MPs don’t always enjoy the best of reputations with the voters they represent. In fact, if an MP is notorious and disliked, then at least they are doing better than their colleagues: the Hansard Society found this week that barely 20 per cent of voters can name their MP. So if a politician doesn’t fancy sparking a row with the whips by flying to the jungle to make a name for themselves, how do they connect with their constituents?
I’ve written a piece in today’s Telegraph that explores some of the bizarre and humiliating rituals that MPs have to endure in their constituencies. Initially I thought that being weighed in public or dressing up in a KGB suit was just the sort of thing you put up with as an elected representative: refusing to sing a song about turnips wouldn’t say much for your own humility, after all. But it was when I was chatting to Nicola Blackwood about her bun-throwing experiences that I realised that an MP with a sense of humour (and a good throwing arm) could make good use of a funny old local custom to put them in touch with their electorate in a way that a surgery or a dull walkabout in the local shopping centre can’t.
You can read the full piece here.
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