John Bercow forgets that the House of Commons is not

the servant of the Speaker, the Speaker is the servant of the House.

Some of my critics say that I'm bumptious

and can be pompous from time to time and, look, none of us

is perfect and if people say that, there may well be truth in it.

Got to get to a rally of 20.

The tennis-mad Speaker has opened up the Commons

for a charity schools event.

The greatest sport ever invented.

And most of the time, players are more polite to each other

than my colleagues are to each other in the House.

But the battle to bring radical change to the Commons

will prove an epic contest.

Ah, he got it! He's got it!

The Commons was designed to impress foreigners

when it was rebuilt in Victorian times,

but many of its customs, quirks and pageantry

have even deeper roots, going back 850 years.

Its longest-serving member, Sir Peter Tapsell,

the Father of the House, has witnessed at first-hand

the Commons' struggle to come to terms with the modern age.

You know he's the principal doorkeeper?

-I do know he's the principal doorkeeper.

-A very important chap.

I'm the only Member of Parliament who predates him.

-I arrived just before him.

-When did you...?

-Well, you beat me.

-'64, was it?

-'59.

-'59, I beg your pardon.

No, I'm a relative newcomer, I'm '69.

The country really is very critical of the House of Commons,

very critical indeed.

I hear everywhere I go, in London and in my constituency,

I hear criticism, not just of the party leaders, but of all of us

and of the way the House of Commons conducts its business.

THUNDER RUMBLES

Above all, it was the expenses scandal in 2009

that had a major effect on the public's view of MPs.

It was absolutely toxic.

And I think, I really do, I think it was appalling and I think

it did vile, untold damage to Parliament and to an already...

a perception that was already not brilliant.

To keep MPs honest, there's a new, highly complex online

expenses claims system, which adds to their sense of being under siege.

You've got mileage, miscellaneous, monthly MP mileage -

why that's different from mileage, I've no idea.

Own vehicle - bicycle, own vehicle - bicycle dependant,

own vehicle - MOT cycle. What the hell does that mean?

We're living in an anti-politics age...

..where people, you know, resent MPs being paid at all.

SHOUTING

Public attitudes to MPs have been shaped by official TV coverage

of the Commons.

But our cameras have had unrestricted access

and shown behaviour to be even rougher than is normally seen.

HECKLING AND SHOUTING

Bankers, for a while, were quite useful because they made us

look a bit more popular, but I think actually, bankers, probably,

now are back ahead of us even with their massive bonuses, so it's

just estate agents at the moment who are keeping us off the bottom.

The Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie arrived in the Commons

as part of the new broom in 2010.

She was anxious to do things by the book.

I'd seen some MPs behave appallingly during the expenses scandal.

It's terrifying, you constantly have to be thinking,

"Have I ticked the right box? Have I done the right thing?"

But Charlotte Leslie failed to tick the right box.

She made a mistake when it came to registering donations

to her local party, which was later exposed.

I just felt like a cannonball had gone through my stomach.

It was really awful, it was everything that I had most dreaded.

I'm unspeakably sorry that despite all the efforts

I made as a new MP to get things right,

I have nevertheless made this very serious error

and I want to reiterate my heartfelt apologies to the House

and have sought the earliest possible opportunity to do so.

MURMURS OF AGREEMENT

Charlotte Leslie caught the mood of the House

and a committee of MPs cleared her of wrongdoing.

She's now concentrating on the job of trying to hold

the Government to account.

She's standing for election to chair the Health Select Committee.

Amongst the candidates are fellow Tories Phillip Lee

and Sarah Wollaston, who are both GPs.

There's three of us running who are the new intake of 2010,

and I suppose all of us come with a certain freshness.

She's now canvassing MPs to support her bid.

Select Committees are where MPs do some of their most important work,

scrutinising the Government,

and they've become more powerful in this Parliament

because the Committee Chair is now elected by their fellow MPs

rather than recommended by the party whips.

Hello. Yes, hello, good to see you.

-You said earlier you might sign a nomination form.

-Yes, I will.

-Would you?

-Absolutely.

-Oh, Bill, that's absolutely fantastic.

No doubts at all about that.

Dropping pens and everything.

-Off we go.

-Onwards. Thanks, Bill, thanks so much.

With a marginal seat and a general election looming,

she's had to make tough choices.

I had to really think about whether I was going

to have the time to do the job properly, whether I'd be

abandoning my seat, whether it's something I should be doing.

From his base in the splendour of the House of Commons Library,

Tory Zac Goldsmith is another newcomer from the 2010 intake.

He sees it as his job to shake Westminster up.

The son of the billionaire businessman Sir Jimmy Goldsmith,

he was expelled from Eton and is still refusing to play by the rules.

