THE OTHER DAY AS I WAS GOING INTO PARLIAMENT, the police doing the security check mentioned that they had never known such a busy recess, with so many MPs still around.

There are reasons why MPs aren't all off on their summer holidays. And it's not because MPs are frightened to be in their constituencies following all the expexpenses revelations!

I've been interviewing people for a  vacant Westminster job, so that's why I am about the palace. Others are there to clear out their offices. There are about 100 MPs standing down at the next election. So far, that is. I predict a lot more will make announcements after the party conferences. When an election is called and Parliament is dissolved, that's it. All the offices have to be vacated whether you are standing down or not. Not even staff are allowed any access. We know that there will be an election before June 2010, so the summer recess before an election is the time MPs clear out the office. Although I'm standing again, I've been taking the time to tidy up, too, between interviews. Old copies of Hansard, decade-old policy documents and discussion papers, long since implemented or forgotten about have gone into the recycling bin.

I think I will keep all the anonymous poison pen letters - they are so over the top. I haven't had many in the past couple of years as they have largely been replaced by the anonymous abusive email!  

Whatever the reason for MPs being around, the atmosphere is less formal than normal - staff and MPs dressed in civvies...and no whips. Joy!
Well known names that I've seen in the past couple of says have been John Reed (chinos), Ann Widecombe (in jaunty black and white stripy top), Simon Hughes (chinos), and William Hague (chinos). Is there something about men of a certain age that they swap the regulation business suit for regulation chinos when go casual? I haven't seen the PM, though (that's Peter Mandelson). This reminds me of something I jotted down in a notebook I was referring to the other day. It read: 'PM spoken to PM who briefed PM.' Eh? Translated, it means: Pat McFadden has spoken to Peter Mandelson who has briefed the Prime Minster. This was during the Lindsey oil refinery protests at the beginning of the year.

I digress...

I've also seen a number of Labour backbenchers - Tony Lloyd, who chairs the Parliamentary Labour Party, Selby MP, John Grogan, and Phyllis Starkey with her grandson, and others. There's a few Lib Dems. Not many Tories, though. A lot of London MPs tend to be about during recess anyway. And duty ministers sometimes come in when they are not in their departments. Contrary to popular belief, ministerial work continues through the recess.

Apart from the joy of no whips trying to control the minds of backbenchers, there are no political and lobby journalists. They vanished all at once. The very people who were raging only a few weeks ago that it was an outrage to have a long recess! They will reappear for the party conferences at the end of September. As one former MP who now writes for a newspaper told me that when be was an MP, he was never really off duty. During the recess, the case work, paperwork, advice surgeries and campaigning all continued. But now he really could 'bugger off for six weeks'.

What does happen each summer recess is repairs and maintenance. As soon as the recess begins, the skips move in. The Palace of Westminster is a World Heritage Site and a Grade 1 listed building and as such needs to be repaired and maintained to a high standard. The summer recess is when all the major projects are carried out. This year, the cast-iron roof (it leaks) and the bronze window frames (they leak, too, or don't open) are being repaired and refurbished.

Once, when Labour MPs were in the division lobby, large drips were falling through the ceiling on to the heads of those below. It turned out to be a leaking urinal on the floor above! Says a lot, doesn't it?

13 August 2009