What sort of people are MPs and what is the job that they do? Are they, in spite of being 'celebrities in their own constituencies, well-known, respected, indeed the voice of government', once again, on their return to Westminster 'only minnows, one of the five hundred-odd backbenchers with no special status or rights other than to be lobby-fodder for their party'? Are they workaholics 'preoccupied with endless meetings, ceaseless letters, interminable constituency problems...on a...
More DescriptionWhat sort of people are MPs and what is the job that they do? Are they, in spite of being 'celebrities in their own constituencies, well-known, respected, indeed the voice of government', once again, on their return to Westminster 'only minnows, one of the five hundred-odd backbenchers with no special status or rights other than to be lobby-fodder for their party'? Are they workaholics 'preoccupied with endless meetings, ceaseless letters, interminable constituency problems...on a treadmill of late nights and early mornings'? Or is this frenetic activity more often than not self-induced and unnecessary? What does the future hold for the backbench job into the twenty-first century? These and other crucial questions are examined in this new and completely revised edition of the successful and revealing analysis of the job of the backbencher.