Here in Ireland and across the water in Westminster, one has shared and still shares friendship with elected representatives of various stripe.
From Government and Opposition, those of Ministerial and Prime Ministerial rank, and others from Seanad Éireann and the House of Lords – we’ve known many and enjoyed their friendship.
If there is one lesson that we have learned from all these friendships, and from our involvement in and proximity to the world of politics, it is this:
Help and assist politicians by all means. Volunteer to pound the pavements if you will. Freely offer them your time and your advice. Be a willing helper and support them in any way you can.
Be driven by their ideals and objectives…and share in the challenge and excitement that one gets from involvement in the political process. Disappoint in failure or share in the elation that can come from their success.
And, if you’re a PR person…relish the fact that few if any other fields of communication and persuasion will deliver a judgment on your workmanship as quickly and as accurately as an election outcome will.
Politicians can be a joy…and, from time to time, a frustration too. To be really happy in your association with them, to be really confident and secure in your relationship, there is one thing that you must never do: Never ever work for them for money. Never seek fee or favour…nor wish for any form of recompense.
Then, and only then, can you be free to be yourself…and free of many other things not least the risk that one might ever be accused of living out of the taxpayer’s pocket…as if one would.
Haec est nostra opinio