Poor Wendy Chamberlain hasn’t had much luck this Summer. She was pinged not once but twice by the app before the rules changed which meant she had to spend much of July cooped up in her London flat. She was still able to take part in votes in Parliament, though, and speak, because she was able to take part virtually.

But all that modernity was too much for Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg. As soon as the rules ended, so did the chance to participate remotely in Parliament. That is out of step with many workplaces which are moving to some sort of hybrid arrangement.

So, when Wendy again found herself having to isolate yesterday while waiting for the result of a PCR test, she had to voting last night and she wasn’t happy.

Not happy that, as a result of self isolating, I'm not able to vote tonight against the Government's #ElectionsBill
Pairing is a poor substitute for the proxy voting we had previously – means that my vote and the constituents I'm representing are deemed silent on this.

— Wendy Chamberlain MP (@wendychambLD) September 7, 2021

Watching the House of Commons proper freaks me out. Seeing MPs crammed together in what is a pretty small space seems to me to be an unnecessary risk. And when did we get to the stage where wearing a tiny bit of material across your mouth and nose to protect others becomes a political issue, not a matter of basic courtesy and consideration. The opposition benches are full of people who are wearing masks when they are not speaking yet only a few Conservatives have them on. I know that there are medical exemptions, and that’s fine, but they apply to a very small number of people. I can’t imagine that this applies to virtually every single Conservative MP.

It’s likely that MPs will be disrupted by the need to self isolate in that sort of environment and more constituents will be deprived, unnecessarily, of their voice. It’s interesting that in the rest of the parliamentary estate, staff presence is being kept to a minimum and there are risk assessments and control measures in place.

The Government is unlikely to lose any votes because of its massive majority. If this was two years ago when all the Brexit stuff was going on and they needed every single vote, I expect that they would be falling over themselves to ensure as much virtual participation as possible.

The Commons arrangements set a very poor example to the country. Covid is still a very real danger, something that hit me this week when someone we know, who was double vaccinated, died of it. While hospitalisations and deaths are way down on their levels in previous waves, the NHS is not an easy place to work in at the moment. Staff are exhausted, having been at full pelt for the past year and a half. We know that schools and universities going back is going to have an impact on case numbers and even yesterday ministers were denying that there are plans for a circuit breaker lockdown in October.

What annoys me the most is that it is MPs, not the Government, who should be deciding the meeting arrangements in Parliament. It should be councillors, not Government ministers, who decide whether councils meet in person or not.

I just hope that nobody becomes sick or worse as a result of the parliamentary arrangements – and you have to include everyone MPs come into contact with like their constituents, families and staff in that. Because those consequences are entirely preventable.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings