Christleton High School Students

A politician in the making?

A politician in the making?

(Posted on 12/12/22)

After a two-year delay, a Christleton Year 8 student finally got his chance to attend Prime Minister's Questions in Westminster. Oscar O’Gorman tells all.

It all began during the 2019 Easter school holidays when I was nine years old, and I made a decision to become a politician. Many a career has started with an apprenticeship and so I wrote to John Bercow, who was Speaker of the House of Commons, offering to assist him with Prime Minister's Questions (PMQ).

I tried to be mightily impressive in my application letter by explaining that no King or Queen had visited the House of Commons since 1642 and that I really liked our Majesty The Queen. I wrote that my brother Adam and I had made cards and wrote to Her Majesty after she visited Chester the previous year and that we were very happy when the Queen wrote back to both of us.

And I also explained that I often watched the speakers on television tr

ying to keep the noisy politicians from being rude to each other and speaking over each other when they should not and that if they were in my class my teacher would definitely tell them off.

The months passed by.

Then, one gloriously sunny afternoon in June 2019, to my absolute delight, my mother gave me an envelope that had arrived in the post with House of Commons stamped on it together with the famous Portcullis Gate symbol and it was addressed to me, Master Oscar O’Gorman.

But it turned out to be my first rejection letter! The Speaker was unable to offer me a shadowing opportunity but he did wish me every success in the future. Well, as would fate would have it, my opportunity arrived only a few months later for the Speaker stepped down and they had to find a new one. Could it be me? And so, I got to work writing to dozens of Members of Parliament from across all the political parties to secure my nomination.

Our postman must have been wondering what was going on because I started getting lots of envelopes in the post from the House of Commons.

But again I hit an obstacle because you have to a serving member of Parliament to be elected Speaker. So, I did some serious thinking, and then I decided that the best thing I could do was to get to Westminster myself as soon as possible. Many more letters travelled to and from Chester and London and our postman was ever more intrigued. That is when things got really interesting and in March 2020 I was all set to visit Westminster, attend PMQs, meet the new Speaker of the House and even to meet the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Home Secretary.

And then yet again a devastating blow to my plans! With one day’s notice, Westminster was closed to visitors and my visit was cancelled. I could not believe my bad luck. Soon we were all in lockdown and Adam and I wrote again to the Queen after her amazing broadcast to the nation and Commonwealth and to our delight we each received a reply from Her Majesty, this time from Windsor Castle. Then my political ambitions went on pause for quite a while until I arrived in Christleton High School in January this year and my interest in politics was reinvigorated by my teachers and I started writing letters again.

Fast forward to a fantastic day in November 2022 and I was on a train with my mother before dawn had broken, hurtling through the lovely British countryside on my way to London to attend the PMQs!

London is a crazy bustling metropolis compared to sleepy Chester but we pushed and shoved our way through the mobs to make it on time to Westminster. Then we had to navigate a sea of security checks to attend Rishi Sunak’s second-ever PMQ and it was packed to the gills with every MP and Minister I ever wrote to.

It was exhilarating and enthralling to be finally here at the heart of Government and the Speaker was trying his best to control the crowd as debates unravelled into vicious vitriol. I was allowed to bring my binoculars into the gallery and I studied the politicians perched along the front benches crowing and cawing at every opportunity. It was a lively colourful experience compared to watching events unfold on television back in Chester.

After the session, I was honoured to meet Mr Scott Awad - Deputy Chief of Staff (Parliamentary Affairs) to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

Mr Awad served 21 years in the British Army before joining the Speaker’s Office, including combat in Iraq, and even he found his first time in the Commons to be a terrifying experience. In the calm before the PMQ storm, I loved walking through Westminster Palace amazed at the glorious surroundings and the history emanating from every painting and statue I passed. It was overwhelming at times.

It’s sometimes said that a week is a long time in politics but I think it's even longer when you are in Year 8. I am not sure if I want to be a politician anymore. I do like public speaking and my current interest is acting and I am training for Peter Pan next year at The Storyhouse. But I am already thinking that I will do something else after that.

What I have learned from my experiences so far is that you can be anything you want to be and you just have to believe in it and chase after it. They say that the pen is mightier than the sword so perhaps if you really REALLY want something, why not write to someone and ask for it? Just be polite and interesting and you never know what might happen to make your dreams come true!

I would like to thank Avanti West Coast for their complimentary train tickets for my visit to London and to thank Josh Ryder and John Benger in the House of Commons Speaker’s Office for helping and encouraging me to attend PMQ.

- Oscar O'Gorman


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