From the days of the 1964 life affirming Seven-up! films and Professor Winston's 1995 Making Babies, documentary television programmes following people's lives have changed dramatically. It is no longer enough to view ordinary folk leading their sometimes extraordinary lives. Programmes have to be scripted, planned to include an arc of highs and lows and a televisually fitting conclusion. Reality TV as we now know it developed in the late 1990s. Humiliation, embarrassment, bullying, personal journeys and self realization seem the order of the day.

The whole sorry affair began with the lifestyle programmes of the late 1990's. Changing Rooms in particular sought an extreme response from the participants whose homes were redesigned behind their backs. Designers no longer took the owners' wishes into account but instead created shocking room changes that would elicit a good response for telly. The car crash viewing of the poor woman whose living room was turned into a whore's palace led the way for the humiliation factor of Big Brother, which came to our shores in 2000.

And once it had started there was no turning back. From Big Brother a whole host of reality TV shows sprung up and after the success of ordinary members of the public appearing on these shows some bright television exec came up with the idea of doing celebrity versions. The first series of Celebrity Big Brother was done for charity. None of the celebrities received a fee and almost all the money went to Comic Relief. But following on from its success it became a commercial venture and a guaranteed way for D- list celebs to secure primetime TV appearances and copious column inches. And it's all very well for ageing pop stars, former presenters and glamour models to seek their extra 15 minutes of fame, but when did politicians suddenly think it became respectable for them to appear on reality TV?

Of course there are different types of reality TV show. The worthy-ish – there are very few of these. Usually they are for charity and they are more like a documentary than a reality TV show – think Ann Widdecombe versus, Banged Up with David Blunkett and Sport Relief does the Apprentice. Then there are the ones where you learn a skill and "go on a journey" – Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing on Ice. Then there are the trashy shows– All Star Family Fortunes, All Star Talent Show – basically anything with ‘ All Star' in the title. And finally there are the gratuitous shows. The shows that teach nothing, that praise nothing and that are purely concerned with ridicule and loss of dignity – Big Brother and, worst of all, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.

Christine Hamilton appeared in the first series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here in 2002. She did incredibly well, finished third and came out of the whole thing with a much improved public persona. Although not a politician herself, she was married to a former Conservative minister and was a well known figure in the political world. How shocked the public were that a politician's spouse could appear on such a programme! But fast forward six years and every Tom, Dick and Lembit are doing it. Christine Hamilton led the way in crossing over from Westminster to prime time telly. But it was understandable why the Hamiltons were open to putting themselves up to national ridicule. They had left the political world. They were looking for a way to make some money. Reality TV and media appearances became their career. Between them they have appeared on The Weakest Link, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Celebrity Mastermind, and When Louis Met. Similarly former Conservative MP Edwina Currie has appeared in several reality television programmes since she left Parliament. She and her husband swapped places with John McCririck and his wife in Celebrity Wife Swap. She also appeared in Hell's Kitchen, Celebrity Stars in their Eyes, Celebrity Mastermind and also All Star Family Fortunes. What on earth made actual current politicians take part in some of the most excruciating TV seen this millennium?

It's not all just sitting around on beanbags or eating snails all day. Some reality shows show off a particular talent or teach a new skill and some politicians are desperate to show they're more than just a Member of Parliament. The All Star Talent Show on Channel 5 in 2006 featured a harmonica playing Lembit Opik and a piano playing Oona King. These respected MPs performed on a series including Jodie Marsh, The Cheeky Girls, Andy Scott Lee, Ben Ofoedu and Carly Hillman (who?) Doyen of reality TV Lembit Opik also appeared on Celebrity Bargain Hunt, All Star Mr. and Mrs and Sport Relief Does the Apprentice. Mr. Opik seems very keen to show there's more to him than just politics.

And did you know that George Galloway is not the only MP to appear on television in a leotard? Liberal Democrat MP Julia Goldsworthy appeared on The Games in 2006 performing gymnastics wearing a very tight green leotard. But it paid off for Julia who was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet after appearing on the programme. She finished the show in silver medal position raising over £20,000 for charity. Politicians showing off something they're good at isn't too surprising but what about learning something new. Err. No one - politicians don't seem that keen to actually learn anything. We've yet to see a politician learn how to cha cha on Strictly Come Dancing, or ice skate on Dancing on Ice. So it seems they want maximum exposure with the least amount of work. And there are the politicians who think this exposure will allow them to broadcast their political statements and get people debating important issues. Unfortunately not taking into account the producers' view that this might not be as fun as watching them cavort around in a leotard. When George Galloway appeared on Celebrity Big Brother he couldn't have expected to spend a day pretending to be a cat and licking milk from actress Rula Lenska's hands. Respect MP George Galloway appeared on the fourth series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2006. But what would make Galloway, a member of parliament since 1987 and a very prominent political face take part in such a programme? Well firstly he seemed to think he had a right to be there as a celebrity. On the show he argued that he was the most famous housemate worldwide as he said he was known to every Muslim in the world. Galloway wanted to debate political issues and raise his profile amongst young people. He probably couldn't have been more surprised with how it turned out.

