Never a nine-to-five job

BBC News Online asked three MPs to chart a day in their lives at the House of Commons under its new, radically modernised hours.

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Lembit Opik is the MP for Montgomeryshire and Liberal Democrat spokesman on Northern Ireland & Wales

07:00 New sound. Silence. Where's all the traffic? Of course. I forgot. That was the Good Old Days. The hours are the same but everything's earlier. Not like The Good Old Days - 9am to midnight. Now new year, New Labour hours. Sensible hours. Damn.

08:55 It's ridiculous. Standing committees used to start at 10.30am. That gave time to chat with office back home, and call your local paper about the flash flood in Broad Street. Now ... these committees begin before Today Programme even ends. Bloody Hell. Will I ever hear the funny three-minutes-to-nine story again? There's danger in the room, as the empty stomachs of 20 politicians begin to grumble. No escape till 11.25.

11:25 Out with five minutes to get to the chamber for Questions to the Secretary of State for Something. Jogging past the Members' Tea Room, a waft of Earl Grey conjures up the Good Old Days. I fling my coat on the bench in the Members' Lobby and get in the Commons for Question 2.

12:30 PMQs over, but still no lunch. I'm on Bench duty. I sit glumly as others leave to be dined by the National Association of Worthy Causes, rather a nice bunch of people. I'm left to listen to the Shadow Minister for Problems, and the whole chamber has to listen to my stomach. It's a toss up for which one grumbles more.

14:30 At last, a chance to eat. By now, even the pigeons on the Terrace look like a tasty snack. Eating and walking adds indigestion to the New Hours. Arrive to find 20 phone messages from the public. And the Shropshire Star's getting frantic about a stampede in Welshpool Cattle Market.

16:00 Caught unawares by a vote - they used to be after dark. Run across with other members through the chilly embers of this grey day. Surprised to see a coat in the Members' Lobby that looks like mine. It is mine. Life's getting too fast. Can't keep up.

15:45 Amble back through the Members' Tea Room. Everyone's talking about the Good Old Days.

17:00 Paperwork. This, at least, is timeless: whatever time you start, you always run out of time.

19:00 Drowning in a sea of emails, I'm saved by the bell. The final divisions of the day. We go through, and again, as two votes secure two more unsurprising victories for the government. Voting earlier hasn't fooled the Labour whips.

19:30 Weirdest moment in the day. We all sort of stand around, like a deconscripted army. "You can go now." But where to? A film? At half past seven? A pint? Strangers' Bar is quieter, the regulars still there, but others drift off to the Lion, or, surely not ... home?

20:30 Another chat about the Good Old Days in Strangers, then off to the street, where normal people are still walking about and you don't have to get a night bus yet.

20:35 Mobile rings. Ian Morrice. He's not an MP. I never see him. "Free tonight?" "As a matter of fact, I am." Agree to meet at his local in the City. Sitting on the Number 12, I watch Big Ben recede in the background. Feeling irrationally guilty.

20:45 Ian's at the bar, with two pints of Spitfire and pork scratchings. It's not home life, is it, really? Can't nip off to Wales every night on the Northern Line. But it's more normal hours. Aye, I suppose it's Civvie Street. And like a demob happy squaddie, I'm tinged with sadness as I muse about this Brave New World.

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Robert Key is Conservative MP for Salisbury and shadow international development minister

05:45 Wake up, as usual, to Farming Today and then do an interview with my local radio station, BBC Wiltshire.

I have to say the new hours will not made one iota of difference to me. I have always been an early riser.

08:00 At my desk in the Commons going through e-mails, followed by a further hour doing correspondence.

10:00 A meeting with colleagues and then more correspondence.

12:00 As it's Wednesday, it's Prime Minister's Questions. I can't honestly say the earlier time has made much difference to that either!

12:30 Back to my Commons office to go through briefing papers and deal with constituency business.

The new hours have really shifted the focus from parliament to our constituencies.

I think we have actually surrendered the right to hold the executive to account. All-night sittings and keeping the government up was part of the armoury of opposition.

But being an MP is still a way of life. It is never going to be a 9 to 5 office job.

16:00 Into a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health.

17:30 Then on to a meeting of the backbench 1922 committee. This used to be held an hour later.

18:30 Back to the House for the winding up of the health debate.

19:00 Voting, which will goes on until 1930.

My theory on the new hours is that governments with big majorities don't want a lot of backbench MPs hanging around with nothing to do, cooking up plots. The Thatcher government came up with all-party parliamentary groups for the same reason!

19:30 Home to read briefing papers. They still have to be read - no matter what time of the day you do it.

There has been talk about what MPs will get up to let loose in the big bad city of London - but I'm much too old for all that.

All it means for me is that for the first time in 20 years, when my wife is with me in London, we will actually be able to enjoy a social life.

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Ann Clywd is Labour MP for Cynon Valley and vice-chairwoman of the Parliamentary Labour Party

08:00 I normally get up earlier than this, but I've got used to a bit of a lie-in over the Christmas break.

09:30 I am running late. A reporter from a Japanese newspaper is waiting for me as I arrive at my Commons office. He wants to interview me about an organisation called Indict, which I chair.

I normally have breakfast with other members in the tea room, but we go next door to the canteen and I eat my cornflakes while I answer his questions.

10:00 Time for the Parliamentary Labour Party. I am vice-chair of that. There is a lot of discussion about what people want to see in the next Queen's Speech.

11:30 No time for a coffee break before heading to the chamber for Northern Ireland questions. It's important to get to the chamber early to get a seat for Prime Minister's Questions.

12:00 It's really too early to tell if the noon start will have an effect on PMQs. Everyone seems a little lethargic, but it is very hot in chamber. I think they have turned the heating up because it's so cold outside!

12:30 Every week six of us are elected to have a private meeting with Tony Blair. It's my turn this week.

I always find it very useful. You get insights you wouldn't get otherwise. Mr Blair always spends a lot of time with us and goes out of his way to discuss the issues we raise.

14:00 Just time for a baked potato with cheese in the members tea room before heading off to my office to deal with paperwork and constituency business.

1745 Meeting with activists and campaigners about my private members bill on female genital mutilation. This is outlawed in the UK, but people can still take young women abroad. The bill is generating a lot of interest.

19:00 Voting, which goes on for half an hour.

19:45 Dinner with friends in the members dining room. The place is very quiet. The Labour side is filled up, but the rest is virtually empty.

One of the fears with the new hours is that the kind of social life you have with your colleagues - where you discuss all sorts of issues - will disappear.

If tonight is anything to go by it is already starting to happen. It must be a bit worrying for the staff as well, who are just standing there with nothing to do.