On the placement of the Parliamentary mace

[PatrickLondon]

The monarch may command as much as they like, but the State Opening involves leaving her and everyone else waiting until the Commons deign to arrive.

[penultima_thule]

@Wallaby

Just as an aside - The Colony of Victoria lost its Parliamentary Mace back in 1891.

The Victorians play fast & loose with their maces and seem to have maces to spare.

The mace used in Australia’s Federal parliament is a gift from the UK House of Commons in 1951 following the wishes of King George VI to commemorate the Jubilee of Federation.

Prior to that, from 1901 to 1951 the Feds used one borrowed from the Victorian Legislative Assembly. Indeed from 1901 until 1927 when “Old” Parliament House was opened in Canberra the Feds sat in the Victorian Parliament. When they made the move up the Hume they took the Vic’s mace with them.

The New South Wales Legislative Assembly didn’t have a mace for 150 year up until 1974. Queensland’s Legislative Assembly got their mace in 1978.

[Banksiaman]

@Wallaby

Just as an aside - The Colony of Victoria lost its Parliamentary Mace back in 1891. Stolen in the Dead of Night from Parliament House in Melbourne… Never recovered.

Now, I could tell the boring, most likely explanation (involving maintenance workers doing some repairs after hours), but where’s the fun in that? So…

Rumour has it that the Mace was a regular visitor to Madame Brussels’ establishment (Madame Brussels being the city’s foremost promoter of horizontal dancing and associated activities - some say Annie Wilson was queen, but it’s hard to get a definite ranking here), where the mace was often the star of various decidedly ‘unparliamentary activities’. It was left there once, and no one was brave enough to go back and ask ‘Excuse, but did I leave something behind when I was last not here?’.

Primary political suspect seems to be Speaker Tommy Bent (No, I’m not making him up).

There’s still a reward of $50,000. There have been numerous digs, searching of rivers, deathbed confessions etc. To be honest, it’s probably best if it’s never found. Certainly more fun.

There’s a large urban archaeological dig happening in Melbourne’s red light district at the moment. Eyes are very definitely peeled for any glint of parliamentary metalware.

[Malden_Capell]

@UltraVires

Hmm. Let me try to parse this and tell me if I am right. The House is loyal to the Queen and agrees with her sovereignty over the country which, in a large bit of traditional fiction, means that she can order people to do this or that or come here or go there as all Brits are her subjects.

However, the House of Commons is an exception and due to the King Charles tradition, the House while sitting may refuse the Queen entrance to the chamber and may do what it wishes. So it ceremoniously refuses the Queen’s entrance (through her representative Black Rod) and then “allows” her to come in. Once in the House, the members must then obey her commands like all good royal subjects.

Right, or no?

Remember, it is essentially a re-enactment of the crisis point that sparked the Civil Wars in 1642. The Commons asserted, and asserts, its right to prioritise its own affairs without input from the King, but is also loyal to the King, as long as he governs according to the law.

It is this clash of values that is represented - respect for royal authority and the rights of the people. It’s less that the Commons refuses then decides to accommodate the Queen, it’s more a means of asserting that, while recognising the Queen is sovereign outside the Chamber, inside she has no control over business.
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[GreenWyvern]

“Take away that fool’s bauble!”
  – Oliver Cromwell forcibly dissolving the Rump Parliament in 1653, and ordering his soldiers to remove the mace.

[Melbourne]

@Wallaby

Just as an aside - The Colony of Victoria lost its Parliamentary Mace back in 1891. Stolen in the Dead of Night from Parliament House in Melbourne… Never recovered.
[…]
There’s still a reward of $50,000. There have been numerous digs, searching of rivers, deathbed confessions etc. To be honest, it’s probably best if it’s never found. Certainly more fun.

The mace of the Nigerian senate was found “under an overpass”, presumably after the people who took it worked out that a mace is mostly made of wood, But that leads me to another thought: If the “black rod” is made of ebony, it’s possibly worth $50k in material alone.