WhatDidEdwardSay

It does of course depend on who you speak to you, but I spoke with friends/colleagues in all of the major parties (except the DUP because I don't know anyone there) and it was just universal confusion - why didn't the PM just get Cummings to put his hands up and say 'I did this bad thing, here is why I did it, I now recognise that I shouldn't have and I'm sorry'?

If they were sensible, Cummings would have done just that and offered to resign only to have the PM refuse his resignation. The problem is that - as the country saw - Cummings is an egomaniac who is pulling the strings and the PM is willing to sacrifice almost anything for him.

The overwhelming majority of politicians genuinely want to do good things and would pour their heart and soul into fighting for their constituents and the causes they believe in. I think the uncomfortable truth is that a fair chunk of that number, through no failing or fault of their own, just don't have the ability to do that job well. There are, of course, some lazy bastards who get away with doing almost nothing - especially in the two major parties.

Hm, good question. I don't think the UK has had anything close to a coherent foreign policy for the past five years because any discussion of anything abroad has been tied into Brexit - the Government was undertaking a big review of this which has now been paused post-corona. The PM is giving a speech on "Global Britain" tomorrow in the Commons tomorrow so we might find out more then...

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Something that might not be "top priority", but should be talked about much more is the Horizon Post Office scandal. Horizon was the computer system used by post offices across the country which was faulty and led to thousands of postmasters being accused of theft of thousands of pounds after money went "missing" in the system; in many cases they were convicted and imprisoned for it because there was no way the computer could be wrong. At least one person killed themselves as a result of the pressure to repay the missing money. For something that has been described as the "largest miscarriage of justice in our history", you don't hear an awful lot about it.

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However, I think the absolute top priority should be electoral reform: the two-party system is fundamentally broken and leads to people feeling completely disenfranchised and like their vote doesn't count. But I am sure you are all too familiar with the reasons why the two parties will never go for reform!

I studied a subject related to my policy area, interned at big-name organisations for two summers during and (after a time doing shit jobs and living at home) found a policy role in a completely different area where I worked for a few years. The time came for me to job-hunt, I saw this job advertised and applied!

Before the interview, I was relatively on top of the policy stuff (I thought), but I was told by a friend to read the recent tweets of the MPs who were interviewing me and see what they've been thinking about recently. I was able to speak about quite niche topics they obviously had a long-running interest in which I think definitely helped at interview. I also basically memorised the relevant section of the most recent manifesto which was a life-saver as I was asked what I would have changed if I had written it myself.

It turns out that I had actually met one of the MPs before - they had attended an event I had organised while at uni, and they still remembered me. I am sure that helped as well.

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I was never involved in local politics, although now that I see how rewarding it can be I do wish I had gotten involved a little sooner. I have been a party member for around most of my adult life though. To be honest I am not mad about party politics and I find these people who 'live and breathe for the party' a bit unhinged / wannabe career politicians. IMO parties should be broad churches and vehicles for getting towards a shared vision of the future, not an identity.

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Also, reading u/yaquresh's comment, I would also add that I come from a working class background (first to go to uni, etc.) with zero family contacts in London, let alone Westminster.

The shouty bits, not so much. The general making it up as you go along? Definitely.