HE WHISPERS

In the wake of the expenses scandal,

Zac Goldsmith believes that MPs must be made more accountable by law.

The Government wants to introduce a bill that would allow MPs

who commit offences to be sacked between elections.

But Zac Goldsmith believes the bill is just window-dressing.

As an MP, I could join the BNP, I could go on holiday for two years,

I could refuse to come to Parliament,

refuse to talk to constituents,

I could do anything other than engage in serious financial wrongdoing -

that's the only area in which I would be tripped up.

And I think people would be appalled by that.

He wants to amend the bill so that, between elections,

the voters themselves will have the power to sack their MP.

It's quite hard to overturn a Government bill

if you're not the Government.

It's a long shot, but I think we'll pull it off.

MPs like Zac Goldsmith

and Charlotte Leslie are striving to shake up a political system

which they feel is out of date

and inadequate for the needs of the 21st-century electorate.

And they're doing it in a Victorian palace that's becoming

increasingly dysfunctional.

We've got mice crawling around the building,

plates of glass in some cases falling down,

we had effluent coming into one part of the building.

Yesterday I was down in the canteen ordering sticky toffee pudding.

While they were serving it up and my custard, a little mouse

ran across, and that's not unusual, you see mice all over this place.

The Lib Dem MP John Thurso has the job of trying to stop the rot.

He's a Scottish laird who's renovated some

of Britain's grandest hotels.

-It is SUCH a beautiful space, really, hidden away.

-Absolute gem.

-Yeah.

With the principal doorkeeper Robin Fell,

he's inspecting Cloister Court,

a rarely-seen 16th-century treasure at the heart of the Commons.

First class weeds.

THEY LAUGH

This is as close as you can get to how it was probably

the day it was built.

It's wonderful, it's scruffy, it's untouched, it's, er, worrying,

if you're responsible for repairing it.

It's a gem, to me.

You would never build anything like this now, would you?

But you wouldn't throw it away either.

So there it is, you can just... Oh, dear-oh-dear.

Ah! No, not going to touch any more, that's enough for today!

From dodgy drains, to vermin, to leaking roofs, the total restoration

and repair bill for Parliament could run to an eye-watering £3 billion.

Welcome, colleagues, as you will have seen...

John Thurso and his fellow members

of the House of Commons Commission,

along with the House of Lords, will have to work out exactly what

needs doing and what it will cost the taxpayer.

The Commons is looking for new ways to help earn its keep

by monetising its unique assets.

So it's been hiring out its historic rooms for parties

and weddings, and even as a film set.

THROUGH LOUD-HAILER: Action!

Good afternoon, banqueting and events?

I've got confirmation from the client.

Thank you.

David Purdue is a new recruit trying to pull in the punters.

Are you ready? Shall we go?

I'd worked in events before, briefly,

before that I was a dancer, so a slight change of career.

But you reach an age where you think,

"The knees are going slightly, so I should probably do something else."

Rooms in the old palace cost up to £9,000 to hire for the day.

This is probably more the "Commons-y" feel.

It's been used as the members' actual dining room.

I think it's always nice when you're bringing in external clients

to show them the full wow factor.

I was just talking, actually, about this ceiling,

this has just been finished.

They've actually put back the original design,

as you can see, it's a slightly more...

bling effect, if you will.

With the financial squeeze on,

the ancient palace is starting to adopt new management techniques.

There we are, Members' Lobby, quick look round.

Everything's as it should be, into the office.

After 40 years' service,

the principal doorkeeper Robin Fell has been told to modernise his ways.

Bit of nonsense I have to do now.

Have to record the time at which I come in and the time at which

I go home, because they, er...

Someone sat in an office somewhere has decided people might not

be working the number of hours they should.

I never see these people at quarter past seven in the morning

or 11 at night, but there we are. It's absolutely potty,

and all over Parliament, there's people doing the same thing,

and it's achieving absolutely nothing except upsetting everybody.

There's nothing that isn't being done,

but we have to do it because the bean counters seem to rule the world.

The hunt is on for a new Clerk to replace Sir Robert Rogers.

Whoever lands the job - which is

both chief adviser to the House on how laws are made

AND its chief executive - will shape the future of the Commons.

Traditionally, the job's been filled by an insider.

David Natzler is the Acting Clerk.

He's consulting their Bible - Erskine May.

'Tis the advice of a learned clerk at the time as to what he thought

the rules were, because there was no book that people could go to

and say, "What exactly are the rules and precedents?"

It is remarkable how often we have to turn back to old precedents,

which may seem dusty and ancient, but actually speak to us today.

Constitutional knowledge is only one part of the Chief Clerk's job.

John Bercow believes that the head of a modern parliament should

have hands-on management experience.

And the appointment panel he chairs has chosen an outsider.

