Members of Parliament under stress: Stress as the rule

We read headlines about Members of Parliament i.e. Ministers that fail to keep their tax affairs in order, sexual misconduct, harassment, vacations abroad when they should be delivering on their promises, et cetera, and we tend to treat Members of Parliament as a class apart. There are in theory 650 Members of Parliament, although in fact elected Sinn Fein MPs fail to attend the House of Commons because of their stances on Ireland and Northern Ireland. Some are very wealthy because of their own professional and business careers outside Parliament and others simply have to make do with what they get from salaries, privileges ande exemptions.

For those who represent London constituencies or nearby constituenties, life should not be that bad or any different from many other jobs in the capital city. For others who represent constituencies far away from London, life is constant travel to and from their constituencies and London. In recent times, given even of public notoriety, on top of the workload comes a series of reasons to be stressed. We are not far from another General Election. This means the fears of not being re-elected and of the consequences of not being re-elected. After very public tragedies, there is also the fear of being harassed, attacked or killed.

For whatever reason, apart from the obvious political reasons, your life could be on public display and this includes unwanted attention or attention for all the wrong reasons. This is something that is bound to have an impact on you personally and on the lives of all those close to you and especially on members of your own close family.

Once you stand for public office, you are a marked man or a marked woman. Whatever you said or didn't say, whatever you did or didn't do will be on record for all to see and you will be constantly reminded about it. So, yes, there is a lot of stress involved and especially if you are trying to do what you are supposed to be doing. You might lose your job not because of being doing a bad job, but simply because of public perception, because of what something else has done or is believed to have done.

Would you like stand for Member of Parliament? Well, although in some cases there is no shortage of candidates, in certain constituencies local associations struggle to find suitable candidates. Some are genuinely afraid of facing the stigma of being associated with a given political party. Family relationships will change. Friends might no longer be friend. Working prospects might change. You could become unemployable. If you are single or looking for a relationship, you will no longer be yourself. You will be so and so of a certain political party. People who have never met you will talk about you, write about you, invent things about you and some will despise you merely because you are associated with a given political party.

So, yes, being a Member of Parliament or being identified with a given political party can be a certain source of stress for all  kinds of reasons.