When MPs screw up the consequences can be public and brutal. But sometimes that response has solid reasons which safeguard our system of responsible government.
It's a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of an excess of masochism, must be in want of a job as MP. Well, maybe not acknowledged, but surely well evidenced.
And yet there is never any shortage of fresh faces sure that they can either fix the world or get famous without suffering the downsides.
Privilege and...
In their maiden speeches MPs typically describe the role as an honour or privilege. It is. They don't mention how brutal it is. Maybe they haven't realised yet, and so that knowledge doesn't deter them from following the promptings of a deep well of optimism, or an overly healthy ego.
There are few if any other jobs that, no matter how well you do them, result in unhealthy levels of public abuse and vitriol. And that's when you do well as an MP. If you screw up - heavens help you. That can lead to protracted sessions of public bloodletting.
Labour MP and Minister of Education Jan Tinetti screwed up royally a few months ago when she failed to promptly correct a factual error made in answer to a question during Question Time. That is more serious than it sounds.
Parliament operates on the basis that everyone (especially ministers), is taken at their word. If a minister says something that turns out to be untrue and then doesn't correct it, that is considered misleading the House, a serious breach of what is referred to as Parliamentary Privilege. As Michael Woodhouse put it, "That is a fundamental corollary to the parliamentary privilege we hold."
Tinetti corrected her error but only after being prompted to do so by the Speaker. As a result senior MPs from every party held an inquiry into her lapse in the committee that deals with MP behaviour - the Privileges Committee.
This week the House debated the unanimous report back from that multi-party group. The various speakers from the Committee were not gentle.
Michael Woodhouse for example declared that "...nothing the committee could do, I think, would be as bad as the damage to the Minister's reputation that she herself has imposed by her failure, by her gross negligence, by her serious errors of judgement."
In most jobs if you screw up you might get berated in a quiet room. Maybe HR will offer a carefully worded verbal warning. For MPs the boss's anger is only the beginning. After that all their misdeeds, errors, mistakes and personal frailties get discussed and dissected in public, and used as weapons to beat them with. …