Carol Mills is Director of Parliamentary Services

in Australia, but has no expertise in Commons procedure.

The decision sparks a mutiny among MPs.

When you try to undertake change, although you get support

in many quarters, there are people who tend to be resistant to it.

The whole appointment process basically stinks.

To have a totally unqualified person doing the job is ridiculous.

Organising the building's maintenance and the catering - however important

that may be - is entirely secondary to being a constitutional expert.

Early in September, MPs take sides, for and against the Speaker.

The appointment process for the next Clerk of this House

was seriously flawed.

The personal attacks on Mr Speaker have been unwarranted

and plain wrong.

Something seems to have gone badly wrong.

There are all sorts of personal, political, constitutional

and administrative questions wrapped up in this

seemingly innocent little dispute.

What I'm sure started out as a perfectly sane

and sensible exercise ended in a disaster.

You'd have thought the Second World War had started again.

Under pressure, the Speaker decides to press the pause

button on the appointment process.

In the generally successful history of the British Army,

some of the most celebrated actions, from Corunna to Gallipoli to

Dunkirk, have involved evacuations from hopeless positions.

LAUGHTER

Can I congratulate you on successful disengagement

from the opposition forces you've run across?

A new committee of MPs, to be chaired by Jack Straw,

is set up to untangle the mess of the appointment process,

leaving the Commons temporarily headless.

Although who is Clerk doesn't seem very important, it would

soon seem very important if the House of Commons simply ceased to function.

It's slightly like the nursery rhyme.

"For want of a nail, the shoe is lost.

"For want of a shoe, the horse is lost.

"For want of a horse, the rider is lost.

"For want of a rider, the battle is lost.

"For want of a battle, the kingdom is lost -

"all for the want of a horseshoe nail."

And the clerkship is to an extent the horseshoe nail.

But the Commons has been left without a Chief Clerk

just when it might need one most.

It could soon find itself in murky constitutional waters.

For centuries, it's represented the whole United Kingdom,

and it's woven into the fabric of the building.

The four patron saints are at each of the exits.

Saint George for England,

above the entrance to the House of Lords - why?

Because the English are obsessed with the class system

and getting on.

Saint Patrick for Ireland, above the exit - why?

It's obvious, the Irish just want to get out of the whole set-up.

Saint David for Wales,

above the entrance to the House of Commons - why?

Because the Welsh love the sound of their own voice,

whether it's speaking or singing.

And guess what?

Saint Andrew for Scotland, above the entrance to the hospitality area.

But now Scotland may be heading for the exit.

The referendum on independence is just a week away, and a surge

for the Yes vote in opinion polls has sent Westminster into a panic.

-I think I'm going to Glasgow, aren't I?

-Er, Dunfermline. No, Edinburgh.

Oh, am I? Good job I checked.

A Yes vote would mean the Commons losing 59 Scottish seats

and would put David Cameron's job on the line.

So the three main party leaders have scrambled north

to try to stem the tide.

William Hague is left holding the fort at Prime Minster's Questions.

I have been asked to reply on behalf of my right honourable friend

the Prime Minister.

From the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland,

we want you to stay in the United Kingdom.

-BACKBENCHERS:

-Hear, hear!

One of the MPs who's under threat is Labour's Thomas Docherty.

He's heading back to his Dunfermline constituency

to fight for a job that he only got in 2010.

If we lose the referendum,

then there'll be a strong argument made by many

that we need to have a snap general election,

in which case, I think my parliamentary career will be over

there and then.

Angus MacNeil is a Scottish National Party MP.

So, notifications... What's on the go?

He's working to do himself out of a job.

Twitter's a hive of creativity

and I think if the referendum is won, it'll be due to Twitter and Facebook.

People are disillusioned with Westminster,

and have been for a number of years, but Westminster usually has debates

and commissions and does nothing to change it. Right.

I'm off, Greg. Sorry.

Angus MacNeil joins the exodus to Scotland,

where the enthusiasm with which his fellow countrymen

are rushing to the polls has sent shock waves through Westminster.

David Natzler, the Acting Clerk,

is having to start thinking the unthinkable.

It is, of course, exciting - we'll be near the centre of things.

But would I like for it to be over,

and the results to be known? Yes, desperately.

-NEWS REPORT:

-'Scots are turning out in their millions

'to cast their votes in the historic referendum

'on whether or not to become independent of the UK.'

Because turnout is so incredibly high,

we can guess as to what we think their voting intentions

are likely to be on this,

but we don't know. This is a very, very nervous few hours.

There's a deathly hush in the House tonight.

MPs are back in their constituencies waiting for the result,

that's due in the middle of the night.

It can be a bit scary, a bit creepy.

Everywhere you look, there are faces staring down at you.

