This book is for all those who live with politicians,
especially parliamentary politicians, or with those who hope to become
politicians. It explains the selection process and highlights the choices
that have to be made early on about the home and school base for a
politician's family. There are sections on the spouse or partner's role in
the constituency, and on how elections are fought. There are useful ideas
for managing the work-life-politics balance in the modern political world
both before and after election. The book highlights some of the pitfalls
to avoid and offers shortcuts to sanity. There's specific advice on
handling press intrusion and preserving a private life.

From the Author

I started writing this book in the Autumn of 2004, when I
became aware there was only word of mouth advice available to the spouses
and partners of parliamentary politicians. Contributions to Politics for
Partners have come from the personal experience of more than 100 spouses,
partners and children of such politicians. Some have enjoyed the life;
others have hated it. The distilled wisdom from their views has been
gathered together in one place and shows there are many different ways to
support the politician. It is a book which can be dipped into for advice on
a particular topic as well as being read straight through. Direct
quotations from some of the contributers are anonymously included and there
are cartoons by Hoby which vividly illustrate the text.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent short guide to the effect of politics on family life, 12 Dec 2007

By	Marshall Lord (Whitehaven, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Funny, human, and very accurate account by Alicia Collinson, who in her own right is a barrister specialising in family law, but is also married to Damian Green MP.

Full of advice on what impact being involved in politics can have on family life, what to expect if you become or marry a politician, and how to keep your marriage and family afloat in some of the difficult and stressful situations which can hit people involved in national and local politics.

The book itself is politically neutral: if I had not known before reading this book for which party the author's husband sits in parliament, nothing in "politics for partners" would have told me.

Postscript, April 2009: Until the election of the present government, arresting opposition MPs for holding the government to account was the sort of thing which happened under governments like those of Zimbabwe or the former Apartheid regime in South Africa. However, it has now happened to the husband of the author of this book.

At the risk of earning "not helpful" votes from any New Labour trolls or Draperbots who are reading this, I look forward to the second edition with a new chapter on "What to do when Jacqui 'Boots' Smith has your partner arrested for being too effective at embarrassing the government."

In the meantime, courtesy of Iain Dale's blog, here are Alicia Collinson's ten tips for what to if your home is raided by the police

1. General notes: Take notes right from the start, recording precise times, names & ranks, things said to you and phone numbers (both received and dialled). After it's all over, you'll probably need to write a detailed record of what happened, from your personal experience, and it's much easier if you record everything, as it happens.

2. Formal documents: Keep copies of every document shown to you and retain any business card. Ask questions about what they're searching for. Check carefully the details of any search warrant. You will have to give names and dates of birth of all people who live in the house, even children away at university.

3. Police recordings: Assume everything you say and do is being recorded (and assume your emails, phone calls and texts are being intercepted). Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're not subject to surveillance. If you feel unhappy, scared or intimidated, you should say so to the officers and they will make a note of what you have said in their notebooks.

4. Photographs: Take photographs of everything that is going on around you. If you're not under arrest and you live in the house you're perfectly entitled to do this. Make sure your camera (if digital) shows the accurate time and date.

5. Hospitality and food: Always have enough milk in the house, so you can offer coffee or tea. Eat proper meals during the search - it may go on a long time and you need to keep your blood sugar topped up, particularly if you're suffering from shock. The same applies to children: there is something very comforting about filling the house with the smell of grilling sausages.

6. Copies of items seized: You are entitled to be told precisely what is being taken from your house. It is wise to insist on having copies of all the documents, and to take photographs of any item being removed before it leaves your house (even if those things have already been put into `evidence' bags). It is generally better to make physical copies of documents or to scan them, rather than to photograph them, as photographs can be distorted. If you have a photocopier with a sheet feeder it is much quicker than putting individual sheets on a scanner. You are entitled to challenge the removal of any item which does not appear to be covered by the terms of the search warrant.

7. Spring cleaning afterwards: The knowledge that police officers have gone through every room in the house and have taken photographs of everything, can leave you feeling as violated as if the house has been burgled. Take control of these feelings by having a major tidy up around the house after they've gone. Move the furniture around, put up new pictures, and do all the filing that you'd been putting off. Upgrade your mobile phone if they have insisted on taking full details of the serial numbers.

8. Recycle redundant electronic goods: Make sure, when upgrading any mobile phone, to dispose of the old handset rather than leave it in a desk drawer and forget about it. That can save the police wasting a huge amount of time packing it up as `evidence' for detailed technical investigation in a neat cardboard box, held in place with plastic ties, when it hasn't been used for years. The same goes for old laptop computers and old printers.

9. Attendant publicity: However discreet the police may be in searching your home, if you are in the public eye, the media will soon be very interested in the fact that your home has been searched. As a rule of thumb, the interest can be measured by the number of photographers camped outside your home at any moment. (If you ask them nicely, they will not take pictures of your children, but you may have to put up with some pretty unattractive pictures of yourself.)

10. Sources of photographs: A word of warning: if your children's friends have taken photographs of the whole family while on holiday, and put them on a site like Facebook, then it's very easy for newspapers to lift them to illustrate a story about you, even if you have been extremely careful not to supply family photographs to the press, to try to preserve some privacy for your children.

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