MPs are now in their parliamentary recess. I know that for Lib Dem MPs, recess does not equal rest. They spend the time they aren’t in Parliament knocking doors, visiting every community in their constituency and generally working incredibly hard, as usual.  Yes, they might get home at a respectable hour more of the time and their inboxes get a bit more manageable – just a bit – but they are still on duty for well more than the average working week.

In the first year of the new Parliament, they have done wonders. Alistair, Jamie and Layla have all highlighted important issues as Select Committee chairs, Danny’s Bill has curtailed puppy smuggling, Roz has persuaded the Government to take climate and nature seriously, Max has been fighting for his sunshine bill, Christine has the promise of Government action to help bereaved children, David’s been standing up for coalfield communities,, Angus has been fighting for communities to reap the benefits of renewable energy. I could go on at length but you get the drift.

My hope for all of them this Summer is simple – please, please take a proper break.

A break where you go off-grid, mute everything and relax. Where you do whatever you need to do to switch off. I don’t care whether it’s hiking in the mountains, lying on a beach reading proper trash with no informational value whatsoever (see the Guardian’s advice for a perfect beach read),  participating in the family beach tennis tournament, playing Mario Kart in your pants, cycling around France, sailing in the Med, going to Disneyland or simply sleeping. And do this for at the very least two weeks at once.

When you think about it, our MPs have pretty much spent at least two years running at full pelt. This time two years ago, we were expecting a General Election in Autumn 2024. Our then candidates had eye-watering targets set by our campaigns team to meet. Some of them were able to give up work and campaign full time – which shows the sacrifices people make when they are seriously fighting seats. So no break for them then.

Rishi Sunak then made his decision to go earlier than we all expected so everyone shifted their gear from intense to full pelt plus. For the 57 new MPs elected, there was little chance of any respite over last Summer as they had to sort out their offices, hire staff, deal with thousands of emails every day. Then there was Conference and then ten months of relentless parliamentary drama. The gradient on the learning curve for new MPs would make a Tour De France cyclist quake in their cleets.

So this is the first chance most of our MPs have had to take a proper break for a very long time.  They need that down time. They can’t function at that level forever. There is such a culture of presenteeism in politics, which Engender identified in a recent report contributed to the exclusion of women from public life. Yes it’s important to get out and about in the constituency – but they do that year round anyway. They live in their communities and they properly understand what’s going on in them. This Summer, it’s their chance to recharge their batteries. We as party members also need to try and make sure that we don’t ask too much of them at this time either.

MPs of all parties have earned their Summer break. Let’s hope that they all take it, enjoy it and come to Conference recharged and refreshed.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social