Lib Dems don't like Mondays

You may have noticed how MPs hit the headlines recently by apparently spending fewer days at Westminster - 139 - in a parliamentary year than for many a day.

I pondered the subject on a quiet day recently with a passing Tory backbencher who denied there was a secret agreement between the major parties to allow their MPs to campaign in their constituencies at the beginning and end of the week.

MPs are not the only professional politicians who use "constituency days" to further their (and their party's) re-election prospects.

Here's a Facebook entry for the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams, dated January 18:

The Mark in question is Mark Williams, Lib Dem MP for Ceredigion, whose own Facebook entries reveal Mondays spent trying to get re-elected.

I did ask him: "Shouldn't you have been at work?"

His reply: "A different kind of work, I hasten to add only part of Mondays."

Kirsty Williams spent Monday, January 25 campaigning in Builth, in her own constituency, which may have helped the election chances of the deputy leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, local MP Roger Williams.

Perhaps the events were part of a Williams family re-union, although so far as I know the three are not related.

Meeting people in the real world must be a good thing for politicians although perhaps describing it as "campaigning" is not the most tactful choice of words.