LONDON -- Queen Elizabeth will leave Buckingham Palace in a horse-drawn carriage on Wednesday to make her way to the Houses of Parliament to mark the ceremonial opening of British parliament.
It's an event that will show British pomp and pageantry at its most colorful: the Queen will be escorted by cavalry soldiers on horseback and the streets will be lined with spectators for the procession.
But before the Queen arrives at parliament, there will be political theater within the Palace of Westminster. Tradition dictates that a parliamentary official usher known as Black Rod parade along the corridors of the Houses of Parliament, holding a staff, to the main door into the chamber of the House of Commons, the exclusive domain of elected Members of Parliament (MP).
The large heavy door is slammed in his face and he then knocks three times with his stick. Eventually the door opens. Black Rod requests the attendance of the MPs to the chamber of the House of Lords, the meeting place of unelected peers and bishops.
The door knocking ritual symbolizes to the monarch the independence of the Commons, starting in 1642, when King Charles I attempted to have five members of parliament arrested. Since that date, the House of Commons has maintained its right to question the right of the monarch's representative to enter their chamber.
After the knocking ritual, newly re-elected Prime Minister David Cameron, his ministers, MPs, and opposition leaders and their MPs will then stroll into the House of Lords to hear the Queen's Speech in which she will outline the proposals due to be presented to parliament by Cameron's Conservative government.
Among those making that walk from the Commons will be newly elected MP Alan Mak, the first ever ethnic Chinese person to win a seat in the British Parliament. He won by a large majority on May 7, the only one to succeed out of 11 ethnic Chinese candidates bidding for seats.
Missing from the proceedings will be the four elected Sinn Fein MPs, the nationalist party members representing constituencies in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein MPs are not allowed to take their places in parliament as they have a long-standing policy preventing them swearing an oath of allegiance to the British monarch.
As well as not being allowed to participate in proceedings or vote, Sinn Fein's policy comes at a cost. None of the Sinn Fein MPs will receive their pay for the position, currently standing at 67,060 British pounds (103,400 U.S. dollars). Over the five-year life span of the last parliament, the protest cost the MPs a loss of pay around 2.6 million U.S. dollars.
For the longest-serving Sinn Fein MP, Pat Doherty, elected in 2001, he will have lost a total of around 2 million U.S. dollars by the end of the current parliament.
