"It smells like urine" - what it's really like to work in Parliament | The New Statesman
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.พ. 2023
- “We just don't have job security” - Labour researcher Jenny Symmons.
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Jenny Symmons and Holly Brazier Tope are senior researchers for Labour MPs and representatives of parliamentary staff for the GMB union. They join Anoosh Chakelian and Zoë Grünewald to delve into the working conditions, power imbalances and abuses that take place within Westminster.
The guests open up about the problems at their workplace, ranging from diseased drinking water, fires and asbestos to bullying, outrageous assignments and sexual misconduct.
The team discuss the dangers of being employed by an individual MP, including poor pay and being fired at will, why parliamentary staffers are considering strike action, and whether a more inclusive and less toxic workplace is possible.
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Oh dear, oh dear and we wonder why we are governed the way we are and why our country is in such a bloody mess. They literally couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. What a shambles.
For anyone curious:
MPs with the highest rate of staff turnover from February 2017-August 2022 (accounting for job changes and office reductions):
1. Claudia Webbe (Labour MP since 2019)
2. Katherine Fletcher (Conservative MP since 2019)
3. Louie French (Conservative MP since 2021)
4. Neil Hudson (Conservative MP since 2019)
5. Chi Onwurah (Labour MP since 2010)
6. Chris Loder (Conservative MP since 2019)
7. Lee Anderson (Conservative MP since 2019)
8. Catherine McKinnell (Labour MP since 2010)
9. Sarah Champion (Labour MP since 2012)
10. Luke Pollard (Labour MP since 2017)
Lee Anderson, not surprised
Class is the elephant in the room. Every staffer in politics sound like they went to Eaton or Roedean.
@@jeffkitson9565 yes, because we need to keep class on the agenda, not liberal ID politics
@@jeffkitson9565 no because you can only discuss wealth distribution if you fully understand class, the 2 go hand in hand
Shocking ! Multi skilled professionals treated worse than navvies..☝️❤️🌍
This is the workplace culture in every workplace in America. I suspect it is happening in other UK workplaces as well. Everyone thinks they are special, and some workplaces are relatively special. But fetishizing and romanticizing the pain of working in Parliament (or other high status workplaces) takes attention away from the fact that this is a problem endemic to this, totally changeable, version of capitalism.
Hi Jenny and Holly, are you able to give some insight into the cause of the urine smell?
So basically Dickensian England is alive and well.
Worldbeating😂😂😂😂😂
The pissy uplands.
You should attempt to get a couple of MP’s on your show to respond. From someone viewing in Australia.
omg i feel so bad for them... even the way they sit and carry themselves is a trauma response. this is how people who have undergone domestic abuse talk during police interview.
i'm really struggling to believe they work for Labour MPs... the people they've worked for sound so heartless and cruel.
I'd like reform but I can never see MPs voting for reform which will give themselves less power and control.
Some Labour MPs are absolutely horrible, I won't name any but think Bristol West / Bermondsey and Old Southwark
Labour MPs are as human as any other MP, and therefore have exactly the same capacity to be heartless and cruel (e.g. Claudia Webbe, Christina Rees, Chris Matheson, Neil Coyle). To suggest that someone is less likely to be an immoral person because of their political affiliation is ridiculous.
How can you work for people who have absolutely no morals,there believes flutter about in the wind,these people are there for one thing,,the money and the fiddles ,
No wonder the red wall was lost
At least we have 50/50 equality in the top ten of highest staff turnover, so it looks like men and women are as bad as each other lol
If you like being bullied or want to become a bully then great.
Lot of talk of 'taking it out on staff!?'
Sounds like bullying to me .
They dont sound happy
What an amazing insight. Thanks.
But really, who, if not very rich, arrogant, entitled white men over 50 should rule?
Are these staffers actually suggesting like ordinary people should be MPs?
Makes sense that it smells like urine, after all they do talk a lot of pish.
Miss Smedley-smythe and Penelope Chumley-warner thanks for the hard work you do for us plebs
Presumably you need connections to get the kind of jobs refered to here.
OMG!, Having to buy a belt, for a man, that's like, disgraceful. I love the New Statesman, but this is just so self-indulgent
They didn't even say it was a man. The part about not having a belt to match their outfit sounded more like a woman.
Yeah that doesn't sound like the best example. Expecting your staff to babysit your staff however, yes
ALCATRAZ new Cuba
Thoroughly depressing interview
Not UKRAINE?
Cry me a river
Well. That was boring.
Haha!
Don't be so dismissive of your own comment.
@@robinlox99 Aha! Alan Partridge.
@@eightiesmusic1984 Was that supposed to be clever, opaque... or just boring ?
@@eightiesmusic1984 Well, I listened to 10 minutes of boring crap, I thought I'd return the favour... seems I found a ready audience.