Politicians are naïve if they think they will be able to get their political views across to viewers and they are more likely to have a negative experience if they go onto a programme with this expectation. Julia Goldsworthy however took part in The Games without any political motivation. She says, "I didn't go in to make a big political statement. If I wanted to make any statement at all it was that politicians aren't all middle-aged white men, and that sometimes they can have fun. Hopefully I came across as a normal human being".

Goldsworthy echoes Ann Widdecombe's intentions, "As a politician, these sorts of shows allow an audience to get to know you and to see you as more human. That means the next time you do something serious, they're more inclined to listen to what you have to say". And it does work argues Ann, "when I did my film about benefits abuse, 4 million people tuned in. It's very sad to say, but if I had been speaking in the House of Commons on the same subject, I would have been lucky to get 40 people listening. This is about mass communication." Despite appearing on several reality TV shows Widdecombe is careful about what she signs up to. She has turned down requests to appear on Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. And when she participated in Celebrity Fit Club (incidentally renamed from Fat Club when the ordinary public took part!) she was keen to point out to producers that there would be some things she simply would not do on screen. She was keen to keep control of how she would be viewed.

Of course some politicians just want to become famous – although they probably wouldn't like us to say that so let's engage a bit of PR speak and just say they want to "raise their personal profile". In 2008 John Loughton a youth activist and former chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament won Celebrity Hijack; the replacement to Celebrity Big Brother which was suspended following the Shilpa Shetty bullying incident. Loughton says he did it all for the kids, "Me going to Big Brother was about giving the SYP a voice, making it heard and making it much more recognised. I now hope that it will encourage more young people to get involved in the Youth Parliament. I see what I did as part of my job anyway".

Derek Laud, a political lobbyist and former Conservative parliamentary candidate appeared on the sixth series of Big Brother in 2005. At the time Laud claimed he went on the show for the "personal experience" though he can't have been disappointed with the media profile he acquired and honed over the next few years. Barely out of the Big Brother House he appeared on BBC1s Question Time programme. And for the next two years Laud enjoyed a fairly successful media career. He appeared on The Wright Stuff, Test the Nation, Hell's Kitchen and even took part in a pilot for a new comedy U Kno Wot I Mean in which Laud played the part of a married, middle class barrister appalled by his white working class neighbours.

Following Galloway into the Big Brother House was Tommy Sheridan who appeared on the sixth series of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2009. Apart from giving a political oration during a task Sheridan's politics didn't lead to too many political debates or discussions in the house. His reasons for participating seem more to raise his profile and perhaps to earn some money for his various legal battles. But Big Brother is nothing compared to the daddy of all celebrity reality TV shows; I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.

Six years on from Christine Hamilton's stint in the jungle 2008 saw two politicians enter the fray. Brian Paddick, the Retired Police Officer and Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of London, competed in the most recent series and came 7th. Also in the series was Robert Kilroy Silk the former TV presenter, former Labour MP and a current MEP. He finished last. Both men seemed incongruous in the jungle at first but Paddick soon got into the swing of things showering naked and bitching behind others' backs. Paddick was hardly a household name before he went in. Only those with a very keen interest in current affairs or Londoners would have heard his name before. He clearly wanted to raise his media profile following his defeat in the mayoral elections of May 2008. Kilroy Silk's appearance however was actually quite sad. Here was a former MP a current MEP and a previously successful broadcaster drinking liquidised animals and being covered in a variety of jungle critters and slithery things. There seemed a desperation on his part to hark back to an earlier time when he could do no wrong. Sadly for the silver haired fox it wasn't to be and he was the first to be booted out – his profile, if possible, lowered from before he went in.

