No Job For A Lady: Who Goes Home? Part 3

In "Who Goes Home?" the first episode of the British sitcom No Job For A Lady, new Member of Parliament (MP) Jean Price find herself unable to return home on her husband's birthday to eat dinner with him. Despite securing a pairing arrangement with Sir Godfrey Eagan, a popular and influential Conservative MP, he approaches her in the House of Commons tea room later, where he apologizes for his misunderstanding, but he must vote tonight on a farming bill that's important to his constituents. 

After the session, she returns to her cramped and darkened office across the street from the Houses of Parliament, where she upbraids fellow MP Ken for not warning her that her Early Day Motion could be amended. Beneath her argument that the House of Commons should operate between 9 am and 6 pm Monday through Friday, other MPs wrote that the government of Britain is too important to be relegated to her desired time intervals, and that "if any member can't stand the heat, she should get out of the kitchen." Furthermore, new female MPs should honor male members by being appropriately attired. "Trousers on a woman are an abomination," it reads. 

I wonder who might have written that?

Ken suggests that, as much as she wants to change the system, she should be aware that many MPs like it just the way it is, and that they will occasionally knife other members in the back to protect what they value.

When she complains about missing dinner with Geoff, he reminds her that his constituents don't live within cycling distance, but in faraway Scotland, and he only gets to see them for a few hours each week. This helps her reflect on the importance of being an MP, and the sacrifices that accompany such a lofty position. Then she walks out to her bicycle, where a police officer, or English bobby, instructs her not to chain it to the fencing around the Palace of Westminster in future. She corrects his assumption that she's a secretary, and assures him that a woman (no, excuse me, a Lady) can be a British MP. He remains skeptical, and when she introduces herself as Jean Price, Member of Parliament, he tells her that he's Norman Tebbit (who, like Sir Godfrey Eagan, served as an influential Conservative backbencher in 1990, when this episode was broadcast). 

Jean Price isn't in British politics for money or fame. All her life she's fought for the causes she believed in, and worked hard to strengthen the power of labor unions. She's always on the lookout to improve the lives of her constituents. As Tony Blair would later say of the members of his party in his memoir A Journey, she knows how to identify what's wrong with the system, but she doesn't yet know how to govern. But that's the role that a MP plays in British politics unless his or her party holds a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. For three seasons and eighteen episodes, Jean Price will fight for many more causes and people. She's a good character, in an educational and entertaining series. If my posts on this episode have interested you, you may wish to pick up the series on DVD, and view it in its entirety. 

Dragon Dave

No Job For A Lady: Who Goes Home? Part 2

In "Who Goes Home?" the first episode of the British sitcom No Job For A Lady," new Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Jean Price races back from her home to meet with Sir Godfrey Eagan. Unlike her, Sir Godfrey is a long-standing MP for the Conservative Party, with extensive links in industry. While she shares a cramped office space across the street with Ken, he rents a spacious office in the Palace of Westminster. On his wall hangs a large portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, and a photo of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resides on his desk. He offers her a selection of refreshments, compliments her on her change of clothes, and seems amenable to pairing with her.

During her short visit home, her husband Geoff gave her several messages from her constituents, two of which concerned needed medical treatments. Back in her office, her assistant Tim reminds her of an appointment with one of them, a man who is waiting to get a hip operation. Earlier in the House of Commons lobby, she told the Whip that she would be pairing with Sir Godfrey Eagan, so she wouldn't be attending tonight's vote. She also asks him about the opportunities available to her for granting priority status to some of her constituents who are still waiting on the British health care industry for needed operations. He's okay with her pairing arrangement, but can't offer her any advice on hastening medical procedures, except to pay to get those done privately. When she reminds him that the Labour Party publicly discourages people getting healthcare from alternative providers, he reminds her that writing to your MP in the hopes of hastening a medical procedure constitutes an attempt to leap ahead of others ahead of you in line, and isn't an action the party would endorse either.

Still, she meets with the man and his wife, who review all the means they have tried to hasten her husband's hip operation. We never learn why he ended up in a wheelchair, but he's been relegated to it for two years, and would dearly like to walk again. While he's disappointed that she can offer him no encouragement, he's far from bitter, reflecting that some people he knows have waited four years before getting a hip operation. 

