On January 4, 1642, Charles I entered the House of Commons with a body of armed men to arrest five of its members on charges of high treason.

The MPs - Arthur Haselrig, John Pym, Denzil Hasler, William Storde and John Hampden - had left and the King demanded that the Speaker, William Lenthall, say where the five had fled.

Lenthall famously replied: "May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here."

Since that time the door to the chamber has been slammed in the face of the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod when he comes to summon MPs attend HM the Queen in the House of Lords for the State Opening of Parliament, and he has to rap three times with his rod before the MPs condescend open the door and follow him back to the Upper House to hear the Queen's Speech.

That ceremony is now pointless. The present Speaker allowed the Metropolitan Police to turn over the office, files, computers and mobile phones of Damien Green MP to help with their inquiries into the leaking of some information by a junior civil servant in the Home Office (surely an internal Civil Service matter). Has he abandoned the once very dangerous role of defending the privileges of Members of Parliament?

At the next State Opening of Parliament, Black Rod need merely text: "Be a pal and leave the door open - I'll be along in five."
Stuart Swanston, Edinburgh.