Professor Meg Russell is Professor of British and Comparative Politics and Director of the Constitution Unit at University College London. She is the co-author of Legislation at Westminster and author of The Contemporary House of Lords (both Oxford University Press).
Please tell us a little bit about how you entered academia and your academic career
I followed a rather non-standard route. My first degree was in pure mathematics. I was encouraged to stay on and do a PhD but didn’t because I thought it would be too lonely (and difficult!) living that much in my own head – though I did have a research job in maths for several years. But by then I was much more interested in politics and policy, so started volunteering for my MP, and from there I got a parliamentary research position, and did a part-time Masters degree in Political Economy. I moved to Labour Party head office, as the National Women’s Officer, and in 1998 applied for a one-year research job at the Constitution Unit focused on Lords reform. After 24 years, I’m still here! I did a two-year secondment as adviser to the Leader of the House of Commons (Robin Cook – such a clever and lovely man), and started teaching when I returned to the university in 2003. Subsequently, my path has been a bit more standard.
Which five books/articles (written by someone else) have been most important to you in your academic career?
Arend Lijphart’s Democracies/Patterns of Democracy
Anthony King’s ‘Modes of Executive-Legislative Relations’
Bernard Crick’s In Defence of Politics
More recently, a whole host of things about the culture of politics (some of them quite scary), like Achen and Bartels’ Democracy for Realists, Nadia Urbinati’s ‘Political Theory of Populism’, Levitsky and Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die, Anne Applebaum’s Twilight of Democracy. All highly recommended.
Which person has been most influential and important to you in your academic career?
When I was working in parliament in the 1990s I met Joni Lovenduski who, along with various other feminist scholars, first demonstrated to me how academic work that’s pitched right can enlighten and influence policy decisions. Joni was subsequently very supportive to me personally, as was her friend (and my then Head of Department) Helen Margetts. A bit later, Sarah Childs helped persuade me that I had made the transition to being a ‘proper’ academic – though I do still question that some days!
Which of your own pieces of research are you most proud of?
Partly those things which have had direct influence on reform. One of my first Constitution Unit reports (Women’s Representation in Politics: What Can Be Done within the Law?) helped pave the way for the legalisation of legislative quotas, while a later report (The House Rules?) first proposed the Commons Backbench Business Committee. But I’m also proud of more conventional academic works which I hope have helped to demystify political institutions and enable people to see them differently – like my books on The Contemporary House of Lords and Legislation at Westminster. While direct policy influence is very satisfying, so is the influence that comes with your work filtering through to A-level students and a wider public.
What has been your greatest achievement in academia?
I suppose being made a Fellow of the British Academy. I still find this decision rather perplexing on their part!
What has been your greatest disappointment in academia?
The number of academics who see politics, and parliaments in particular, primarily as a data playground, rather than something to understand substantively and seek to inform and improve. And those who enjoy making themselves feel bigger and more clever by badmouthing other people’s work, rather than engaging constructively.
What is the first or most important thing you tell your students about parliaments?
That they are uniquely open institutions, but that much of what matters most nonetheless happens behind the scenes. Also of course that they are precious, because you can’t be a democracy without one.
Where were you born, where did you grow up, and where do you live now?
Simple: North London, within about a 2 mile radius of King’s Cross.
What was your first job?
When I was in sixth form and at university I ran a clothes stall in Camden market – initially with second-hand clothes that I had bought, later with clothes that I had made.
What was the toughest job you ever had?
That job was pretty tough, particularly in the snow! Subsequently, while it wasn’t a job (it was a community self-build scheme) I also worked two days a week on a building site for about 18 months – I mostly completely loved it, but doing roofing in the snow was also definitely a challenge.
What are your hobbies?
Swimming, running, gardening, coastal walks, and painting on the rare occasions that I can find the time.
What are your favourite novels?
Let me preface this by saying that all these remaining questions are impossibly difficult. I wish you’d asked me when I was 22 and had encountered fewer things and had greater certainty!
I love anything by Natalia Ginzburg – they are so simple, but beautifully observed. Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller is uniquely structured, and the mix of styles is extraordinary.
What is your favourite music?
For sitting with maximum calm, Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert.
For walking, Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence.
For running, Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.
What are your favourite artworks?
Realist landscape paintings, particularly coastal – because they transport me to where I want to be.
What is your favourite film?
Cabaret – for the politics and the music. West Side Story – purely for the music. The Man Who Fell to Earth – purely because David Bowie is so beautiful.
What is your favourite building?
I love New Parliament House in Canberra, but it’s so sad that you can’t walk over it any more like people were intended to do. At the other end, the Gothic – the St Pancras Hotel is hard to beat. And Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
What is your favourite tv show?
I hardly ever watch TV these days, but I did enjoy Fleabag enough to watch it twice.
What is your favourite holiday destination?
West Cornwall – beautiful light, stunning scenery, great climate for the UK. Rome – delicious food, endless culture, vibrant and chaotic. Or Turin – refined and cultured with less sweltering heat and chaos.
Boothroyd or Bercow?
Both.
Restoration or Renewal?
Both.
Cat or Dog?
Oh dear, both – cats to have at home, other people’s dogs to watch on the beach.
Fish and chips or Curry?
Chips with curry sauce?
Trains, planes or automobiles?
Trains, definitely only trains.
Scones: Devonshire or Cornish Method?
Notwithstanding holiday destination of choice, Devonshire I’m ashamed to say.
And, finally, a question asked by Seth, who is 9: Would you rather have to drink sea water (which doesn’t kill you) for the rest of your life, or only ever have a tiny orange and nothing else for breakfast?
The tiny orange would suit me fine.
