British crooks in office are more interesting than the home grown version

[DanaC]

I suspect now that the late sittings have been done away with that might offset some of the difficulties. The problem used to be the need to spend several days a week, often doing late sittings into the dawn, away from home. We have very low female participation in Parliamentary politics. This does seem to have been a factor. Certainly, there are many female MPs who've come in in recent years who've stated that the late sittings were a problem for them. And berore the second homes allowance, it was an oft stated reason given by women in politics as one of the factors preventing them from standing.