MPs are touchy about the sanctity of the House of Commons chamber. Visitors are allowed in when MPs are away from Westminster but they are strictly forbidden from sitting down on the famous green benches and, if anyone else fancies using it as a venue, they can forget it.
Now Harriet Harman, the leader of the Commons, is proposing to let teenagers in for a day. There's a motion on today's order paper saying that the UK Youth Parliament should be allowed to hold its 2009 annual meeting in the chamber. The UKYP is an elected body for 11-to-18-year-olds that encourages young people "to use their voice in creative ways to bring about social change". I don't know much about it, but it seems like a thoroughly good thing and last year it was allowed to meet in the House of Lords chamber.
But will it get into the Commons? When the idea was last floated a few years ago, some MPs were horrified. The Harman motion is being described as a "testing the water" exercise. The government is committed to promoting civic engagement among young people, but no time has been set aside for the motion to be debated, which means that if any MP shouts "object" when it comes up after 7pm tonight, it will automatically fail. The UKYP may well have to find an alternative location for its annual meeting.
