Diary entry:
It was such a pleasure to spend the week of work experience at the office of Michael Tomlinson. On the first day we spent some time meeting each other and getting to know our way around the office. Frances and Laura welcomed me with a warm smile and support of what we were going to get up to this week. After a bit of welcomes and an introductory booklet we were set of on the weekly newspapers to gather information that would be relevant to Michael. With such a range of stories it was helpful to get to know which would be relevant to our constituency. After this we were given a list of scenarios that the office had previously dealt and had to come up with our own solutions to them which may or may not have been the same as Michael and the staff had taken. Later in the day I and Reuban (one of the 5 I was working with) were set off to research the local constituency for Michael to highlight in a review of mid Dorset and north Poole.
On the Tuesday we had the amazing opportunity to visit the Houses of parliament as a group which also introduced us to Michael’s London staff of Simon and Hayley who were fantastic and gave us a tour of the hidden parliamentary offices. We also got to go through the portcullis house and saw famous faces in the political world such as Jacob Rees Mogg and Gavin Williamson. As a group we got a tour of the lord’s chamber and leant of the history of the palace. Luckily in the afternoon we had the opportunity to sit in on a 10-minute notion on the issue of spiking which was insightful on the format and roles that MP’s have to take. After the debates in the commons chamber were finished, we had the experience of meeting Michael in person who answered our questions on life and the work he has to do as a local MP and in the Attorney general office.
Returning to the constituency office on the Wednesday was a change of pace especially with less people but as we arrived, we set off on a task to recap and write a brief to Michael over the debate of spiking we sat and watched the previous day. Later we were given a range of tasks including creating a fantasy cabinet of any one we wanted so long as it made some sense and got into groups to plan a debate on whether to introduce a compulsory one-year national service. This gave the opportunity to write a speech that parliamentary staff may have to write for their MP but this was for a debate we would take on Friday.
Thursday introduced us to the world of envelope stuffing which was more enjoyable than it sounds but was a very important job as they regarded the issue of the cost of living so Michael could understand the problems and worries of his local constituents. We also were given the task to plan responses to emails constituents have sent and told how both Frances and Laura would respond to them. However one of the most memorable parts of the week was sharing who we placed in our fantasy cabinet which some of the answers made sense but it was amusing to hear the ideas Laura created. In our final for minutes of the day we were able to build a better plan for our debate which we had been told Michael would be speaker for.
On the last day of my work experience at the office we had the good chance to have a personal chat with Michael and ask any questions we wished which I asked for his approach to becoming an MP and what he believes should be needed to become one. I was then given the task to write a social media post for Facebook and twitter that would tell what a pleasure it had been to have us help in the office for the week. But before lunch my favourite moment of the week outside of parliament took place which was door knocking. We visited Corfe Mullen to hand out the surveys that we had stuffed the previous day. Upon returning to office after having a chat with Simon on all forms of political and non-political issues we are lunch and sat for our debate which resulting in a tie of votes.
The whole week was a joy to have experienced and was sad to leave the office as everyone was so nice to work with and the chance to get an insight of the MP work which I intend to go into was amazing. This may have been work experience but it was a week I won’t forget.