Truth to power

Eleni Courea hears what life is like as a researcher for the UK and European parliaments.

It was a dark and stormy night at Birkbeck, University of London’s social sciences department, where two parliamentary researchers spoke about the importance of explaining politics in simple, unembellished prose.

Ben Smith, a House of Commons Library researcher and Angelos Delivorias, a policy analyst at the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), told the audience how researchers get into the business of speaking truth to power. Politicians in the UK and the EU rely on clear and accurate briefings from small teams of researchers: the House of Commons employs about 50 full-time, while the European Parliament has 180.