During my trip to Wales in 2012, a conversation with one family ventured into the British healthcare field. I don't remember the intricacies of the discussion, but the wife had clearly done her research on how Britain's National Healthcare Service (NHS) compared with healthcare systems (public and private) in other countries. She asserted that the British people pay more in taxes, but such things as healthcare are supposedly free. However, as the government holds the purse strings, and there are always calls on the public purse, NHS funding is a part of the country's annual budget that frequently suffers cuts. Like the man in the wheelchair, she and her husband seemed philosophical about it. While they knew every country's healthcare system operated differently, they supposed that the grass always looks greener in another field.

Britain's National Health Service (NHS), founded in the mid-to-late 1940s, when the country was recovering from the ravages of World War II, aims to care for all the medical needs of its citizens. Yet private insurance carriers have been available to English citizens for just as long. After Jean confirms that the man and his wife have exhausted all available options to speed his operation, she asks, under her breath, if they might possibly be members of BUPA, a private medical insurance company founded in 1947, that has grown to serve fourteen million people in two hundred countries. For the first time, the man seems appalled. He insists that he and his wife are good socialists, and that they don't believe in private medicine." Then his wife pushes him out of the House of Commons lobby.

Given our history, people in the United States have long known the importance of having a private insurance provider. But it seems as though, for every story someone tells about how their insurance company took good care of them, you hear a story about how their carrier mistreated them. I wish I knew more of the intricacies of Britain's NHS. It would also be interesting to learn how the NHS may have changed, in response to citizens' needs, since this show aired in 1990. (In his memoir A Journey, Britain's Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair devotes a chapter to discussing how he made adapting and evolving Britain's NHS a priority during his ten years in office). I find it interesting that Alex Shearer, who wrote "Who Goes Home?" and all the episodes of No Job For A Lady, suggested that some people would view waiting years for needed medical assistance as their patriotic duty. But then, our beliefs and ideals often grow more precious to us in times of adversity. To repay them for the comfort they offer us, we gladly endure more pain to uphold them, rather than "give in" to practicality.

Dragon Dave 

No Job For A Lady: Who Goes Home? Part 1

In "Who Goes Home?", the first episode of the British TV series No Job For A Lady, Jean Price finds herself a fish out of water. She's only been a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Labour Party for three days, but already she's noticed that it resembles an old boys club. Also, the hours are long, with votes being called at all hours. The latter is driven home when a two-line whip is called. She and Ken, the Labour MP with whom she shares office space, must make it out of the building they are in, across the street, and into the House of Commons in fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, the elevator in the office building is out of order, and as Jean hurries across the pavement, the heel breaks off her shoe.

By the time she makes it into the lobby, the vote has been taken. Her office buddy Ken tells her that the vote wasn't all that important, but then the party Whip appears. He disagrees with Ken, and takes a dim view of new MPs who feel such votes are unnecessary to attend.

Back in the office, Ken tries to repair her shoe. When Jean complains about the insane hours MPs are expected to keep while Parliament is in session, he suggests that she can table an Early Day Motion. This may not result in limiting the hours between her desired 9 am and 6 pm, but at least it will alert the members to the problem, and perhaps help them debate the issue.

The problem is that already Jean rarely sees her husband Geoff. Today is his birthday, and tonight a vote is scheduled for 9 pm. She asks her assistant Tim to send her husband some flowers, along with a loving note to "Yum Yum," but she'd really rather be with him. So her office-mate Ken also suggests that she try to pair with someone in the Conservative Party. This pairing arrangement means that they will agree not to attend certain sessions, so that the missing votes (one from each of the opposing political parties) will cancel each other out. Unfortunately, she's already had a run-in with the man her predecessor paired with, Sir Godfrey Eagan, who told her in no uncertain terms that he doesn't appreciate her modern, masculine attire. 

So she rushes home to change into a nice dress, hoping she can make up for her poor first impression, and convince Sir Godfrey to pair with her for tonight's vote.

Oh, and maybe she ought to change her shoes as well.

At home, she sees that Geoff has received her flowers, but he believed they were sent from a stranger named Tim who called him "Dum Dum." While she changes, he tells her that if she can't make it home for dinner, no problem. He can always invite Tim to join him.

This episode made me aware of a lot of nuances in the life of a British MP. If you're familiar with "Yes Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister," you can see it differs significantly from those two other sitcoms. While this episode only highlights Jean's duties while Parliament is in session, it served as a nice introduction to the life of a British MP, or Backbencher, which is why I thought I would share it with you.

Dragon Dave