Why on earth would anyone become a British MP?
Sanity, at least, is no longer a formal requirement. But watch out for the letterboxes
To understand what it is like to try to become an MP you could read memoirs, learned tracts or rule books. It is better to ask MPs about letterboxes. Every MP will have spent hours leafleting, and few topics arouse stronger passions. For Lord Mandelson, a former MP, the most hateful letterboxes are “the ones that don’t open” or those that “snap shut on your fingers”. For Tristram Hunt, another former MP who is now head of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the ones that “caught your fingers” were “devastating”. For Baroness Davidson, a former member of the Scottish Parliament, people with letterboxes at ground level are “next to murderers in…the hierarchy of bad people”.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Unnatural selection”
Britain March 9th 2024
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