and that's wrong. >> mr. mckay, what moment do you remember? >> oh, i remember very clearly. it was the early 1990's. the house of commons was faced with a bill to enact into british law the provisions of the treaty of maastricht, which was a european treaty changing and extending the basis of the european union. the major government was beginning to fail -- not very quickly, but it was losing by- elections. and it didn't begin with a very big majority. so, when the maastricht bill came along, the first thing that happened was a shower of amendments. the second thing that happened was the danes voted against ratification. so, the bill was put on the back burner. when the danish mind was changed, back came the bill with 650-odd amendments. now, in the british system, the speaker -- or, in the case of a committee, the chairman of ways and means, which this was -- has the right to select some amendments for discussion and to pass over others. this is not a matter of order. disorderly amendments are junked anyway. but the system allows the chair to say, "this is an important amen

. >> mr. mckay, where did you come from? >> i was born in edinburgh i do not know why i decided to apply to the house of commons. the way of getting the post was to set the normal civil service combination. it was whether your mind fitted by the heads of the department. i went along to a nomination interview. i can remember for most of the time we spoke about the prospects of the next read the season. and i thought this was to be a nomination to be. -- interview. i've now spent 41 years and ended up as the clerk of the house, which is a nomination by the crown on the recommendation of the prime minister. >> if someone is going to become the secretary of defense or the secretary of state, they have to be confirmed by the senate. what happens with a similar such a question -- a defense minister in great britain. >> not at all. they have to run the usual allotment of nomination of their adequacy -- conflict -- gaun tlet of their nomination for adequacy. but there is no specific confirmation of them. >> if you could pick one thi