On first being admitted to the "Lobby", the cabal of journalists licensed to roam the Palace of Westminster and report, subject to certain rules, what they see and hear, your columnist-in a state then of prelapsarian innocence-telephoned the Lobby's most senior member to ask what these rules were. "If you have to ask," barked this eminence, before slamming down the phone, "you can't be a proper member of the Lobby." As with the journalists who write about it, so with the members who are elected to it. The first rule of the British Parliament is to keep newcomers in the dark, so that veterans who think they understand its esoteric procedures can turn this information into power.
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