"Members wishing to raise a point of order during a division were, until 1998, required to wear a hat when speaking. Two collapsible top hats were kept in the Chamber especially for this purpose. This requirement was abolished following recommendations from the Modernisation Select Committee, which stated: "I'n practice this means that an opera hat which is kept at each end of the Chamber has to be produced and passed to the Member concerned. This inevitably takes some time, during which the Member frequently seeks to use some other form of covering such as an Order Paper. This particular practice has almost certainly brought the House into greater ridicule than almost any other, particularly since the advent of television.'"