What it’s like to work for a Member of Parliament while studying abroad

I’m a political science major with an unhealthy obsession with governmental processes, so I was excited to begin an internship for a Member of Parliament while studying abroad in London. Having interned for a member of Congress during high school, I was sure that I knew what working for a Member of Parliament, or MP, would entail.

I began my internship armed only with unshakeable confidence, and a security pass that gave me access to the locked doors of the famed Houses of Parliament.

My internship turned out to be far more of a learning experience than I expected. Aside from my continual astonishment that the British government allowed a twenty-year-old American girl nearly unfettered access to the Parliamentary estate, I was surprised to learn that Parliament is very different from Congress.

While working for Karl McCartney, an MP for the Lincoln constituency and member of the Conservative Party majority, I noticed a few major differences between British and American politics.

My first day at the internship

Just because they’re British, it doesn’t mean MPs keep calm

Before arriving in London, I had formulated most of my ideas regarding British culture based on Downton Abbey. As such, I was expecting a stoic and staid political atmosphere, an assumption that was almost immediately proven wrong. The debating culture of the House of Commons is really different from that of Congress; Members of Parliament, or MPs, are constantly interrupting each other.

Every Wednesday there is an event called Prime Minister’s Questions, where MPs, including opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, get to ask Prime Minister David Cameron anything they wish. At PMQs, the ambience is more akin to a WWE match than a political forum: there is a lot of jeering, booing, stomping of feet, and cheering. To an American who enjoys the calm debates found on C-SPAN, this was very disconcerting.

MPs are friendlier than you might expect

The office atmosphere was far more casual than I had expected. When I worked for Congressman Steve Israel in New York, the office culture was very formal. I rarely saw the congressman, and when I did see him, I would never have dared to refer to him by his first name.

During my time at Parliament, I had many interactions with Karl McCartney. He was constantly in the office, and occasionally even bought me snacks. He also insisted that I call him “Karl.” Whenever I met other MPs, they were similarly friendly, treating me less like a lowly intern and more like a regular person (who just happened to be a lowly intern).

Houses of Parliament

Convention is still key in the Houses of Parliament

Despite this casual office atmosphere, there are a lot of formal traditions in Parliament which seem odd to an American, such as MPs referring to their colleagues as “the honorable gentleman” or “the honorable lady.” Furthermore, every time a Parliamentary session began, the Speaker of the House—who is an impartial moderator—would march into the House of Commons escorted by guards.

Oh, and there’s that whole thing about the second house of Parliament, the House of Lords, being filled with aristocracy. I found the dichotomy between informality and tradition quite jarring when walking around Parliament; I never knew how to act politely, since the rules seemed to change depending on where I was going.

Campaigns are quick

Campaign culture in the UK is very different as well. The UK is currently preparing for a referendum vote on whether or not it should leave the EU. Karl McCartney is part of the “Brexit” campaign, which is in favor of Great Britain leaving the EU. While I disagree with this position, by virtue of his stance, I got to see the operations of the campaign from a Parliamentary perspective.

However, unlike American campaigns, which last for months or even years, the campaign for the EU referendum is only ten weeks. Campaigns are therefore super fast and partisan: they may only last a few weeks, but they consume the news cycle for that period of time.

My office door

Party politics are just as poisonous

Party politics do as much damage in the UK as they do in the US. While there are many parties in Parliament, British citizens really see their government as a two party system, with Labour and the Conservatives being the two dominant factions. Currently Labour and the Conservatives are in an uneasy alliance as they campaign to remain in the EU, but there are significant divisions in the two parties regarding the campaign. For example, McCartney, a Conservative MP, has broken with party leadership in his desire to leave the EU.

I’m no stranger to partisanship, but it was interesting to see the effect of factional politics within a different country’s context.