Over the last few years I've learned a lot about the way MPs work, and how they are constrained. My own MP, a Minister, is both a nice guy and as honest as the day is long. Is he worth his salary? I think HE is, but many others should be dismissed on limited efficiency grounds. But then that would set a precedent in the Public Service.
A typical constraint? I was asked by one MP, not my own, to assist the mother of a deceased airman in her bid to have the Coroner's Inquest re-opened. (MoD had lied to her family and the Court - the usual stuff. MoD had refused to release the evidence, but the Coroner's Officer handed it over). The MP was promptly placed on the committee looking into the proposed changes to the rules governing Coroners' Inquests. Remember that? More secrecy, and word of them being ditched altogether.
He sent me an e-mail apologising for having to step back from his campaign in support of the mother, because as a committee member he was no longer permitted to ask related questions in the House.
The point being, it isn't always the individual, but the system they work within and those at the top who "manage" it. This was clearly a quite deliberate act of gagging, hidden behind an archaic rule that he, as a soon-to-retire 30+ year MP had never heard of.