Apart from voting, I never really paid too much attention to what was going on in That London by way of government and politics. That is, until the dreaded Covid, when I avidly watched the daily bulletins and quite soon started to realise that there was something rotten in the state of Denmark and that, although there were multiple occurrences of politicians being referred to various committees for investigation for various misdemeanours or worse, results of said committees were either too long in the coming and most people gave up waiting for conclusions or, quite simply, just ignored. Pritti Patel's bullying report being one of the obvious examples.
Anyhow, I was now on a mission to play catch-up with learning how things actually worked in Westminster. Not a simple task, but what I felt an important one.
But it was not until I finally managed to read this book that I actually understood the ins and outs of all things conduct and discipline (or lack thereof). All explained in a very easy, but not patronising, way. Peppered throughout by history and examples of previous breaches, it definitely was the gift that kept on giving. Containing some very shocking examples which appeared to be not worthy of any form of punishment or repercussion.
And, not only all that, but it has been written by someone with the intelligence, experience, and wherewithal to not only highlight the issues but also give suggestions and resolutions as to how things could be better...
Although implementing them... now there's the rub... Personally, I have already taken the advice he offers in his conclusions...

British politics is in trouble. Lots of our MPs are (contrary to legend) are hard-working and decent. But some are not. As an MP himself, Chris Bryant has witnessed many of the negative elements of British parliamentary life first-hand . He was there, for example, on the shameful day, the Boris Johnson government attempted to allow an unprecedented rule change to allow former minister, Owen Paterson to get away with breaking Commons rules. He has seen (as we all have) the now disgraced Prime Minister Johnson lying and lying and lying again in the Commons and numerous MPs from all parties bending and breaking the rules to protect themselves and achieve personal advantage.
Reform is clearly sorely needed. At the very lease, the rule that no member should be able to accuse another member of lying is surely long overdue for change?
Chris Bryant knows what he's talking about and clearly has many great ideas on how to change things for the better. It is surely time we ejected the current ruling band of corrupt, incompetent miscreants from power and elected a Labour government imbued with the very real appetite and energy to implement these long overdue and urgently needed reforms was elected in its place.

I must register a relevant interest before this review.......well I could but after reading Chris Bryant's thoroughly detailed and revealing book about Parliament feel quite honestly 'Why should I bother!'
But I did work in Westminster for 13 years for an MP and was aware of much of the archaic set up of Parliamentary procedure across both the House of Commons and Lords but found much still to be dismayed at about our alleged democracy.
Bryant is a Labour MP of longstanding and some respect so critics might deride his comments on the last 13 years of both Coalition (with Lib Dem) and full majority Tory rule. But let's face it have politicians/British parliament or our place in world politics ever been so low?
Examples that Bryant explains to why the ruling Government did what they did or passed such a law in such a demonstrably corrupt manner or again and again LIE (can say this as I am an MP in the Commons) are numerous.
I often feel pessimistic about our politics and new readers to the topic may also find themselves mirred in despair after the read but Bryant does us all a huge favour by bringing together these explanations about what goes on behind the green and red benches.
Will the next General Election bring in a more moral and truthful presentation of democracy?
We can only hope so........or through in the towel.