ABSTRACT
When I worked as a social worker, someone once said, ‘As a social worker, you’d make a better politician.’ Then, when I was a Member of Parliament, someone else said, ‘As a politician, you’d make a pretty good social worker.’ I think these people should probably mind their own business! However, reflecting further, I think they were talking about two sides of the same coin. As a Member of Parliament I used to wonder how my colleagues without social work experience could cope with the vast range of human problems and humanity which present daily at constituency ‘surgeries’. As a social worker I was always acutely aware, not only that many of the problems we see are founded in bigger social issues, but that these problems would be better addressed if the people experiencing them and those trying to help them actually used the political power they/we have. But I am getting ahead of myself. . . .
