Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2024 February 25

= February 25 =

Speakers of modern legislatures
The Speaker of the House of Commons is so called because his chief duty was to relay the sense of the house to the king, who might not want to hear it (whence a new Speaker's traditional show of reluctance). Now that the PM meets regularly with the king, such a role is redundant; I would guess it was obsolete before the U.S. House of Representatives chose its first Speaker. Does any modern "Speaker"'s job include something like the old function? —Tamfang (talk) 23:57, 25 February 2024 (UTC)