I can understand why most doctors and nurses don’t understand the nuts and bolts of politics. Whilst people like me were sitting in at University and generally developing the darker skills of the way in which politics works, those clinical staff-to- be were buckling down to get great  ‘A’ levels and then working hard at both the theory and practice of medicine. Then when they qualify it’s a job and a half to apply all that learning to real patients. Most medical staff are in their mid-thirties before they take a breath.

Those of us who were to spend our lives in politics were learning about the way in which motions were composited at conference, and how to get our amendment recognised by the chair and onto the floor of the conference for debate. (As well as many other such weird and non-transferable skills). Like any other trade, in politics you learn mostly by doing.