I get screwed by Parliament, almost literally

Today we went on a tour of Parliament. At 8 pounds (student discount, whoot), I wasn't really sure that I wanted to take a tour of Parliament that badly, but it was sooo worth every pound.
Security was obviously very strict, they even take your picture for a badge, and for the first time in the history of random searches, the blond girl - me! - was pulled aside for extra scrutiny. When the (blessedly female) security officer told me to hold my arms out, I was thinking she'd give me the basic pat down: along the arms and straight down the sides. No, she patted down everywhere and between my ticklishness and surprise and horror at my personal space being waaay violated, it was all I could do not to instinctively pull back, thinking to myself that would only make things worse because then they'd suspect me of hiding something. It wasn't til afterwards as I babbled rather incoherently to my friends about the search that I discovered that I was the only one lucky enough to receive such special attention, and they jokingly offered to buy me a drink, insert lame joke about how normally you have to buy me a drink first to get to touch me like that.
Moving right along from my violation at the hands of security, they proceeded to lead us into rooms that can more or less be summed as being decorated with a lot of gold. Gold leaf everywhere. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed whatsoever, so I can't show you guys what it was like, but maybe that photography ban has more to do with the fact that tours would take forever if they allowed you to take pictures because there's so much to take pictures of than, you know, the IRA.
Our tour guide led us along the path the Queen takes when she arrives to open Parliament, starting in the Robing Chamber, which is a large room - imagine the lobby of a mid-sized luxury hotel - and which is used only once a year and only one person - the Queen - is allowed in there. From the Robing Room she progresses down a chamber that would be filled with VIPs to the House of Lords, where her throne sits at one end. Then, once she's read her little speech (written for her by the leading Party and which she doesn't even get to see until the night before), the House of Commons is summoned, but they take their time coming just to show that they come of their own will and not because they're fetched.
Just when you're thinking that Britain sure does still have a lot of fancy old traditions, let me break the horrifying news that there are only 92 hereditary aristocrats left. So girls, all those novels in which the American girl comes over to England and marries a lord? Even less realistic than you already thought. The vast majority of the House of Lords is composed of Life Peers at this point, or People's Peers, Brits who are made peers out of recognition for their achievements, but yes, they do get almost equal influence in writing the laws as the House of Commons.
So all that I've just described is on the House of Lords side of Parliament. Remember, lots and lots of gold leaf everywhere. It's actually not that old, though, but was built and designed during Queen Victoria's reign and Prince Albert took a keen interest in the design plans.
The House of Commons side is completely different from the House of Lords side: absolutely no gold leaf anywhere, just some simply carved stone and wood. The reason is that Parliament was hit by incendiary bombs one night in 1941 during the Blitz, and Churchill said to save the oldest part of Parliament, and so the House of Commons as we see it today was built after WWII. I asked if the reason they didn't expend much effort rebuilding the House of Commons to be as ornate as the House of Lords side because, well it's the Commons and the Lords are the Lords. But she said it was simply a matter of money, and after WWII Britain simply didn't have the money to spend on rebuilding the Commons to be as pretty as the Lords.
Not only was the tour really amazing because we got to see all these rooms, but also because I don't really know much of anything about the parliamentary process here, and the tour guide explained a lot of it to us during the tour, so I'm glad to have a better grasp on it now. Between the gold leaf and the government lesson, totally worth 8 pounds.