Strangers yelling at each other

Speaker Peter Milliken talks to the Globe and considers the House he has presided over longer than anyone else.

Q: How much has the Hill changed, or what’s changed the most?

A: I think the biggest change has been in the increased partisanship in the House. When I was first elected we had morning sittings and a lunch time break, then evening sittings after a dinner break. Members would go up to the restaurant to eat and mix and mingle there. The chances for mixing and mingling these days are much, much less. And so you have members who barely know each other sitting on opposite sides of the House yelling at each other. It makes it much harder, I think, for members to be as friendly and polite, maybe is the word, as when I was first elected here.