LONDON (Reuters) - Quirky traditions dating back centuries were played out in parliament on Tuesday when MPs convened for the first time since an election that has produced a radically new political situation.

John Bercow (C) speaks to Prime Minister David Cameron as he is led to the Speaker's Chair after being re-elected as Speaker of the House of Commons, May 18, 2010. REUTERS/Parbul TV via Reuters TV

The Conservatives won most seats in the May 6 election, but fell short of an overall majority and had to enter a coalition with the Liberal Democrats -- the first multi-party government since World War Two.

The election ended 13 years of government by the Labour Party, and brought in 232 new members out of a total of 650. This was an unusually high turnover, due to an exodus of MPs tainted by a scandal over expense claims last year.

“It really does look and feel different,” said the new prime minister, Conservative David Cameron, addressing the Commons for the first time in his new role.

“Indeed many of us are sitting next to people that we’ve never sat next to before,” he joked, referring to his deputy, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who was next to Cameron on the bench reserved for members of the government.

Before the election, Cameron and Clegg sat on the other side of the symmetrical House, the one reserved for the opposition, but their two parties had separate areas on the green benches.

Whenever Clegg stood up back then, it was usually to attack Labour and the Conservatives, who had alternated in power since the War, as equally arrogant and unfit to lead Britain.

The scene could not have been more different on Tuesday as jovial Conservatives and Liberal Democrats rubbed shoulders on packed government benches, while Labour MPs had to cross over to the opposition benches for the first time since 1997.

BLACK ROD

In accordance with tradition, the first act of the new House was to elect one of the members as Speaker.

The election followed a long-established script. An official known as Black Rod entered the packed House brandishing his ornate rod, bowing to both sides and summoning members to make their way to the Lords.

Those sitting on the front benches then followed Black Rod to the Lords, a short distance away through the grandiose neo-Gothic Houses of Parliament, where they were told it was their duty to return to the Commons to elect a Speaker.

They duly returned. Then, the Father of the House, the person who has been a member for longest -- in this case, since 1959 -- asked John Bercow, the Speaker from the previous parliament, if he wished to stay on in the role.

Bercow assented and was re-elected. Then, he was physically dragged to the ornate Speaker’s Chair by another legislator.

The dragging was not due to any reluctance on Bercow’s part. Rather, it is yet another tradition rooted in the distant past, when Speakers sometimes brought unwelcome messages from the monarch and were attacked by fellow legislators. As a result, few wanted the job and they had to be dragged to the chair.