In the social media age – and when one’s own party leader sets a very high bar for selfies – it is an understandable rookie mistake. New SNP MPs breached Commons etiquette this week by tweeting photographs of themselves inside the Commons chamber.
Since their arrival at Westminster four days ago, the vastly expanded cohort of SNP MPs has offered an unexpectedly open window into life in the Commons.
All 56 MPs (or #team56 as they are hashtagging their activities) are regular tweeters, and their followers have learned more about the internal working of parliament in the past four days than one would in a lifetime’s study of Hansard. There’s nothing like multiple group selfies within the parliamentary estate to cheerfully puncture the mystique of Westminster.
Inevitably, po-faced concerns have been raised about rule breaches. A Commons spokesperson confirmed this morning that photography in the chamber requires express permission of the sergeant at arms. But he added that there have been no formal complaints and that “flexibility and leniency” will be applied to new arrivals.
Roger Mullin, who took Gordon Brown’s former constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, posed laughingly at the dispatch box while others shared their induction day on the green benches.
First day in the chamber and never let it be said Roger Mullin lacks ambition @RogMull pic.twitter.com/qlLODr9WSL
— Brendan O'Hara (@BrendanOHaraSNP) May 13, 2015
Induction day selfie #greenbenches @RogMull @AbdnNorthKirsty #snp pic.twitter.com/l3Jf1uzux1
— Neil Gray MP (@NeilGrayMP) May 13, 2015
Mhairi Black, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, who unseated Labour’s campaign director Douglas Alexander, and, at 20, is the youngest member of parliament for centuries, was snapped by fellow new arrival Anne McLaughlin, MP for Glasgow North East, with a chip butty on the Commons terrace.
Ye can take the lassie out of ... pic.twitter.com/lCUpr4lO6o
— Anne McLaughlin (@AnneMcLaughlin) May 13, 2015
Elsewhere, the new SNP members have been tweeting confusing Commons signage.
Bit of a mixture! #StrongerScotland pic.twitter.com/f0IkQ9IH8o
— Dr Paul Monaghan MP (@_PaulMonaghan) May 13, 2015
The SNP cohort’s first group meeting:
First @theSNP Westminster #team56 group mtg yesterday... I'm in there somewhere... Thanks @DerekMackayMSP 4 chairing pic.twitter.com/Xes1OJ48LJ
— Patrick Grady (@GradySNP) May 13, 2015
And even their breakfast reading:
Good morning. For breakfast I am devouring this. Good with coffee. #AlreadyWorking pic.twitter.com/d2EcGH9917
— Drew Hendry (@drewhendrySNP) May 13, 2015
More soberly, the MP for Glasgow East, Natalie McGarry, revealed that she had been questioning gendered language in the House:
But Pete Wishart, veteran SNP MP and Parliamentary Tweeter of the Year, hopes the tweeting continues apace.
“This is the most social media savvy group of MPs the Commons has ever known. They were determined to let their constituents experience their arrival with them, and they’ve shown a lighter side to the more stuffy traditions and culture of this place. They’ve presented the House in an overwhelmingly positive way.”
- This article was amended on 14 May 2015. Mhairi Black represents Paisley and Renfrewshire South, not East Renfrewshire, and she unseated Labour’s Douglas Alexander, not Jim Murphy.