I'm sure some of the paintings, the eyes move.

In the high-security underground car park

beneath the Commons, which is free to Members,

only a few cars remain.

There used to be a Lamborghini down on the fifth floor

but that's gone now.

Like everyone tonight,

the duty engineer Gary Grace is keeping one eye on the job

and one eye on Scotland.

We get a couple of guys on the bridge here

who play their bagpipes

and they do get a good reception from most of the tourists.

So, I don't know whether we'll get more coming down

or they'll all want to go there

and play their bagpipes there, if they get independence.

The first news from Scotland is of a remarkably high turnout,

evidence that not everyone in the kingdom is disengaged from politics.

I want to get the result!

The total number of votes cast is as follows...

It's the morning of 19th September,

and the Union is safe...for now.

I got up early in the morning

to make myself a cup of coffee

and just be quietly pleased

and relieved, very relieved,

that we were not presiding over the break-up of the United Kingdom.

Is the porridge still on the go?

We're back after the second-best result in the referendum,

so we have to make the best of it.

I hope I don't sound too bitter.

For the team of Commons clerks,

there's no immediate constitutional crisis.

But they know that the genie can't be put back in the whisky bottle.

I'm not sure if people were expecting the No vote to be the last word.

We can't just pretend things are ever going to be

the same as if this had never taken place at all,

and nor, I imagine, does anybody want to pretend that.

The tectonic plates of politics are moving in a way

which nobody could possibly understand -

what is this going to mean for the Union?

For Scotland? What will it mean... English votes for English laws?

How is all that going to fit into a new Parliament?

I mean, I just don't know.

With the Parliament of this still-United Kingdom in recess,

a grim new challenge for the Government has emerged.

The rise of Islamic State.

The House is recalled for an emergency vote

on whether Britain should join American airstrikes

in Northern Iraq.

It means I've got to ring a lot of people up

who thought they were on holiday, and I've got to break the sad news

that they're going to spend the day in Westminster.

"No problems, boss. Ready and willing. I'll await your call."

Wherever they are, MPs have to drop everything.

I'm just hoping I've packed all the right clothes.

Posh stuff for London,

my parliamentary pass.

Shoes are always in the wrong place. Always got the wrong shoes.

Massive week for Parliament.

Not exactly what the public imagines

our so-called holiday looks like.

Quite a heavy thing, really, that we're voting on.

There will be everybody in the world wanting to speak.

There are more senior people than me

who will no doubt pull rank, get called first.

It feels very significant, and voting to go to war

is something that you always hope you'll never have to do.

Mr Speaker, there is no more serious an issue

than asking our Armed Forces to put themselves in harm's way

to protect our country.

Protecting our national interest, security

and the values for which we stand

is why I will be supporting the motion this afternoon.

-MPs:

-Hear, hear!

For a change, the crowded Commons doesn't resemble a bear pit

and dissenters are given a respectful hearing.

Extremism will spread further and deeper.

The people outside can see it,

but the fools in here, who draw a big salary

and big expenses, cannot!

MPS SHOUT OUT

The question is the motion on Iraq.

As many as are of that opinion say aye.

MPS SHOUT OUT

On the contrary - no. MPS SHOUT OUT

Division, clear the Lobby.

The House votes by an overwhelming majority...

for military action.

It's kind of the House of Commons at its best -

when everybody does really listen to the debate

and is principally voting according to their conscience,

rather than just, you know, rushing in, voting on a party whip, for once.

It's been a tumultuous few weeks in Westminster.

The remarkably high turnout in the Scottish referendum

has been a wake-up call for Parliament,

showing MPs that they need to think harder about

how to win the trust of the people.

But Sonny Yanou and Mick King are

still able to carry out the same task

they've regularly completed since the Millennium.

I think it's THE best flag in the world -

all the different colours in the nation

and I don't think there's another flag in the world

that could touch it.

OK, Sonny.

Their job is to swap Parliament's huge summer flag,

the width of a tennis court, for a smaller winter one,

but a rising storm blows them off course.

Keep it coming.

No, pull it up, Sonny. Pull it up.

It's got stuck. I don't believe this.

All right. Do you want to do that, Sonny?

It's the kind of flag that flew over

the freedom of democracy all over the world.

Where you find democracy, you find the Union flag.

The Commons may have weathered the immediate storms...

..but opinion polls show the public remain disillusioned

with what they see as

an out-of-touch Westminster political class.

If you're in politics, it's because you think you understand

the way your electorate thinks.

I don't know if that's true any more

and I think a lot of us are scratching our heads

and wondering what on earth is happening out there.

The Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith

believes one answer is to give voters the power to sack

or recall their MPs at any time,

not just at an election.

Parliament has not been doing its job for a very long time.

