Monday, May 17, 2010

The politics of the family

Jo Johnson, brother of Boris, has been elected Conservative MP – for Orpington, scene of the famous by election win of Eric Lubbock which marked the modern revival of the Liberal Party – or so it seemed at the time.

Harriet’s husband also won election & so joins his wife in the Commons, alongside Mr & Mrs Balls - & the brothers Miliband of course. Mohammad Sarwar’s son succeeded to his father’s Glasgow seat.

So despite the loss of at least two husband/wife pairings on the Conservative side, politics is still very much a family business. That is without taking account of any partnership pairings of which I may be unaware. If you add in the number of MPs who are closely related to a member of the upper house that is quite a haul. Makes the attempt to bar the employment of family members in an MPs office seem even more pointless as well as unfair.