Insider
Politics
Will Quince Interview -
‘I’ve always
had an interest in the law, I suppose I still do as
I’m sort of helping make it’. By Etholle Davies
When I received the email confirming the
date of my interview with Will Quince, I did-
n’t know quite what to expect. All I knew
was that he had been the Conservative MP
of Colchester since 2015. There’s the obvi-
ous stereotypes of what a ‘Tory Supporter’
is supposed to be like and that has been the
source of many a joke in our Politics les-
sons. I was interested to see if he lived up
to the stereotype. He did actually tell me
that he has always supported the conserva-
tive party and that it was the party his fam-
ily voted for. He admits that he was
‘brought up in a small ‘c’ conservative
household’ so, sadly, there won’t be a tale
of family rebellion in this article.
For the actual interview itself I wanted to
cover a wide range of topics from general
politics, youth in politics and who Will
Quince was as a person. This was my first
political interview so I wanted to be re-
spectful and uncontroversial, yet ask some
probing questions.
On the day of the interview I imputed the
address into the satnav and, after driving
up that road three times, I would give Mr
Quince the advice to get better signage. In
a true pretentious teenager fashion I ar-
rived about thirty minutes early and pro-
ceeded to wait outside in the car for about
20 minutes. I eventually got out and walked
to the entrance, which is where I managed
to make a fool of myself attempting to force
open the door- that I soon found out was
locked. To be honest I didn’t know what a
constituency office was meant to look like
but, after I was let in, I saw that Will’s desk
was directly in front of the door, forcing me
to compose myself and feign an attitude of
professionalism.
‘You’re never going to find a
party you agree with com-
pletely; the trick is to find a
party you disagree with the
least.’
For the first third of the interview I focused
on asking Will about himself and his politi-
cal journey. With only 650 people out of
66.85 million that can become an MP at any
one time, pursuing this as a full time career
can be a difficult decision. Will actually told
me that he had an interest in politics but it
wasn’t until university that he decided he
would like to pursue a career in politics, but
even he admitted it was a very, very diffi-
cult thing to get into. He actually didn’t
think that he’d actually get a chance to
serve as an MP.
One of the most reassuring things I learnt
is that planning what you want to do with
your life can be flexible. He told me that
law was actually the original plan and so he
did his law degree and then went and
worked in business and then came back to
the law a bit later. He told me that he’d
‘always had an interest in the law, I sup-
pose I still do as I’m sort of helping make
it’.
Although contrasting this was hearing the
story of how he choice his university- Aber-
ystwyth: ‘Erm, ok, erm well It’s a bit em-
barrassing really, Aberystwyth was not my
first choice, it was my second choice, and in
putting down a second choice I must admit
I started from ‘A’ and looked at Aberdeen
and though that was too far away and then
there was Aberystwyth and so I just ticked
the box. I had a fantastic time though.’ I
found myself just nodding in agreement as
I didn’t want to get into how lucky he was
that he didn’t spend hours poring over pro-
spectuses. If only it were that easy for me
to make a choice.
The College magazine online: sixthformmag.blogspot.co.uk