Internship week 1- Rob Graham

For my internship, I am working for a Member of Parliament, Tom Brake. I split my time working at his constituency office about 30 minutes outside the city and the Westminster office. This week has been all about getting a feel for what the average problems Tom and his staff face in order to best serve their constituents as well as gathering data for the election next year.

I started on Tuesday and went to the office in Carshalton. The main work in the constituency office is casework. Someone who lives in the area represented by Tom will write in with a problem or his/her opinion on an issue. Our office will then research their case and send them a response in order to resolve the problem as best as possible. My job the first day was to take each case (sometimes consisting of entire packets of information), read through them in order to get a general feel of what the people care about and how we respond to letters, and then reorder the stack in alphabetical order so we can reference it later. After that, I tried my hand at proofreading. Unfortunately, the grammar rules are slightly different and I was informed to not add any more “American commas,” so that might not be my strength. I ended the first day learning how to sort mail.

The next day, I was sent out into the community to put up fliers in local businesses advertising a “politics and coffee” informal meeting. The weather turned out to be pretty nice after the first half hour, and it was nice to be able to walk around. When I cam back in, I was given a computer ID and taught how to enter information about voters into our database that we can use in the election next year. Volunteers had gone door to door earlier that month asking constituents their opinions on different issues and their general political positions. Using this data we can more effectively tailor information to individuals in leaflets, depending on what’s important to them.

Thursday was my first day in Westminster and was extremely cool. I met some more of the staff and was given the task of searching the newspapers for mentions of Tom, the local council, or the party. It was nice to be able to learn about the constituents and catch up on their news. The highlight of the day was lunch! The parliament cafeteria is great- has delicious food but at a fraction of the price I would pay in the surrounding tourist area. I also enjoyed being able to talk with my coworkers and find out more about them. One was from Mexico, another Poland, and the other Norway; it was quite the international experience. After lunch, I had my chance to work on casework of my own involving students asking for Tom’s views on the environment.

On Friday, I was back in Westminster with one of our other Americans. I was in charge of finding contact information for organizations around a specific area of Tom’s constituency in order for us to invite them to local events to report problems in to Tom. Obviously there are politics involved, but it impresses me how adamant Tom is to help and be of use to the people he represents. It’s refreshing to see for sure! After a quick lunch, I created some spreadsheets in order for us to organize petition signatures based on constituencies. So far I’m 950 through the 1600, definitely a lot of information.

I went back to the Carshalton office on Saturday morning to help with one of our Action Days. The entire staff will come in, and with the help of volunteers, will phone canvass, pass out leaflets, and go door to door to help report back on what Tom has been doing to represent them and give them the option to get more information. Tom represents around 100,000 people, a much more manageable number than U.S. senators. I think this is one of the reasons politicians feel so responsible to the people here, they have a much more close knit relationship with them then they do the lobbyist at Westminster.