Hear, hear

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The designation or the exclamation Hear, hear (from English hear ) is used as a short form of hear him, hear him as the consent of the audience to a presented point or topic. Hear, hear is to be regarded as the correct form of applause or jubilation in the House of Commons , while other forms of applause such as heckling or applause, unlike in the parliaments of many other countries, are undesirable there.

A committee to modernize the House of Commons dealt with the issue of applause in 1998. The book Erskine May , which contains many rules for the work of the UK Parliament, explains that MPs should not interrupt the speaker with heckling and applause - a hear, hear at the end of the speech is not an interruption. The committee came to the conclusion that even though applause at the end of a speech did not constitute an interruption, there was a risk of abuse, so that planned longer applause would let the content of a speech take a back seat. Not a single speech would be disturbed, but the whole debate would be disrupted.

This rule is enforced to varying degrees. After the Clerk of the House of Commons Sir Robert Rogers announced his resignation, MPs applauded after Speaker John Bercow read the resignation letter. Bercow said the applause, while unparliamentary, was also a sign of appreciation for Sir Robert. The then Prime Minister Tony Blair received standing applause from MPs from all parties on June 27, 2007 after his last speech in front of parliament, without the speaker Michael Martin intervening. When Scottish National Party MPs applauded a speech by their parliamentary group leader Angus Robertson on May 27, 2015 , Speaker Bercow urged them to respect the tradition of the House and not to clap.

Waving with the order paper is also common as a non-verbal form of applause.

Hear him, hear him has been used in parliament since the late 17th century and has been shortened to the form Hear, hear since the late 18th century .

In German the expression “hears, hears” is well known, but its function in debates is more “very correct”. Applause is also allowed in German-speaking parliaments.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to the Oxford English Dictionary
  2. ↑ Modernization of the House of Commons Committee: Session 1997-98, Fourth Report, Conduct in the Chamber, Behavior when not speaking , March 4, 1998, accessed June 23, 2015.
  3. ↑ House of Commons Hansard: Speaker's Statement , April 30, 2014, vol. 579, col. 829f., Accessed on June 23, 2015.
  4. ^ Brian Wheeler: Why are MPs banned from clapping? , BBC News, May 28, 2015, accessed June 23, 2015.
  5. ↑ Colin Brown: Call for happy clappy House of Commons , The Independent , August 4, 1997, accessed October 12, 2015.