People deserve the right to have a referendum

on whether or not their MP should stay or go.

He wants to make amendments to the Government's proposed Recall Bill,

which allows MPs to be dismissed for serious wrongdoing,

as judged by the House's own Standards Committee or a court.

OK.

Zac Goldsmith thinks the bill is toothless

and he's brought together a mixed bag of MPs from across the parties

to make his case.

What the Government is proposing is, effectively, all power

to parliamentarians.

People out there, at the very first scandal,

will realise that they haven't been given any recall powers at all.

So the question is, are we, as a committee,

willing to create the real thing? My view is, it's all or nothing.

We either do this properly or we don't do it at all.

The Goldsmith team will have an uphill struggle.

Many MPs feel his proposals would give power to outside lobbying

and business interests, and make it impossible

for MPs to take tough and unpopular stances.

There has never been so much nonsense

as the idea of recall,

and what we've lost in this place

is people who stand up for principle

and have a difficult moment

but say, "That's what I believe in, follow me,"

then they stand again at the next election.

Everything Zac wants to do would destroy

the principle of a good parliament.

The argument about recall is happening at a time when MPs

are engaged in a larger debate -

about how the House of Commons should be run.

What do you think are the most important attributes...

The committee set up in the wake of the row over the appointment

of a successor to Sir Robert Rogers is now considering whether

any one person can continue to combine the jobs of

scholarly constitutionalist and modern-day chief executive.

There's a great deal of interest

amongst MPs as to how our own institution is run,

and also concern that it is run properly.

One big question is how far the Commons should aim to help

pay its own way in the future.

Some MPs are concerned that staging corporate events

could interfere with the Commons' primary role.

OK. This evening, ladies and gentlemen,

we have a reception for 150 people.

I would like everybody outside with a drinkie on a tray

at 6.50 to welcome them here, please.

Let's go and get on with it, then, guys, OK? Thank you.

Oliya Owens of the events team

is in charge of hiring out rooms for functions.

Let's go and have a look and then you will see...

She's taking a prospective client to see a room in the Old Palace.

Oh, no, they're inside.

A room was available, it was empty,

and the Members of Parliament just walked in

and decided to have their boardroom-style meeting in there.

So now we are allowed only to have a sneaky peek, I'm afraid.

If a room is double booked for a bill committee deciding

legislation and a shindig by a private company, it is

quite obvious that legislation must take priority.

Good afternoon, this is David,

calling from the events team in the Commons.

The pressure of corporate events adds to what was already

a cramped working environment.

As well as booking in outside clients,

the events team also has to bump MPs from room to room

as formal committee meetings must have priority.

Unfortunately, the shuffle has taken place for next week.

One of Ms May's meetings has been bumped.

-The next one on my list is Theresa May again.

-No!

Now I have got another one for her. Oh!

Hi, I just previously left you a message because I have had to

shuffle one of Ms May's meetings for next Wednesday.

Unfortunately, I have a second meeting on the list.

I had to jig the times a little bit and I don't know

if they will be of any use to you.

Thank you for that.

Bye-bye.

Last week I had a meeting that had to be bumped three times successively.

I had to call them and tell them it was moved again!

Seriously, it makes you so unpopular.

With space at a premium, one grand committee room is being

converted into a makeshift polling station.

It is the election for the head of the Health Select Committee,

with the Deputy Serjeant-at-Arms on hand to keep things orderly.

Whenever we have elections, we have a serjeant here overseeing

the proceedings, to make sure that things

are going as they should be.

Charlotte Leslie has made it on to the ballot,

along with four other candidates.

If you have asked people to vote for you,

it feels right to be there at the time.

It feels very odd standing outside, loitering.

You feel somewhere between a bouncer and, I don't know,

it feels a bit strange.

Health is one of the select committees which, by agreement

between the main parties, will have a Tory in the chair.

I am the one that needs the health care!

But MPs of all parties across the house,

from ministers to backbenchers,

get to vote.

-Percy.

-Yeah.

It means that independent-minded candidates are likely

to have a better chance,

as they may attract votes from across the political divide.

For some, it is

an alternative career path to the ministerial ladder.

The allure, for me at least,

is that it just gives you more tools to change stuff and do things.

OK, it is one o'clock. I think we are done.

As MPs gather in the Chamber to hear the result,

Charlotte Leslie waits with her friend and rival, Sarah Wollaston.

Order. I will now announce the result of the ballot held today.

Sarah Wollaston was elected chair, with 226 votes.

Charlotte Leslie, a latecomer to the contest, finishes last but one.

If I didn't have such a marginal seat

and I was able to spend more time in this place and less

time in the constituency, perhaps I would have gone for it immediately

and it would have been a completely different state of affairs.

Politics is a game where, famously, you always lose.

