Jobs for wife

It seems extraordinary now, but not that long ago there was no such personage as the GP’s receptionist

Indeed, apart from a junior partner, most GPs employed no staff at all

His wife would be expected to do the support job, such as it was, at least to the extent of keeping track of his movements & answering the phone

Clergy wives had duties too. A friend of mine recalls, with some bitterness, how the vicar’s wife (my friend’s husband was her husband’s curate) used to think it her duty to inspect & criticise the way my friend starched & ironed the surplices

At least you usually knew if you were marrying a doctor or a clergyman

I always felt sorry for Mary Wilson, who had thought that she was marrying an Oxford don rather than a future prime minister

I know of one politician’s wife who ran away the day before the Queen arrived on an official visit (not in this country) – she was taken aback & by surprise when she turned out to have married a politician & the strain of all those public duties just got too much. She never came back

I am not sure how much the vicar’s wife, or husband, is still considered, ipso facto, ex officio, part of the team (unpaid), but a GP’s wife these days is unlikely to have any such duties

One outcome of the present imbroglio is likely to be a revolt of the partners & spouses. In fact, as Alice Thomson has written, wives in particular are likely just to refuse to countenance it

And then there are the children: those of the vicarage & the police house used to come under a special kind of pressure. Now only the children of politicians face this

Is it possible to go back to the days when it was not a condition, an inflexible expectation, that an MP (plus family) actually live in the constituency? Even teachers these days tend to prefer mot to live in the same area as their school, to escape the curiosity of pupils (& their parents) about their private lives & spare time activities

Agents still have an important - & accepted – role in the constituency of at least the prime minister & Speaker

Perhaps it is time to bring them back in a modern role

Link
Blame the MPs,* not the poor long-*suffering spouses

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A woman once in politics