The Speaker of the British House of Commons visited Cambridge Thursday to see an English document, the Magna Carta.
“To come all this way to find a piece of history from … England and the fact that the [democratic] world has been built on the values of the Magna Carta … that’s what binds us together so much,” said Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
He called the document a sign of the unique relationship shared by the United States and the United Kingdom. “Your constitution is entwined in the history of the Magna Carta, and … nobody else can say that. We together have got something special, and that’s what makes our relationship much more special than any other country.”
Hoyle was in Massachusetts after a stop in Washington, D.C., where he was hosted by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Hoyle had invited Johnson to visit the UK in honor of the U.S.’s 250th anniversary of declaring independence. Johnson became the first sitting U.S. Speaker to address Parliament. Hoyle came on a return visit to formally celebrate the declaration of independence. In Massachusetts, Hoyle also made a speech at the State House, saw the Red Sox at Fenway Park, and went to Duxbury to tour the Myles Standish Burial Ground, then tour the Mayflower II. Standish, the military advisor to Plymouth Colony who came over on the Mayflower, was originally from Chorley, Hoyle’s district in the UK.
The copy of the Magna Carta (Latin for great charter) he viewed has been part of Harvard Law School’s collection for decades, but just last year was identified as an original version from the reign of King Edward I in 1300. There are earlier Magna Cartas, including one Edward issued in 1297 (the first was written in 1215). The version from 1300 included articles on how to enforce the charter.
“Best $30 ever invested”
The Magna Carta was the reason for Hoyle’s time in Cambridge. Harvard library staff brought the document from its vault and gave Hoyle and his traveling party, which included his wife, an archivist, an overview of how it was discovered to be one of only seven surviving originals of the document. It had been in Harvard’s collection since 1946, but was thought to be an important but less unique sheriff’s copy.
Hoyle leaned over to give it a close look, then stood up and marveled at the centuries-old document. “That is quite something,” he said. “It’s very, very special, very impressive. It’s priceless, to me. The true value cannot be measured by money.”
“I presume it’s goatskin?” he asked at one point. And he speculated on whether it might be the very first copy made. “Who knows? It could be number one. And we’ve [the UK] got number two!”
“Seeing something like this so close, I’ve got to say, it’s very moving,” he said.
Told that it had been purchased by Harvard for $27.50 in 1946, Hoyle said “that’s probably the best $30 I’ve ever heard of being invested.”
Amanda Watson, assistant dean for library and information services at Harvard Law School, said the most recent original sold at auction went for multiple millions of dollars.
Hoyle said he would be inviting several members of the Massachusetts legislature to visit the UK in the fall. He said he is not sure if representatives of Cambridge will be among them. Hoyle did say that he wants to foster a stronger relationship between the UK and Massachusetts in research and development, biotech, and student exchanges.
Not a fan of proportional voting
The United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, is a vocal advocate for changing its voting system from a ‘first past the post’ system similar to that used in most elections in the United States, where the candidate with the most votes wins, even if they don’t get a majority of the votes. Burnham favors some form of proportional representation, or PR.
Since Cambridge’s elections use proportional ranked choice voting for City Council and School Committee, Cambridge Day asked Hoyle for his thoughts on the approach. “It’s not for me, but I’ve always thought the purity of PR is wonderful,” Hoyle said.
Hoyle thinks proportional representation results in parties with a minority of votes having undue influence over the party trying to form a majority government. “The minority (parties) hold the majority to ransom on what they wish, which they were never elected to,” he said, pointing to Israel’s parliament as an example.
Burnham and Hoyle were both elected as members of Britain’s Labour Party. In the UK, the Speaker is required to relinquish party ties.
Hoyle has at least one other strong connection to the U.S. — he is a passionate fan of Motown. Told that British filmmaker Steve McQueen had been at Harvard last year discussing his “Small Axe” films about London’s Caribbean and West Indies community, Hoyle said its introduction of reggae music and the subsequent emergence of ska captivated him and then led him to Motown. He said he still goes to concerts of his Hitsville heroes, and recently saw Gladys Knight and the Pips.
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