Zac Goldsmith, whose father loved a gamble,

is also playing for high stakes.

It is two weeks before the Government's Recall Bill

comes before the House.

He is canvassing support, both in and outside Parliament,

for amendments to give the bill more teeth.

Sounds like a very brainy idea.

It's a very simple idea, that's the beauty of it,

-it happens all over the world.

-Does it happen all over the world?

Half the states in America.

-Schwarzenegger got in on the back of reading it.

-Total Recall.

-Total Recall.

-Is anybody arguing against you?

-The Lib Dems are hostile.

-The Lib Dems are totally on your side...

Zac Goldsmith wants to get as many signatures as possible

in support of his amendments.

Andrew Mitchell has signed the amendments, so that is good news.

But as the big day draws closer,

he finds some of his supporters are having second thoughts.

This is bizarre, OK? I have got an e-mail here just come in.

He signed off on the bill, along with everyone else on the committee.

The amendments are an exact reflection of what was

agreed in that bill and he sent me an e-mail saying,

"Please do not add my name."

The only possible explanation for that is that he has been whipped.

But what is the point of being an MP,

spending time working towards something you believe in,

only to yield for opportunistic reasons at the last?

It's just extraordinary.

Zac Goldsmith fears that behind the scenes, the whips, whose prime

job is enforcing party discipline, are nobbling his supporters.

Let's be blunt, the whips hate this.

The whips, in all three parties, don't want this to happen. Why?

Because the Executive will no longer be able to control Parliament as its

trusty little poodle and they will do whatever they can to quash it.

-SPEAKER:

-Order. The question is that the bill be now read a second time.

As many as are of that opinion, say aye.

MPs: Aye!

At what's called the second reading of the Government's Recall Bill,

Zac Goldsmith hands his rebel amendments to the clerks.

He now has a week to muster the support he needs

for his version of recall, before the big vote on his amendments.

It's a long shot. We are asking for something quite radical,

am I going to get this thing through Parliament?

I just don't know.

While Zac Goldsmith tries to shake up the Commons, there is

another threat to business as usual.

Right beneath the feet of MPs.

The labyrinth of antique plumbing

and wiring under the Chamber was christened

the "cathedral of horrors" by the ex-Commons Clerk, Sir Robert Rogers.

The cables and piping are in desperate need of replacing.

But it is hard to do while the Chamber is sitting.

The Chamber is directly above us and they do not tolerate noise.

The noises, the strange and unusual noises,

were due to some kind of building works.

I have made the House's displeasure known

to those who look after facilities.

These guys have got the difficult task of carrying out

a job of work silently.

You can hear the banging and crashing now.

The Lib Dem John Thurso,

one of the senior MPs responsible for the upkeep of the House,

has joined Philip Sturgeon to see what life is like below stairs.

What is extraordinary is that for most of my colleagues up there,

they haven't the slightest idea that this is down here.

I keep waiting for somebody to shout, "Abandon ship!"

Yes, that's right.

We're on our last legs with some of this, we're already at our limit.

It wouldn't be so good if the Prime Minister was talking to the

Kremlin or something and down here you went snip.

"Oh, where's he gone?"

Just to go and look at it, it really does bring it all home.

There is an immense amount of work that needs to be done.

I would find it very difficult to see how you could do

that in a cost-effective way without being able to shut it down, frankly.

The sheer scale of the work means that the Commons

and the Lords might have to do the unimaginable and move

out of the Palace of Westminster altogether while it is completed.

If we are to avoid literally sinking into the mud, very important

and potentially expensive decisions will have to be made.

There may come a point where we have to bite the bullet

and move out temporarily.

But I... I... It would break my heart

if the Parliament moved out of this building permanently.

Monday 27th October and it is crunch time for Zac Goldsmith.

MPs will finally vote on his radical plan to make it

possible for constituents to sack unpopular MPs between elections.

It's been declared a free vote,

meaning that MPs can vote with their conscience.

But Zac Goldsmith has heard reports that whips on both

sides are urging their MPs to vote against him.

It makes an absolute mockery of the very concept of a free vote.

For me, I think it is...

It just confirms to me why politics needs a kick up the backside.

The Labour frontbencher Thomas Docherty

will lead tonight's debate for his party.

He supports the idea of recall but he feels Zac Goldsmith's proposals

go too far and he has tabled his own amendments to the government bill.

The danger with the Zac position is that well-funded

vested interest groups could then start challenging individual MPs on

individual issues and that, I think, leads to actually weaker democracy.

So my job from the front bench today is to joust with Zac,

set out the Labour position and then, in effect, put

Zac's argument to the sword.

But as he prepares to duel with Zac, Thomas Docherty has got

a chink in his own armour.