So what can we say about politicians who go on reality television. It's great viewing and whilst we get to know their characters better they don't usually come off all that well. We may know them better but we like them a whole lot less. They can lose the respect of their parties, their constituents and the public and they can lose sight of who they are and what their role is. If you want a media career following your stint as an MP then go ahead – eat Kangaroo willies and have snakes slithering up your body but keep to more sedate genteel programmes if you still wish to work in parliament. MP's would be better off sticking to Have I got News for You, Question Time and maybe the occasional Blue Peter. Reality TV never turns out well if you're a politician and wish to remain so.

We need to have respect for our politicians, to trust them and to know that they're intelligent and capable of making the right decisions for our country. How can we believe they'll make the right choices for us if they make the ludicrous decision to appear on I'm a Celebrity? As viewers we enjoy watching their antics as much as we do watching Paul Burrell and Myleene Klass cavort around. But when the show is over the Butler and the Singer don't try and pretend they're level headed enough to run the country. Going on a 24 hour a day reality TV show simply cannot do any good to an aspiring politician. Perhaps if Christine Hamilton hadn't done so well in the first series of I'm a Celebrity all this may never have happened. Tsk, blame the Hamiltons – causing trouble again.

FYI: Laura-Jane Foley is the editor of Politick! magazine. She appeared on Faking It in 2003 where she was transformed from choir girl to rock chick but she was very young and it shouldn't be held against her!

Charles Clarke was definitely grumpy. When I ask if he socializes with his fellow MPs, he tells me he lives in Norwich, "obviously by definition MPs aren't in Norwich".

There seems to be an anger within Clarke. Maybe it's a dislike of interviews or maybe it's the fire in his belly which was ignited by the injustices which made him first enter politics. "I grew up in an era where there was an enormous range of deep injustices in the world ranging from fascism in Spain and Portugal, apartheid in South Africa to totalitarian Europe in the international arena to deep poverty still continuing here in the UK. Many people were still unable to make progress in their lives, there was serious discrimination against whole sections of the population, women in particular, but also people of different sexuality and so on and I believed these things needed to change and I believed politics was the process of changing that. Democratic politics is the way to do it. So when I was at University I committed myself to the process of political change". Clarke went to King's College, Cambridge and served as President of the Student's Union. He was notoriously left wing – somewhat to the left of Michael Foot was the description of him at Cambridge. He would participate in sit-ins and occupations of University buildings. Purposefully ironic thirty years later Cambridge students occupied the University's Senate House in protest about the Top Up Fees proposed by a certain former CUSU President. I ask Clarke whether he found it difficult as a former CUSU and NUS President to introduce the tuition fee proposals. "Not at all. I thought it was a very powerful set of proposals. Intellectually difficult and politically difficult. I think the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The system we've established in my opinion does stand the test of time. It's not leading to reductions in applications to University from students from poorer backgrounds and I think it's a good system".

Who are his political heroes? "It is always difficult to say - a question I don't favour. The extent to which individuals contribute to change is always limited. I think the most important are those that actually change something. In domestic politics I give great credit to Aneurin Bevan because he created the health service, Barbara Castle because she created a large part of the pensions system, and Winston Churchill and Lloyd George for the 1910/1911 budget which marked the beginnings of a welfare state".

The best Labour leader in his lifetime "has to be Tony Blair. The spade work for his victory was done by Neil Kinnock during his leadership of the Labour party. But actually the achievement of ultimately winning power for Labour has to go to Tony". Despite his praise for Blair he is quick to point out that the Labour party is not wedded to Blair or his memory. "The Labour party moves on from everybody. No political party can succeed unless it moves forward. Political parties that look at past successes are doomed and that's why the Conservative party had a long time of depression and difficulty after Margaret Thatcher's departure. We absolutely have to move on and to a certain extent we are. And certainly we will. Brown's done extremely well in recent times. Without his leadership we would have been in a far worse situation now. He has led very well. And he has enormous international respect".

Clarke is optimistic about the prospects for Labour at the next election, "I hope Labour wins. I think it will be a difficult election because a fourth term is almost unheard of and it will be a very great achievement but I think it can be done". He says that a lot of work needs to be done before then to make sure there is "a clear sense of direction for Labour. So that people understand what a Labour victory would mean". This was one of the reasons he set up the 2020 vision website in 2007. "I believed it was critically important and still do that the party thinks what are the ways that we will confront, in a progressive way, the challenges of the era now. I thought we needed more debate around these questions and I thought the vehicle of the 2020 website would be a good means of doing it. Unfortunately it was seen as an anti Gordon Brown organisation – wrongly – and I thought it wasn't helpful to have that tension around it so we closed it down". But he continues to contribute "as much I can to the ability of Labour to set out a programme for Britain which can take it forward and address the problems which we face. I try to do this by giving speeches, writing articles". Looking forward Clarke thinks David Milliband "is a very talented man… (who) will have a very major future to play in the Labour party". But what of his own role in Labour's history? "I'd like to be remembered as somebody who helped reform the Labour party in it's recovery from the worst depths of despair that we've had in our history to a point at which we could first win power and then carry through changes. I feel proud of my own record in that regard".

