If these are the corridors of power, they don’t look like them. Behind the modern atrium of Parliament’s Portcullis House – all break-out areas, indoor trees and security tighter than Heathrow – are ancient buildings divided into scruffy offices and cramped ante rooms. This is where most MPs do their daily work and from where they flock to the Commons’ green benches. There’s a strict pecking order, known only to a coterie of civil servants whose job it is to assign the rooms.
On the whole, Caroline Lucas has done quite well, she feels, with a room overlooking a courtyard instead of the traffic and tourists of Whitehall. As she sits in front of the disused fireplace, where you can easily imagine bewigged men in breeches once opined in front of…
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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2016 - Issue 53