I have a... I have a nervous stammer which I have kind of worked over

the years to try and control.

It is something I have had to work at since I was nine or 10.

I have to avoid starting a sentence with a vowel.

This is a good example. It says,

"The amendments tabled by the honourable member

"for Richmond Park and others,

"and the honourable member for Somerton and Frome and others."

Straightaway, there are about seven vowels in that.

"Honourable" gets me going sometimes.

It's an impediment, but you just have to try and manage it.

If you stumble over it, then the House is pretty forgiving.

Provided you have not been a complete prat at other times.

It's 4.30pm and MPs are making their way to the Chamber.

Recall of MPs Bill, Committee.

The ceremonial mace is lowered to show that the whole House is

now meeting as a committee,

something that happens for the most contentious bills.

This is a big, interesting debate. This is good.

This is democracy, in the home of democracy, discussing the future.

Zac Goldsmith.

SHOUTING

What is at stake now is a matter of principle.

Do we trust our voters to hold us to account or not?

I fear that if we play games, voters will see through it

and will begin seeking more drastic solutions sooner or later.

Zac Goldsmith is soon facing objections from all

sides of the House.

He needs to differentiate between misconduct and wrongdoing

and policy.

I would be looking for his assurance that his amendments could not

be used to blackmail Members of Parliament.

The problem with his amendment

is that it works against decent government.

The Labour front bench is clear.

These amendments, however well-intentioned,

do open the door to abuse.

After five hours, the Speaker's deputy brings the debate to a close.

As many as are of that opinion, say aye.

-MPS:

-Aye!

-On the contrary, no.

-MPS:

-No!

Division. Clear the lobby.

Those MPs who want to highlight their abstention

can vote in both lobbies.

This is the problem. Sometimes a yes and a no

isn't subtle enough for what we need to say.

I also put trainers on because I knew

I had to run between one lobby and the other and I was a bit anxious.

-SHE LAUGHS

-See you!

Order! Order!

Zac Goldsmith's campaign now depends on MPs voting aye.

The ayes to the right were 166.

The noes to the left were 340.

Hear, hear!

The noes have it.

The noes have it!

Zac Goldsmith has failed in his ambition

to make MPs more accountable to voters.

I was depressed by some of the things that were said, and I felt

at that time that this place really, really dramatically needs to change.

7am on Saturday the 29th of November

and the House of Commons gets its biggest delivery of the year.

Three Christmas trees from Keilder Forest in Northumberland.

Oh, we can really flood it with lights.

The biggest is a 38 feet long beast

to stand in the middle of New Palace Yard.

Just went through to bring the star up,

but shall we check the size of the hole?

Supervising the job is Terry Cole.

They all go up today.

It's traditionally the last weekend in every November for Christmas,

and we take it down before the Twelfth Night

because we can't be unlucky.

Terry Cole has assembled a team of craftsmen from across the Commons,

from clockmakers to engineers, who give up their Saturday

to decorate the tree.

-You got the Sellotape, have you?

-Yeah.

Yeah, it's a good all-round tree. It is a nice tree.

It is good. Everybody enjoys it.

When this goes up, Christmas has started.

# Go tell it on the mountain... #

In Speaker's House, John Bercow has invited a gospel choir

for a carol concert.

# Go tell it on the mountain

# Over the hills and everywhere... #

Four months after the Speaker came under pressure

over the appointment of a new Clerk,

the committee set up to look into the issue

is about to deliver its verdict.

When the report is published,

it effectively vetoes the appointment of Carol Mills,

the Australian Parliamentary Services Director,

who the press has labelled the Canberra Caterer.

Instead, it recommends that the role be split.

There will still be a Chief Clerk, who's a constitutional expert,

and a more junior Director General of Commons Services.

Fundamentally, we are a legislature.

We are not a hotel and catering outlet,

of however grand a kind. Put the Savoy to shame.

There will be people who will say, and probably do say,

"Oh, well, the Speaker lost on the subject of Carol Mills."

Well, that is undeniable. That's a fact.

She has not been appointed.

So, of course, it was an uncomfortable

and a difficult period and it was a period of some turbulence,

but what seems to me to be important

is what resulted from the review and investigation process.

And what resulted from the review and investigation process

was a judgment that the House management needed to change.

It's Wednesday the 3rd of December,

the last political set piece of the year -

the Autumn Statement, which follows Prime Minister's Questions.

With the election just months away, party rivalries are heightened,

and there's a scramble for ringside seats.

This is the last really big shop window for the Government.

I think it's likely to be quite rowdy.

And maybe badly behaved.

There's always a little frisson to discover

whether in fact the Chancellor, or the Chief Secretary in my case,

have been listening to what we've got to say.

Because my name is particularly long,

I just put "Fab".