I make an attempt at a light hearted final question. Can you describe yourself in five words? After a long pause – "warm, friendly, creative and energetic" Clarke brusquely utters. "Thanks, I think you displayed all of them today" I say. "You don't know me" comes the response and with that I'm marched in silence to the security gates at Portcullis House.

FYI: Charles Clarke is the Member of Parliament for Norwich South. He was Education Secretary from 2002 to 2004 and Home Secretary from 2004 to 2006. Clarke was replaced at the Home Office by John Reid in a Government reshuffle following Labour's poor results in the 2006 local council elections. He has been a backbencher ever since.

So it was with much trepidation that I made my way to his office in Portcullis House towards the end of a working day. But what a contrast awaited me. I didn't recognise the figure depicted in those reports. Before me was an empathetic, charming man whose political beliefs impacted on every area of his life. He described himself as "pig headed but very compassionate" and it is the latter of those qualities that one is most struck by when meeting David Blunkett.

His life has undoubtedly slowed down a fraction since he was a minister. Our interview ran over to 50 minutes – something that would not have been possible when his days were run to a tight timetable. But he still manages to fit more in the average day than the rest of us. When he was a minister he would be up at six and as he puts it, "doing the media from just after 7 onwards". Nowadays his day starts at a more respectable 7.30 and after his regular morning routine, "I listen to the news, feed the dog, put the kettle on, get on my exercise bike, have a shower, do the breakfast and walk the dog", he has a rather hectic schedule of work.

When he is in his constituency he visits local schools and community groups, meets the city council and works in his constituency office. "I love being in the constituency. Like last Friday I did a Football in the Community event and there were 170 youngsters plus all the footballers from Sheffield Wednesday. Then I went onto a community event which was to combat tension and promote social cohesion. That was a great success. Then I went to another community gathering which was to try and get young people and old people to understand each other". And that was all in just one afternoon. "That is really my forte. That's where I get the energy and drive from because it's like plugging in to an electric socket. I get rejuvenated by being in the constituency. They've been wonderful to me".

David Blunkett is a very popular MP. He gets hundreds of emails every week and still receives a large proportion of handwritten letters. "The constituency is very much a traditional one and, although people are into the internet and e-mailing, the e-mails tend to be about national issues. The letters tend to be about constituency issues. With e-mails people expect instant replies. It's an easy way for people to get to you. I've been reading Richard Crossman's diaries, Barbara Castle's diaries, Tony Benn's diaries. Their workload, as constituency MPs, was a fraction of what is the case today. When I was in the Department for Education and Employment we saw a doubling of the number of contacts in my e-mail correspondence for the four years I was there. It transformed it. It was just the time when the internet took off. Politicians are much more accessible. But we have to think how we handle that. If we don't reply people just think you are ignorant or arrogant". Blunkett receives letters about a wide range of issues - Child Benefit, the Child Support Agency, Pensions, the Post Office closures, Post Office Card Accounts. "We've had nearly 3,000 contacts on Post Office Card Accounts just from my constituency which is exceptional and we have replied to everybody".

He is a very proactive politician. He has recently been chairing a commission on school transport which is all about "getting youngsters out of the car in the mornings". He has also been working on social mobility and poverty, a survey of voluntary and community work. "I enjoy being proactive and I enjoy being positive rather than negative, contributing to party policy". Blunkett is very keen to make sure his experience in Government is put to good use "because of what I've gone through but also for my own sanity". As he very honestly puts it, "It would be very difficult to go back to pottering around putting questions out to ministers, being a traditional new back bencher when you've been on Shadow Cabinet and Cabinet for all those years". He sets his political ambitions now as "being able to influence the Prime Minister and to be able to continue working with members of this cabinet. For many of them are actually very close friends of mine. So it's nice to be able to exercise influence for the future but also to bring to bear experience and what I've learnt".

