MPs are very like celebrities, in that their reputation is a fragile thing, one month they can be adorned with praise and showered with popularity, the next month their names are dragged through the mud by the media and they are sent hate mail by the public for undue expenses. Like both celebrities and MPS, any high profile person’s name is their own brand but rather than managing the reputation of a company they need to keep their names free from negative associations. This is a unique blurring of lines between the professional and the personal, which is probably why politician’s messy personal lives always get mixed up in their politics.