Photo Set III: 2020 Convening Of Parliament
400 years after the General Assembly first met in St George’s in 1620, the Convening of Parliament and Throne Speech returned to the east end to mark the 400th anniversary.
The historic nature was noted in the Throne Speech, which said, “The Legislature convenes today within earshot of the venue where, 400 years ago, an Assembly, composed only of white men, was summoned to meet by the then Governor Nathaniel Butler.
“In these four centuries, the walls of those chambers in which the Legislature has met could speak of debates on slavery, universal adult suffrage, the end of capital punishment, human rights and all manner of laws meant to ‘serve and regard the public.’
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“Today, black and white, women and men represent a people whose vote is of equal value across an Island that has surpassed the likely dreams of those who met in that first Assembly, only 11 years after the Sea Venture happened upon this uninhabited North Atlantic paradise.
“More than ever, the yoke of representative service weighs heavily on those who have taken it up. Four hundred years later, the Commonwealth’s oldest representative body outside the United Kingdom’s Parliament will be summoned again to deliberate and act in unprecedented ways in these unprecedented times to meet equally unprecedented challenges.”
The full speech is posted here along with some excerpts, our live blog and video is here, and you can view the first two set of photos and all our coverage of the 2020 Throne Speech here.
