Member of Parliament

This is all about Edward Davey, Lib Dem member for Kingston. We find him to be a likeably ordinary family man who has Marmite and toast for breakfast, an office next to a Chinese takeaway, and a keen interest in his constituency community. He goes to Westminster by train, smiles cheerfully at everyone, delivers a petition to Downing Street and takes tea on the terrace with a family whose younger son wants to be an MP. And who wouldn’t want to be an MP, given such a paragon as exemplar? He has no second home, moat, duck island nor, I suspect, does his wife watch porno videos, and the only baby he kisses is his own little Emily. Here’s an admirably objective and well-presented account of an ordinary man’s ordinary day which can do much to restore the coming generation of voters’ understanding of their Westminster representatives. Chris Fairclough’s pictures are – as ever – absolutely illustrative and pin-sharply to the point. A really friendly book, this is enough to make you want to move to Kingston.