Some charming observations, Damien. As the mother of three very junior 'backbenchers', I can relate. I think the moral of the story is that you can't please everyone and appeasement doesn't work - all you can do is "do the right thing".

Thanks for insights shared, Damien. The link is no coincidence, either. If you haven't already looked at George Lakoff's writings on political 'frames' and the 'metaphors we live by,' then I suspect you would be very interested to. Meanwhile, the linguist/philosopher criticises Lakoff's position, also very intelligently I reckon.

Apologies, that last sentence was supposed to read 'the linguist/philosopher Stephen Pinker.'

Yes. And political parties are creches where the most prolific dummy spitter gets to be leader and parliament is a kindergarten but without the discipline and monkey bars.