In the British Parliament the Prime Minister and the opposition leader raise to speak, not on podiums, but over yellow chests about the size of suitcases. What is the significance of these two boxes?
There’s some information here: Dispatch boxes
You rock, thanks. Kinda funny the Australian Parliament’s Dispatch boxes are from the UK and later the UK’s came from New Zealand…I wonder if they did it to take the piss.
I think they were simply gifts from one country to the other.
We ought to check there aren’t soldiers hiding inside.
I found the way this question was asked to be confusing. The dispatch boxes are not equivalent to podiums. They are equivalent to lecterns.
Not being snotty, but in the spirit of fighting ignorance, what’s the difference? My Webster’s gives the fourth definition of a podium to be a lectern.
I’d never thought about it, but from a statistical sample of one (me), I’d say a podium is raised, larger, generally “more important”, and not necessarily used for speeches. A lectern is well… for lecturing. More of a convenience than a stage.
You stand on a podium, at (or behind )a lectern.
Perhaps it’s one of those British/American definitions.
A lectern is a stand for something from which you read to people. A podium is a thing you stand on. Improper usage has resulted in many people using the term podium to describe a cabinet like stand behind which the speaker stands, which usually has a shelf on which to place reading materials, glass of water, etc. (in other words, a form of lectern) This would only be even marginally accurate if there was also a raised platform on which it stood. Note podium comes from the Greek word for foot, via Latin, while lectern comes from the latin word for the verb “to read.”
While we’re on weird things in Parliament, how about that woolsack, eh?! I am privileged to have sat on the real one in the Lords. It’s not very comfortable.