Product Description

How does it feel to lose your job in front of 10 million people? To become an MP in your twenties? To ask a Government Whip for time to see your husband? To sleep on the floor while waiting to vote in the middle of the night? To represent the Secretary of State for Health at a family-planning clinic on the day you fail your 5th IVF cycle? To be loved and hated by people who don't even know you? To be the second black woman elected to Parliament? To be a Jewish woman representing a largely Muslim constituency? To be the only MP who likes house music? The 1997 Labour victory changed British politics for ever, ushering in a new generation of women into parliament. The most high profile of 'Blair's babes', Oona King, won a prized London constituency and became an MP at 29. Yet, despite wanting to be an MP since she was five, after only three years at Westminster, Oona considered resignation. Regular 90-hour weeks, an end to her private life and frequent death-threats made Oona question why she had worked all her life to become an MP. It also made her question the dysfunctional relationship between people and politicians. When Iraq became the biggest issue in British politics, Oona was set on a collision course with her constituents, eventually losing her seat to George Galloway in the most symbolic defeat of the Blair Government on election night 2005. A decade is a long time in politics, and in these candid diaries Oona shows how she has changed since that night in 1997. She blows the lid off Westminster, illuminating the corridors of power with humour and insight, and finally reveals how she chose to abandon her ambition to become Prime Minister in favour of another ambition: to have a life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #299293 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 373 pages

About the Author
Oona King was born in Sheffield and brought up in Camden. She was first elected as an MP for Bethnal Green & Bow in May 1997. She has campaigned on issues including antisocial behaviour, domestic violence, housing, inner-city regeneration and comprehensive education. She lives with her husband and small son in Mile End, London.

Customer Reviews

Recommended to aspiring politicians
A highly recommended book for all politics junkies who dream of entering parliament. Oona King's funny, witty style; the candidness about her marriage problems and IVF treatment; and above all her personal insights into the difficult life of a member of parliament representing a poor, inner-city constituency all make for entertaining reading.

This book is way better than many other diaries written by (ex-)politicians, and I think most readers will sense that British politics lost a great political talent when Oona King lost her constituency to the populist and often rather nasty George Galloway. Even those who have no sympathy for New Labour will gain a lot of insights into Westminster life when reading King's book.

Compared with the Alistair Campbell diaries "House Music" gives you a different angle on the first eight years of Labour government - and it makes for a much better read!

A hip-hop perspective on the House
I wasn't intending to buy this book. I got talking to Oona King during the Labour Party conference when she was selling her book, and after ten minutes, it would have been rude not to buy a copy.

But I'm so pleased I did. Some days I've thought I'd like to be an MP. King describes the hell it is to be accountable to constituents. People recognise you in the supermarket and tell you their problems. She gets deluged with post. There is an endless stream of unavoidable commitments from dawn till late into the night.

You imagine that MPs are responsible and together people, but Oona is a very human thirtysomething with high ideals. Her marriage, her health and her sanity suffer, but she refuses to be shameless, self-centred or unprincipled and languishes on the backbenches as a result.

You learn from this book how to deal with MPs. Don't be tempted to tell them your problems, ask them what it's like in the House of Commons or advise them what needs to be done to save the country. People give them far too much importance, which is unfair. Just give them unqualified praise if it's appropriate, and seek to change your own world in the tiny ways you can.

Great fun and up there with the best political diaries.

This is well worth a read
This is a very readable, interesting book, quite different from a stereotypical political diary.
Oona King comes across as honest, interesting, unique (who ever heard of an MP clubbing till dawn?), committed, funny, angry, intelligent, sensitive, loving, disorganised and in trouble... All these factors come together in a fascinating account as she faces the combined forces of the political system, the press and George Galloway.
I enjoyed it and learned from it!