Originally Posted by
Gertrude the Wombat
If by "political leverage" you mean "getting your MP to lean on a government department for not doing its job properly" then that's not patronage or corruption, it's the job, it's what they (or, rather, their staff, whose salaries appear on the Wail as "MPs' expenses") do all day every day.
That's exactly what I meant, and did not intend to imply anything improper.