Your Comments

The setup of this website is one of the worst I have ever seen. The presentation of the contents has no consistency of color or layout. The page is far too busy, the eye being drawn to too many places on the page at once. It took me far longer than acceptable to find out what link I wanted to click. Very poorly done indeed.

[This fan didn't give us his/her name, sadly, but we do agree with quite a bit of what s/he says.  So much so that we have rebuilt the website and plan to launch the new version in February 2004.  Watch this space!]

I was astonished at the number of applications received in response to out job ad. Although a lot of applicants do not have the experience required, probably a third looked promising and there are several very high quality applications.  L B

Thanks for helping me let out the other room in my flat - lots of interest within a week!. S D

You will be pleased to know that I refer to working4anmp website often - an invaluable source of all kinds of information and I know many others who feel the same. N R

I am looking to travel to England next year following completion of my studies in Australia. Having worked for an MP and Cabinet Minister in Australia, your website is a wonderful place to start reading about possible employment or work experience opportunities with a British MP. It would seem there is a great spirit amongst staffers.  D S

Thank you very much for posting our advert for the job vacancy.  I have to compliment you on an excellent website and thank you for the brilliant results we've had.  I have been flooded with enquiries.  From this deluge we now have the difficult task of choosing between over a dozen extremely good CVs.  E M.

The response from your website to our ad has been huge - more than expected. Many thanks - its a great website!  S M.

Thanks for providing the Noticeboard service.  I had lots of interest and no problem letting the property. W4MP has come through again!  D C.

This is an absolutely fantastic website! I have recently returned to the UK after spending most of my life in Australia, working for a number of years in politics. It can be at times a very lonely, isolating experience but this website goes a long way to addressing that problem. I am currently looking to work for an MP and very glad I found this very helpful site. I look forward to having more personal contact with other people working for MP's. Keep up the good work!  S L

Fantastic site helped in finding a job in the House and also helped me through the induction process and is still helping find out where I need to find things. Thanks and you're doing a really good job.  I H.

May I take this opportunity to say that I am very grateful for your website - it is brimming with useful information and a great resource.  Many thanks and kind regards, S N

Just to say that I have used "Ask a Genius" on several occasions now and I am very impressed with the prompt response I receive and the quality of the information provided. Thank you. D D.

Thank you for providing such a useful service [the Jobs page] on your website. We had a lot of very good applicants for the post and have successfully appointed someone who applied through www.working4anmp.co.uk  We will be using it again! R S

Thanks for the induction day yesterday I found it very useful. Everyone should do it.  C I.

I find your website refreshing and informative and invaluable for those out in the constituencies.  S C.

I gave my copy of the W4MP handbook to a new member of staff in my old job who started in September and didn't receive one. My MP mislaid his in the hectic time after he came to Westminster. Please, please can we have an extra copy, we can't do without!  J B

I have just returned to working for an MP in the wake of the changes to OCA. What a fantastic resource this site is - I wish you'd been there the first time around! M M.

I'm getting a great response to my job advert.  Well done to your site.  S L  MP

I got my job through the Working for an MP web site, for which I shall be eternally grateful!  R P

The advice you have given me about possible internships at the House of Commons has been incredibly helpful.  M L

Thanks for getting hold of sound advice for us on using our new computer;  it has made all the difference.  D J

I am very grateful for the helpful hints you managed to collect for me on how to write a brief for a speech by my MP.  Please thank those who gave you the benefit of their experience on this.  J N

We love the website - it has been so helpful  E D and L R

"Thank you for advertising the jobs on the web site. We had a great response with a very high calibre of candidates".  N W

"Definitely a very helpful site for those of us thrown in at the deep end by our new employers!! Thanks for the hardcopy version which will no doubt become surgically attached to me!"  C E

"Very struck by the usefulness of your booklet [the hardcopy version of the website].  I think it will be much valued, not just by MPs and their staff, but by Members and staff in the National Assembly for Wales, Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly, too."   H L. AM

"The new 'Working for an MP' booklet is a great help not only to MPs staff, but sometimes to MPs too. From personal experience I know that it's sometimes hard to know all the relevant procedures for every single eventuality we face in our daily work in Parliament. I know that this new booklet and the Working for an MP website has been a good first point of contact for our office so far and has helped, on occasions to save us a lot of time - which, as any busy office worker can tell you, is invaluable. I would recommend that every MPs office should have a copy  handy for that unavoidable head-scratching moment when you have no idea who you should be asking what and why. We all have those moments, but at least now you won't have to admit it to your colleagues!"  A R.  MP

"I have used this site many, many times and have found it extremely useful. It just seems to be getting better. Thanks."  L G

"Excellent site. Keep up the good work - makes me feel as if someone out there is aware of my existence!"  R J.