Blunkett was compelled to get involved in politics due to his upbringing. Although he was lucky to go to a special boarding school for blind children he had been brought up in a very poor constituency. "Some people were working very hard for very little and so I knew about exploitation. I saw the injustice and inequality, the poor opportunities - particularly for education. I just wanted to change the world and still do. The sharp corners have been rubbed off and I'm a bit more rational. I'm just a bit more tempered but I'm still here for the same reason". Blunkett joined the Labour Party just before he was 16 and has now been a member for 45 years. He was always an active campaigner, "I went to branch meetings, rang up the local radio, wrote to the local newspaper, went on anti-apartheid marches. In 1969 the government was not popular and in particular because of the Vietnam War. So it was a difficult time to be, as it is at the moment, an active Labour member but it's most crucial now. You keep things going and in the end you win through. You do good".

He joined Sheffield City Council at 22 around the same time he enrolled at Sheffield University as a mature student. His big break came when "someone who was going to stand for the cabinet in my home ward, got a job in South Wales. They took a big risk. Taking on a young man of 22, blind, who was at least 25 years younger than anybody who was on the council at that time". Blunkett learnt a lot in Sheffield. He counts the former leader of the council Sir Ron Ironmonger as his political hero. It was Ironmonger who taught the young Blunkett the value of debate and tolerance, "he once demolished me totally in a debate and came round and gave me a big hug and said "I bet next time you'll defeat me".

Blunkett worked hard at politics and he worked when he got to University. It had been a struggle to get there, " I'd come the hard way and been to work earning £12 a week and doing evening classes two or three hours a week as well". He would turn up at 9am each day to start studying. "I was working so hard but I don't regret that. Being a nerd got me into the mainstream political arena pretty quickly. I paid the price with my social life".

One can't help but think he has paid the price with his social life a number of times throughout his political career. He admits that he has "always been a bit of a loner partly because I had to put in the hours to be on top of the job". He was a minister for eight years. "I just didn't have time to do what I would have liked to have done which was to spend a little more time with fellow MPs, having a drink with them, just being there. So I think they saw me as being a bit stand-offish".

Now he isn't plagued by the red boxes things have calmed down a bit and Blunkett feels he is able to enjoy his social life, "I happen to have a really high quality of life. I've got a very good work life balance now. I didn't have. I think I'm a much nicer person because I'm much more relaxed, much more balanced. I like good food and wine. I don't make any apology about that. I came up the hard way. My family were absolutely at rock bottom because my dad was killed when I was 12 and we didn't have any money at all. So I knew what it was like to be really up against it. I don't think there's anything to be in the least bit apologetic about me wanting a good life. You've got to want it for everyone. You've got to want it for others. The idea of David Cameron pretending to go on his holidays to Cornwall and then going off on a luxury yacht off Turkey… The Mirror gave him a drubbing for that. I'm very happy to say I went for a fortnight to Italy and I was very lucky because I got some sunshine".

Without doubt his happiest political memory was when Labour seized power in May 1997. "I mean it has to be, albeit I didn't dance for joy because I knew how daunting it was going to be. It was just something entirely different to anything anybody had experienced before". But there have been a few other moments too that Blunkett remembers with great pride. "When we got unemployment below a million that was a great day because I was Employment Secretary at the time. When we suddenly realised that the literacy and numeracy program was working. Primary school children went from 57% for English to 79%. That was great. That made all we'd done worthwhile. Little moments too like when I got the Prime Minister to agree that I could introduce Citizenship into the curriculum in schools. That was great because I believe that in the long term if the schools will only teach it and teach it well it will do what this magazine is doing. It will bring home that whether people like the word politics or not, making decisions, allocating resources, choices about priorities, it's what we all do in our lives. It needs to be done publicly with participation and involvement of everyone not just a decreasing number. So the 40% who didn't vote in the last election left it to 60% who did". Blunkett, a former Education Secretary, thinks it's very important than politicians learn how to engage with young people. "They (the politicians) need to talk. I'm not good on the web side but I know that young people are. We need to engage where they're at. There's no point in engaging where we're at. Going into schools and colleges you see that young people are really interested in what's happening in the world. They're interested in development issues, in injustice and inequality. They're interested of course in their own future. We've got to be alongside them and start talking their language and be honest not just say, ‘Oh yes if you're in favour of that we're going along with that. That's fine'. You've got to actually challenge them. To say ‘How do we deal with your priorities viz a viz an ageing population?' How do we connect young people with something that seems like a lifetime away i.e. retirement income or their care, bearing in mind that when I grew up, as a youngster the average age of the area I lived in for people was about 70? They lived five years after retirement. Now we're talking about 90 for women and 87 for men. And it will be 100 in thirty years. That means that people will be living, even if people work till 70, which I think will become the norm, they'll still be living 30 years after they've retired. How do you get a young person; 18 when they receive their Child Trust Fund (which I'm very proud of because I funded the research that led to persuade them it was a good idea) how can we persuade a young person to put it into a fund to help them with retirement rather than backpacking round the world or buying a car? That's quite hard. Quite a lot of what I've been talking about is quite heavy stuff and the question I'd like to put back to young people is ‘How do we not patronise you by saying – we won't talk about the really difficult issues like how are you going to live when you're seventy, whilst making politics enjoyable. I'd like them to tell me rather than me to tell them".

