Etiquette ...is the right forum to ask advice;)

[davem2005]

Well tomorrow I'm off to the house of commons.

So a few pointers would be nice as to how to behave.

How do you address and MP?

Should I wear a suit? ...problem is I have only got me SAS Floaty and it hums a bit.

Seems there is a balcony where I can have a beer and a cig at the same time...but if I take my fishing gear is the river worth a chuck?

More seriously I am bricking myself about the trip south and what will happen.I get nose bleeds when I travel south of the M62 under normal circumstances. Tomorrow will be somethign special I hope.

Cheers
Dave

[BriH]

they are no better or worse than you Dave ,they just get paid alot more money than most for ,doing a whole lot less

i think they answer to their names

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

Good luck Dave ,as Bri says they're no better than us mate.

[mark]

make sure there's nothing, absolutely nothing whatsoever, that can in anyway be construed, however bizarrely as a weapon on your person

I had a meeting down there, and this was 7 years ago, when they were a lot less jumpy about security than they are today.

my mate who was with me, is a respected academic, phd, fellow of durham university, he had a small, and I mean 1.5inch victorinox swiss army 'knife' scissors/nailclippers/nailfile/bottle opener and a blade that was 1" long! on his keyring

he was dragged to one side and wasn't seen again for 6 hours!

if you don't usually wear a suit, then don't wear one, wear whatever you would feel confident normally wearing, if you wear a suit and you don't usually they will spot it a mile off

Address them either as Mr. milliband or whoever it is you are seeing unless they invite you to use there first name - if it become adversarial though, use their first name anyway - it puts em on the back foot big style - they don't like it, but aren't going to ask you not to - bad PR for them if they did, so they just lose momentum in an arguement. to stop this, most mp's are trained to say 'call me david' or whatever, straight, thus removing the potential for being wrong footed

there's some canny bars in there, if you've got time slip into one or 2 quietly and just people watch and listen to the utter bollocks thats gets thrown about - quite an eye opener

we had quite a few trips down there back then when we were fighting europes biggest windfarm on the fells behind us (we won!)

the above advice was given to us by none other than Sir Bernard Ingham (maggies press secretary)

[willywetegg]

Some good advice there Mark lol.

Best of luck Dave, I hope everything works out well mate.

Jim.

[davem2005]

I'll tell you something.

That was a bit of a tongue in cheek post but I am impressed by the answers.

Thanks guys. Points noted.

I will be very late home tomorrow but will post any happenings on the milliband thread.

Cheers
Dave

PS my ar*e is still nipping a bit.

[sless]

looking forward to seeing your post tomorrow
good luck dave

[ray]

how do you address a mp?
just shout oi tosser then they will no your talking to a least one of them

[davem2005]

Well you were right . Major security to get in and out. Did not help what has happened today.

Still managed to nick a souvenier though and will post a pic when I work out how.

Odd thing...I arrived at Euston station and as I had two hours to spare and could not work the ticket machine on the underground opted to walk to westminster about 4 miles away.

Every time I have been to London I have never actually travelled above ground so I left the station and set off south.

First thing I came across was some flowers and a memorial pinned to some railings. It soon became clear i was in Tavistock Place where the bus went bang. A lump came in my throat for the simple reason that we all read what happened there but its a long way away and a different lifestyle to the one we have here in the NE. I have to say it also made me aware of anyone carrying a backpack.

Over the coarse of that 4 mile walk I saw some great sights but also as a result of that one plaque noticed the police all carried MP5'S as you strolled down whitehall.

It made me really glad I live here in the NE cos no way could I face the parking/traffic and terrorist threat every day as a way of life. They earn more than we do and they are forking welcome to it cos they probably spend the extra on Gaviscon.

Cheers
dave