5 things to know about TT Parliament

This week, the Parliament has opened house to give public tours from 9 am to 3 pm daily. The tours include public education about the Parliament, a visit to the chamber and photo opportunities at the Speaker's or MP's chairs.

Here are five things we learned about the Parliament.

1. The Parliament has a public gallery, where any member of the public can view sittings. It only has room for 75 people and, according to staff at the Parliament, it is only really filled during the annual budget presentations.

2. The Parliament has two maces, a silver mace of the House of Representatives, donated to TT in 1899, and a gold mace of the Senate, commissioned for this country's independence in 1962. Only one person, the Marshal of the Parliament holds the mace and knows where it is stored. The maces represent the authority of the Parliament.

3. The Speaker of the House of Representatives is considered the guardian of the freedoms of the members of the house. The chief characteristics of the Speaker are impartiality and fairness. The Parliament's audio system is wired so that the Speaker has the ability to disable all other microphones in the chamber from her desk.

4. The longest sitting of Parliament happened in 2012 when then opposition leader (now Prime Minister) Dr Keith Rowley moved a motion of no confidence against then prime minister (now Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. It started at 1.30 pm on March 2, and ended at 5. 24 pm the following day.

5. Parliamentary behaviour is guided by standing orders. The most popular standing order is 48 (6) which  says: "No Member shall impute improper motive to any Member of either
House." This is followed by 48 (1) which says "debate upon any motion, Bill or
amendment shall be relevant to such motion, Bill or amendment, and a Member shall confine his observations to the subject under discussion." To summarise: Be relevant.

The open house tours end on Friday but Parliament has scheduled tours available throughout the year.