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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you have even known a member of the government

276 replies

Alexiaridesagain · 09/01/2021 21:07

And what are they like in real life by senior I mean
-Boris
-Priti Patel
-Rishi Sunak
-Dominic Cummings
-gavin Williamson
-Micheal Gove
-etc

OP posts:
qwertyl · 10/01/2021 09:36

I went to school with Rishi. He was lovely. Hard working, kind and genuinely lovely guy.

LemonDrizzles · 10/01/2021 09:38

The gove person married a therapist.

And there were just so many witty brothers. If you went to that school around that time, odds would always be you would at least have a class with them

IncludeWomenInTheSequel · 10/01/2021 09:53

@Agirlnamedsam

Years ago Donald Dewar came to my house for an interview. I was doing my higher modern studies and decided to contact him to ask a few questions: so one Thursday evening he came to my house to answer them. He was a lovely man
How lovely of him!
Buttybach · 10/01/2021 09:55

My dad was the spitting image of paddy ashdown in the 80s and would have people asking him if he was him!

AuldReekieCreakymemory · 10/01/2021 10:40

@FeelTheRush

Possibly outing myself but Anneliese Dodds was my class teacher at university (she was doing her PhD at the time and I was an undergraduate) - she was lovely, really cared about her students and very hard working.
I suspect we were at the same uni at the same time then....as the above applies to me too!
Lepetitpiggy · 10/01/2021 10:58

Not in the cabinet but our MP is lovely. I asked him if I could interview im for a magazine I was writing for at the time and he was more than happy to - even asking where would be best for me for us to meet. He is incredibly tall and slightly scarily imposing but we had such an excellent chat. And he's a bloody good MP.

GreenlandTheMovie · 10/01/2021 11:02

Not the current government, but an SNP MP was my former boss at a former workplace. 5 months into the job, I found out I'd been employed on the bottom rate of the pay scale while the two male graduates had been employed on the second from top. There was also one man in the office who DJ'd in his spare time who was constantly off sick, as in 50% sickness, and he just used to say "What a boy, eh?" when we tried to complain about having to cover his work. He also took me aside one day and complained about the very normal jacket I wore to work. Tolerated other bad behaviour going on in his office from men. The most sexist environment I had ever worked in.

I met Nick Clegg when I moved onto better things. Very bright, well informed and sincere. Speaks another European language completely fluently. I've also met a few EU MEPs (varied) and judges (all brilliant and full of interesting conversation/helpful).

I kniw a couple of people who've met Gordon Brown who were disappointed in how unhelpful he was re local issues in his own constituency, who described him as "arrogant" and "up his own backside" respectively.

lightand · 10/01/2021 11:05

Yes, a current high up one[not on that list] dated a friend of mine for a few months. Said at the time he wanted to become a politican, and I didnt believe it, and certainly didnt think he would become one!

ViaGetty · 10/01/2021 11:05

@avocadoinasidecar

A member of my family is an MP for a political party that none of us support, including her own parents. We don't keep in touch.
Why not? Confused
MrsSchadenfreude · 10/01/2021 11:10

I’m close friends, and went out briefly with a former junior minister. I have photos of him from my 18th birthday smoking what may or may not have been a very large cigarette.

Boris is arrogant and doesn’t listen.

Not government, but I used to know Stuart Polak, who went to Israel with Priti Patel very well, when he headed up Conservative Friends of Israel.

I also agree with what others have said about the Blairs. Cherie is really nice, good company and loves karaoke.

CounsellorTroi · 10/01/2021 11:13

My DH knows someone who was at Oxford with Ann Widdecombe. Said she was great fun then.

avocadoinasidecar · 10/01/2021 11:20

A member of my family is an MP for a political party that none of us support, including her own parents. We don't keep in touch.

Why not?

If you knew who they were and what they are like as an individual you wouldn't be asking that question. They're not a nice person to spend time with so I don't.

CathyorClaire · 10/01/2021 11:25

I hoped thought you might mean in the biblical sense, OP.

MrsSchadenfreude · 10/01/2021 11:25

Oh I had forgotten Ann Widdecombe. She was our neighbour in the 1990s. She was thoroughly unpleasant and used to write threatening letters to the board of management of the block of flats on House of Commons paper.

SebastianTheCrab · 10/01/2021 11:33

@peanutbutterbiscuits

I went to school with Samantha Cameron (not Cabinet I appreciate, but close). She is lovely, I remember her as quiet, and unassuming, with a calmness about her. She is also a natural blond. Her sister however was a different character entirely.
Ooh I want more info about Emily! Can't believe her career ascendency either...
BikeRunSki · 10/01/2021 11:34

I grew up in SW1 and delivered papers to much i op f the cabinet of the time. The transport minister lived next door but 1. Kenneth Baker (education, inventor of Inset Days, originally known as Baker Days) was on my paper round. DM and his wife were friends, but DF couldn’t stand him. Their DS is the same age as me, I didn’t especially like or dislike him. Don’t remember much about their DD.

More recently, I have a good friend who went to university with Dominic Raab. She is not very complimentary about him.

LadyEloise · 10/01/2021 11:34

Two posters have commented on John and Norma Major being nice.
I sometimes wonder how Norma got over the affair John had with Edwina Currie.
When it was revealed I was Shock

Dailyhandtowelwash · 10/01/2021 11:36

@MrsSchadenfreude

Oh I had forgotten Ann Widdecombe. She was our neighbour in the 1990s. She was thoroughly unpleasant and used to write threatening letters to the board of management of the block of flats on House of Commons paper.
Which is against the rules and should have been reported to the Commissioner for Standards.

I worked with politicians for twenty years and would agree with PP who say that the Blair Government had the best. A few odd ones there but plenty of genuinely impressive people. From the coalition onwards it’s been a depressing turn. And I have worked with and got on (or the reverse) with politicians of all parties so it’s not about the politics.

itsgettingweird · 10/01/2021 11:43

@SquirtleSquad

I've slept with one senior politician. I was ashamed of it pre 2020 and now when he pops up on the news or the updates it makes my vagina want a chemical peel.
Just spat coffee out at that 🤣🤣🤣
SwedishEdith · 10/01/2021 11:43

@avocadoinasidecar

A member of my family is an MP for a political party that none of us support, including her own parents. We don't keep in touch.
That's got to be Liz Truss, surely?
BikeRunSki · 10/01/2021 11:52

I have met Ed Milliband several times for work, and shine him round my building site (I work on flood defences in his constituency , which is very vulnerable to flooding). He’s nice to chat to, not entirely convinced he understood what we are doing. His aide has a really nice bag!!

itsgettingweird · 10/01/2021 11:53

My lecturer for part of my degree is now my local MP. Completely different party than I would support and seems to have opposing politics to that party. But lovely guy, genuinely concerned about social politics and equality, does a lot locally and has made some really positive changes.

In fact I only think he stands for the party he does because it's a good way to get in - we are a firm stronghold here!

DoctorYang · 10/01/2021 11:54

My sister used to babysit Matt Hancock's children. I never met him but she said he was a rude arse and they didn't even offer her a cup of tea.

Topsy1976 · 10/01/2021 12:00

I know Rachel Reeves. She is lovely, very smart and very committed.

TaraR2020 · 10/01/2021 12:03

@chatnicknameyousuggested

I live next door to a very famous retired politician, still beloved of the people. He is obsessed with Smints. We are not in the UK so this probably isn't of interest to anyone!
@chatnicknameyousuggested ...how does the Saint obsession manifest?