LONDON — The gloves — actually, the ties — came off for lawmakers in Britain`s Parliament this week as the country`s summer of sartorial convention-breaking extended to a narrow length of material worn under the collar and fastened in front.
John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons, decided Thursday that it was not completely essential, despite tradition and etiquette, for male parliamentarians to wear a neck tie while in the chamber of Britain`s lower house of Parliament.
"It seems to me that as long as a member arrives in the House in what might be thought to be business-like attire, the question of whether that member is wearing a tie is not absolutely front and center stage," Bercow said, appearing to advocate for what office workers everywhere will recognize as — radical in this context — "business casual."
Bercow added that female lawmakers could chose to wear ties, or not. He himself was wearing a band of purple decorative fabric around his neck, with patterns, when he delivered the latest bombshell to upend Britain`s tradition-bound fashion sensibility.
Last week, the queen wore a simple hat instead of her crown while delivering a speech to lawmakers from a gilded throne in the House of Lords for her annual Queen`s Speech, an address that sets out the government`s two-year legislative priorities.
She also arrived at Parliament in a car, rather than a horse-drawn carriage, and delivered the speech in everyday dress, instead of the her royal robes.
The official explanation for the queen`s scaled-back pageantry was that the royal household had insufficient time to rehearse for the ceremony because of an earlier commitment — Trooping the Colour, the annual celebration of the queen`s birthday that had taken place the weekend before. But the speech also took place against the backdrop of a disappointing election result for Prime Minister Theresa May, several terrorist attacks that stretched security services and a deadly high-rise fire in London.
That same week, a group of teenage boys at a school in Exeter, in southwest England, showed up for classes wearing skirts. The move was in protest over a school-uniform ban on them wearing shorts despite Britain basking in unseasonably hot weather of up to 94 degrees.
The dress code at Isca Academy in Exeter required boys to wear long pants rain or shine. Eventually, it relented on the shorts and went even further. "Students have also been allowed not to wear ties, to have the top button on their shirts undone, and to wear their shirts untucked if they are feeling very hot," the school said in a statement.
Thursday`s parliamentary tie issue unraveled because Peter Bone, a politician from May`s ruling Conservative Party, questioned why Tom Brake, a lawmaker from the opposition Liberal Democrats Party was allowed to ask a question in the chamber while tieless. Bone is a tie enthusiast and is known for his brightly-colored neckwear.
Still, the official guidelines from Britain`s ancient Parliament state that there is some dress-code wiggle room. "As with the language you use, the way in which you dress should also demonstrate respect for the House and for its central position in the life of the nation. There is no exact dress code. Convention has been that for men a jacket and tie is expected; for women the equivalent level of formality should be observed."
Brake was pleased at the revolution his question unleashed. "Who says Brexit dominates the political agenda? My attempt to ask a #PMQ tieless has roused traditionalists from their slumber," he wrote on Twitter, where his profile picture shows him in a tie. But Geoffrey Cox, a Conservative lawmaker, did not approve of the relaxation in rules and even expressed concern for the development. Where will it all end?" he tweeted.
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2tx7TEh.
0 comments:
Post a Comment