What journalists don’t understand about being an MP

At the end of the last Parliament, I was the only MP who had previously been in the Lobby – the elite cartel of political journalists, who rejoice in having a parliamentary pass (I was once the chief political correspondent of the Times). I used to be in the Press Gallery looking down at the Chamber, but as an MP I was in the Chamber looking up at the Press Gallery. Famously, journalists have power without responsibility – you can shift national debates and kill off careers without having to worry about the consequences. As an MP, you have responsibility without power: you are held accountable for pretty much everything, with virtually no power to do anything about any of it.

I was smug arriving at Parliament, thinking I knew all about it, having worked there before and written about it. But switching from poacher to gamekeeper, and now back again (I just lost my seat), I did learn a few things.