WHAT WILL YOU DO NEXT?

The challenge for an Ex MP.

Three weeks after election day and already the standard questions have established a familiar pattern, which invariably conclude with What will you do next? Or the more ominous sounding “What will you do?”

I am not alone, there are many like me, indeed a point drummed home when I attended the virtual meeting with former colleagues who are being offered support by Parliament.

Most people have a view about MPs, whether it be good or bad, everyone has and opinion, and developing that robust thick skin that renders you immune to the daily social media onslaught and the horrors of a public facing email address. I think I can safely tick the RESILIENCE when updating my skills on Linked in.

I’m reminded of a constituent who had brought someone into see me at a surgery and I overheard the conversation with my team member, “So what exactly does Peter do?”. Being an MP is done in 650 different ways, in 650 different places, we are all essentially doing the same Job but its how we make the job our own seat that makes it unique. You effectively get to LEAD a community, a group of volunteers, a team of your own staff, and depending on the roles you take on in Parliament your colleagues too. So on the basis of that I think I should tick the LEADERSHIP box too.

Asking 70,000 people to pick you to do something requires a certain level of self belief, and conviction. Its pretty nerve wracking, but you need to be bold and AMBITOUS. I don’t believe anyone gets to Parliament without being ambitious, so I’m going to tick that skill too.

No one trusts Politicians. Its literally rule 101 of public life. From a twenty year career in the law before being elected where my advice and opinion was sought, and indeed paid for, adding the letters MP after your name instantly puts you in that box of people not to be believed and not to be trusted. So how to overcome that? Well I think I did an OK job of overcoming that. Doing what you say you will do, replying to everyone, and always following through on the actions you agree. I will be honest, honestly, that was not a difficult thing to do as I had being doing it for my clients in practice for twenty years. So I do believe I am TRUSTED. Another skill I can demonstrate on my profile.

Having returned from a day in a local river with the Environment Agency, wetsuit, waders, lifejacket, safety harness and the obligatory high vis, and the obligatory social media post with photographs (everything has to be photographed now) a close friend messaged me drawing the conclusion that I was perhaps a Blue Peter Presenter in a former life. The life of an MP is nothing if not varied, and handling that variety requires DRIVE and DETERMINATION.

Putting in a regular 80 hour week solidly for the last four and half years at two ends of the country, managing a team of staff in three locations, staying on top of your casework, your parliamentary timetable, not to mention the “optional” compulsory extra visits to charities,? business, groups and organisations requires POSITIVITY levels which have to come from somewhere. There cant be many jobs where you move quickly from spending hours in a surgery appointment with a bereaved parent to then cutting the ribbon at village fayre. ?COMPASSION, EMPATHY, and UNDERSTANDING are also required.

NETWORKING is in my view the key to the job of an MP. I was lucky enough to have been ”networking” all across the North of England promoting my business before being elected so I had already got some of these skill under my belt. From meeting every faith group, every school leader, every charity organiser, every residents association it was absolutely essential to built a helicopter view of my constituency. To better understand their problems, see trends and patterns and perhaps most importantly just listen or connect them to someone else I had already met. You are either a born networker or you are not and I think I am.

We can all go on media training course and learn how to write a press release, but becoming an MP puts you very quickly on Krypton Factor style assault course in Public Relations. From appearing on live TV, to pre-recorded interviews, to having a microphone thrust into your face on the walk into work, you need to be ready to respond. So I’m going to add a bit of PUBLIC RELATIONS to my skills list, and that’s without talking about managing social media channels, websites, writing press articles, publishing countless newsletters and publicity documents, or giving the “comment” to the local paper before 1pm “otherwise we’ll say you ignored us” .

Add to all of this the COMPLIANCE with Parliamentary Authorities on your business costs (everyone else calls them expenses but they really are business costs), declaring your interests and adhering to the NOLAN PRINCIPLES.

So my question is how do I package all that, and my visits to Defence Establishments, The Stock Exchange, The Bank of England, multiple engineering and manufacturing businesses, and my work on Special Educational Needs, my interfaith work, my work to help secure the further roll out of OPT Out HIV testing, my work to support our Hospice Movement, my Private Members legislation to improve Taxi Safety, my work on the Women & Equalities Select Committee, and much much more.

I last applied for a job in August 1998. More more than a quarter of a century ago, and I now need to write a CV that encapsulates all of the above. Which has all just happened in the last five years. That’s all before I start to put my near fifteen years building a regional law firm in the next previous box on the next line of the application form.

So in answer to the question: What will you do next? I am not sure - but I am really excited about the prospect of finding out and finding the right organisations where I can write my next chapter and hopefully theirs too. ?