The job advertisement is at once both clear and coy. It states that the successful candidate will demonstrate “strong interpersonal and influencing skills”, a “calm manner” and “excellent communication skills”. What it does not add is that, once a year, those “excellent communication skills” and “calm manner” will be put to use by hitting a big door in Parliament three times with a big stick while the king sits nearby, waiting, on a big gold throne.
The role of Lady or Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod is becoming vacant. It is an appealing post that, the advert explains, offers carrot as well as stick. The successful candidate will benefit from a salary of £87,000-114,000 a year ($108,000-142,000) and from “generous civil service pension schemes”. There are other perks: Black Rod also gets a corner office (“Black Rod’s box”); good job security (the role began in 1350 and seems unlikely to stop soon) and an almost unparalleled ability to wear tights and ruffles in public.
On the downside, they will have a slightly odd job title. Though Britain offers odder. The Royal Household, similarly, if rather more flashily, has a “Gold Stick”, a “Silver Stick” and a “Silver Stick-in-Waiting” (they are deputy to the Gold Sticks). Meanwhile the nearby College of Arms employs a “Portcullis Pursuivant” and a “Rouge Dragon Pursuivant”.
With the typical opacity of the English establishment, few of these titles are very explanatory: Portcullis Pursuivant spends little time with portcullises; the Rouge Dragon spends little time with dragons. By comparison, the title of Black Rod is practically pellucid: Black Rod has a black rod. Naturally, it is called a “staff”.
Most imagine that the role of Black Rod largely involves walking round in tights. But there is rather “more to it than that”, says an insider. Black Rod doesn’t merely attend the state opening: she helps organise it, and other ceremonial events. There are other duties: Black Rod is also an usher of the Noble Order of the Garter, the Serjeant-at-Arms in the House of Lords and Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain. A series of titles which feel less like a job advert than a paragraph in a Tolkien novel.
The role, which is initially offered for three years, might sound silly but it has been held by some serious people. The current Black Rod, Sarah Clarke, ran Wimbledon before she ran the Lords. All the Rods before her had been men, many of them military men. This helped them perform some of Black Rod’s many roles (such as seeing to the security of the Lords) but not others (“hairy legs”, says the insider darkly, can play havoc with too-thin tights).
The role may be traditional but, as the advert is keen to explain, the hiring process will not be. The House of Lords, like the House of Commons, is “committed to becoming an even more welcoming, inclusive and diverse organisation”. Both houses are keen to welcome all types of people. Unless, of course, you’re the king or Black Rod. In which case, the Commons will shut the door in your face. ■
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