She’d been here before. But she’d been a pupil on a school trip, visiting the seat of government, getting the tour. Now she was walking through the members’ entrance. She was new, keen to start work. But first she had her briefing from the party whip. Like generations before her she sat in the wood-panelled room on a leather chair feeling like she was on a set from a historic drama. The whip gave the new MPs their instructions in a dry, matter-of-fact way. It then checked they’d left their Agents at home and gave them their new approved Partners.