Everyone in the House is acutely aware

that an election is only a few months away.

MPs change.

I once heard someone say that the MPs are like the oil in the engine.

It has to be changed regularly.

But Members probably wouldn't like me to say that.

In my seat, I think

one poll had it coming down to 70 votes or something like that.

I mean, it's really, ridiculously tight.

And I begin to get butterflies thinking about it now.

The tension is rising and you can feel people just a bit more...

you know, politically on edge, as it were.

I think all of us know we're mortal in political terms.

There's one MP who definitely won't be here in six months' time.

After 55 years in the House, I won't be standing again in May.

I'll be 85 in February.

And I think that's long enough.

I shall continue to live in my constituency where I have,

and I bought graves for myself and my wife next to my house,

in Lincolnshire. So I shall be there to haunt them after my death.

Today will see a torrid clash between the Prime Minister...

Morning.

..and Ed Balls, Labour's Shadow Chancellor,

whom Cameron describes as the most annoying man in British politics.

But I would like to highlight something the Shadow Chancellor

said this week. He said that he would be tough on the deficit,

and tough on the causes of the deficit.

As he is one of the causes of the deficit, I think

we've just found the first-ever example of political masosadism.

JEERING

-WOMAN:

-Sadomasochism!

Order! We all know what the Prime Minister meant.

If I'm honest with you, I wasn't quite sure what it meant.

So I'm thinking, "What is a maso...sadist?

"Did he really mean sadomasochist?" And then a text arrived on my phone

to say that the definition of a masosadist is someone who, erm...

likes to have pain inflicted upon themselves

and inflict pain on others.

We know the Chancellor's views on the first, Mr Speaker.

CHEERING

It rather seems, from the way he smiled

when he announced the tax credits cuts,

he's rather enjoying the second as well, Mr Speaker.

The overcrowded Commons relapses into its default setting

of Punch and Judy politics.

CHEERING AND SHOUTING

In a chamber that was specifically built to encourage confrontation,

tribal aggression is hardly surprising.

SHOUTING

Order, order! Order!

Order!

There is far too much noise in the Chamber.

Behave, or get out, man!

Churchill said of the Commons,

"We shape our buildings and they shape us."

But some MPs believe their colleagues

are now such repeat offenders in the Chamber,

that only a move out of their mock-Gothic fantasy palace

will change the way our democracy works.

This, to me, is just a high Victorian pastiche

of what they think power is.

So, I mean, I'd have it for weddings, conferences and a museum

and have something that's much more representative of who we are now.

Really good architecture.

When people say, "Rebuild it!

"Have a semi-circular chamber." I would hate that.

I like the House of Commons looking like it does.

And I think the sense of history

and the connection to the past is very important.

There are lots of things that need to change in our political system,

but I think this idea that if only we called each other

Dave and Fred rather than the honourable member for this,

then everything would be OK in British politics -

I think that's a fiction.

Two weeks after his big set piece in the Commons,

the Shadow Chancellor seems to have mysteriously disappeared.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas!

'Many people would see you as an unlikely Father Christmas.'

Would they?! Well, I mean, possibly,

because if you want to be the Chancellor,

you oughtn't to be giving out presents. That might be right.

MUSIC: Live While We're Young by One Direction

I must say, I think Father Christmas is very good.

We're very lucky that he's popped into the House of Commons.

Come the 26th of December, he'll have given away everything.

There'll be nothing left. The cupboard will be bare.

Don't forget to leave me a carrot for my reindeer.

And a small glass of sherry or cup of tea.

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!

It's the dying minutes of 2014.

And the eyes of the world are on Westminster.

At the top of Big Ben,

the Commons' clock keepers are finessing the ancient mechanism

so it will strike at the exact second the New Year starts.

ALL: Four! Three! Two!

BELL TOLLS

Spot on!

The Commons enters 2015 with the old political certainties in flux

and with MPs facing the most unpredictable election

of modern times.

Those who are standing again are hoping to return to what is

perhaps the most magnificent and maddening institution in Britain.

One enduring figure who personifies our ancient Parliament

and its ways is the Principal Doorkeeper, Robin Fell.

But as the House of Commons embarks on a new chapter,

a door is closing on its past.

This time next year, I will be retiring.

So I've got one more year to do. Hopefully, I'll survive it.

Everyone's gone. There's no Members left on the benches.

Everything's put away. It's almost as if there's never been anybody here.

I'm going to drive home and I'm going to collapse in a chair

and I shall probably pour myself a glass of sloe gin.

There we are. Parliament to bed.

Are you interested in finding out more about the topics

raised in this series?

Then go to bbc.co.uk/insidethecommons,

and follow the links to the Open University,

where you can watch topical round-table discussions,

and get an insight into the making of the series.