MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle Grabbing British Parliament Mace

Submission 8,805

Part of a series on United Kingdom Withdrawal From the European Union / Brexit. [View Related Entries]

I want an article about the clear division between US scandals like Watergate and UK scandals like what just happened in Parliament It could be called THE MACE 'N' NIXON LINE

The MP grabbing and walking with the ceremonial mace is outrageous to the British because the mace represents Parliament's royally derived authority, so it's a gesture of contempt to the most fundamental principle of the body, like disagreeing with a white guy in Congress.

I have taken the mace that was on the desk and which you probably considered a breach of decorum Forgive me it was a political prop so heavy and so meaningless

Gotta love a British parliamentary form of protest - grabbing the giant mace. Daniel Kraemer@dcakraemer Here is @lloyd_rm grabbing the mace just now Show this thread 0:23

The angle of these dudes outraged at the nicking of the mace

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About

MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle Grabbing British Parliament Mace refers to a viral video of English Labour Party MP (member of Parliment) Lloyd Russell-Moyle picking up The Mace, a symbol of royal authority needed for both houses of British Parliament to pass laws. Russell-Moyle took The Mace, which looks like a large, golden club, from its holder and attempted leave Parliament to the dismay of fellow members. Online, the video inspired jokes and memes about English government and Brexit.

Origin

On December 10th, 2018, during a session of Parliament, Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle picked up the Mace and walked it over "the line" toward other MPs as members of the opposition party, the Torys, shouted at Russell-Moyle to put it back.^[1]

That day, BBC journalist @dcakraemer posted the video (shown below).^[2] The tweet received more than 2,400 retweets, 6,900 likes and 4 million views in 24 hours.

Here is @lloyd_rm grabbing the mace just now pic.twitter.com/SEUEWz5w3F

— Daniel Kraemer (@dcakraemer) December 10, 2018

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Following the video, many mocked the British government and their traditions. Twitter^[3] user @JimMFelton retweeted the video and added the comment "Britain to the world: We are a noble, respected and extremely advanced democracy Also Britain: Oh, it’s all kicking off now, they’ve grabbed the big mace!" The tweet received more than 2,900 retweets and 10,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Throughout the day, people continued to make jokes about the grab (examples below, center and right).

That day, Mashable ^[4] published an article about the Mace.