"Just to say thank you very much for your help with our advert.  We have had lots of interest from people who saw the ad on the Working for an MP website." London MP

"This is just brilliant.  I just wish it was up and running a couple of years ago when I first started at Westminster.  The tone of the site is just right, sardonic without being completely ridiculous - you have to laugh or you'll end up crying!  I think it's important for the site not to take itself too seroiusly;  we have to deal with enough of that professionally already.   Keep up the good work."  S S.

"London School of Economics interns can now find out what it is really like to work in Westminster. This site will be an invaluable resource to our students. It gives LSE interns background information to working in Parliament and we will be recommending it as essential reading for all our new recruits." C E. LSE Parliamentary Intern Scheme.  Click here for more information or go to:   http://www.lse.ac.uk/depts/ppg/interns

At last found time to look at your web-site - wish I had had this for staff when I was a new MP - my version was not nearly so good (partly because I did not know my own way around) - and it was not nearly so humorous - and you certainly need a good sense of humour to work in an MP's office. 
L G MP.

"A clever website packed with handy hints for researchers and others who work in the Palace of Westminster or in constituencies. The site is aimed at insiders, but gives a good flavour of the sort of political life that rarely makes it onto Newsnight." From The Guardian's Politics links website at: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/westminster/page/0,9132,442756,00.html [Thanks! The website is increasingly being linked from other political sites.]

Excellent! Full of useful advice and sources of information. I'd welcome more information for constituency workers;  eg. casework issues - what sorts of action an MP can or can't take on behalf of individual constituents. L R.
[Have a look at the "Everyday Tasks" Guide.  There's quite a bit in there about which issues should be taken on by MPs and what needs referring on to other agencies.]

What a brilliant idea and such a user-friendly site. Will now be able to keep in touch with all goings on and tips of the trade, from our Constituency Office in Scotland. Well done and keep it up!     J L.

I thought the site was very good and could certainly have done with it when I started.   Two minor suggestions:
a) circulate leaflets advising of your existence to MPs or the Fees Office so that they can pass them on to new members of staff before, or as soon as, they start.   Otherwise there is the risk that the site - as with many other useful things here - will go undiscovered until accidentally stumbled upon.
b) In the social/refreshments part you have not mentioned the Millbank Room restaurant that is now open to all full passholders.   R B.
[a) We will contact the Pass Office and the Fees Office for help with this and also ask for a mention of the website in the new version of the Members' Handbook.
b) Thanks for the reminder.  We'll add it to the info. on Day Three of the Induction Guide.]

I am a final year student studying politics and economics and wish to work  for an MP as a Research Assistant. Could you please advise on the best way to go about obtaining work for an MP.   Russell H.
Would you consider putting in a section on the best way of approaching an MP for a job?  This would also include those looking for a post in their gap year or, for example, in the summer holidays?  Lord F.
I would like to know if you hold any details of MPs who require staff. N D.
[Yes, we are working on these suggestions and hope soon to have a 'Jobs' page advertising not only jobs with MPs but also opportunities with organisations which have a presence at Westminster.   In addition, we will be inviting member companies of the Industry and Parliament Trust to advertise jobs on the website.]

No mention of MSF trade union.  It would be good if we had our own chat room to talk about work related issues, especially with most of us spread all over the uk. P R
[Sorry for that omission.  We have asked for details of the MSF section which parliamentary staff have joined and will post them on the "Representation" page ASAP.  We also like the idea of a chat room, particularly for isolated constituency-based staff and will look at adding this to the website.]

At last, I can find the answer to all those questions that I have been embarrassed to ask.  M M

In your list of Government websites you omit Privy Council Office - launched summer 2000, it's the website for the department of Margaret Beckett MP, Leader of the House, and Paddy Tipping MP, Parliamentary Secretary. Address is http://www.privy-council.org.uk. Your site is really excellent - definitely has tips that even old-timers like me (almost 7 years around the place) hadn't yet picked up.  N C.
[OK, we've added that website.  Thanks.]

Paul Flynn has written a book called "Commons Knowledge", which basically explains how to be an MP, but has loads of useful info for MPs' staff too. It really helped me when I started working here! It's also on his website.  K L
[Have a look at www.paulflynnmp.co.uk - it will really cheer you up, particularly if you've just received yet another letter from your local Raving Bigot]

BRILLIANT. This will be extremely useful to us as well as new Members and their staff.    S W and A E - Admission Order Office staff

I am sure it will be an excellent resource for new staff - it is reassuring even for old ones!     R F

Excellent site! If I had the time and skill to have a go myself, this is exactly how I would have envisaged such a site.      R C

People don't say thank you enough - so, "thank you". Site is great. Wish we had it when I started.  K F

 
From Giles Coren's Diary - The Times 13 February 2001
The wit!    Creative writing at its very best!