Among the more ludicrous criticisms of our politicians is the one that accuses them of taking long holidays, when they ought to work as hard as the rest of us
In the middle of the 19th century parliament usually sat only from February through August. The other 5 months of the year MPs were free to do other things – though I am not sure if the great Parliamentary Commissions of Enquiry, the ones which produced all those magnificent Blue Books (slated by Dickens in Hard Times) carried on with their work or not
I cannot help but feel that it would be a Good Thing if we reverted to that practice. We would get less frenetic legislation & MPs could spend their time doing more real things outside the Westminster hothouse
And morning news programmes would be better too