Blunkett believes there are a lot of positive role models for young people at the moment, "you see them in the theatre and in football and other sports. We've seen some of them in the Olympics who are just good role models but they don't make a big thing of it. The problem with those that are temporarily the stars of the moment is in order to get the publicity they tend to do zany things". Blunkett isn't a fan of reality tv shows. "I think they demean the people that go on them. They seem to ridicule. I'm pleased that they're dropping in popularity. I think they've been through a phase. It's a strange phase reflected in the political arena as well as on television shows. That was an era where a little bit of spite and being horrible was seen as entertaining. You can have satire and you can poke fun, including at yourself, without being particularly horrible. And I hope we're re-establishing that. I think the best role models are highly successful, really good leaders in their field, champions in their field. To coin a phrase that Tony Blair was talking about in Beijing, ‘They don't have to flaunt it and they don't have to belittle themselves in doing it'. They just are good. On that note I've got three pieces of advice for young people. Never take no for an answer. Always aspire beyond what you've already achieved. Take as role models people who have done good things". Blunkett is proud of the country he calls home and not just because of the medal haul at the Olympics. "I think we belittle it too often. You just need to go anywhere else. You go and look at great democracies like the U.S. where they elect judges. Money talks even within the legal system there. Or countries like Italy where the Prime Minister owns half the media. See how lucky we are?" It is because we live in such a great country that Blunkett who as Home Secretary first floated the idea of ID cards in 2002. After becoming law in 2006 they are due to begin being issued to British nationals in 2009 on a voluntary basis. But does he still think they'll be a success? "Yes I do. They may end up being a universal passport. We need to know who is legitimately in the country. We need to know when you say who you are that is who you are. We need it because we offer the only free health service in the world, free education and a very substantial welfare state". Blunkett states, perhaps unsurprisingly, that his unhappiest memory in politics was when he stepped down as Home Secretary in December 2004. Blunkett resigned from his cabinet post after an email emerged showing a visa application for his ex girlfriend Kimberly Quinn's nanny had been fast-tracked. "No favours but slightly quicker" were the five words that spelt the end for his Home Office career. Although Blunkett had no knowledge of this email being sent he felt the question mark over his honesty meant he had to step aside. He had also become embroiled in a paternity case with Quinn and as he said at the time of his young son, "he will want to know ... that his father actually cared enough about him to sacrifice his career". It was alleged at the time that the leaking of the fast tracked visa came directly from Quinn herself. No wonder then that this is Blunkett's most unhappy memory in politics. "The reason was all to do with my personal life and my fight to retain contact with my son. That was a really, really sad moment because I felt I'd let Tony down in the sense that we had some really big challenges coming up and I'd enjoyed, albeit that it nearly killed me for the three and half years, that I was Home Secretary. Because it was literally at the cutting edge of politics". His compassionate nature made the whole thing an almost intolerable affair, "I'm deeply sensitive and far too thin skinned. I was thin skinned over political issues. I was impossibly thin skinned over my personal life. Reflecting back on it I do wonder now how I survived. I just wonder how I came through all that. Still walking. Still talking. Still thinking positively. Just going away hurt. I think there was a lot of sheepishness in the media about what happened to me. A lot of people were involved in reporting have said to me ‘Sorry. We got caught up in the pack.' The pack wrote together. They think that if they don't cover it their editors will go crazy. People get carried away. I've drawn a line underneath all that, thank goodness. But I'm very lucky to be able to do so. To have a good life and still be fighting and still be contributing".

When he is asked what he thinks will happen at the next election Blunkett is remarkably optimistic. "I think it's entirely in our own hands. I think if people pull together. I think it's still winnable. We've got eighteen months. To have been active in politics as long as I have you've got to be an optimist because we've been through hell and back". But it is not only optimism that makes him believe this. He has a lot more time now to read books on history and political biographies, " I have time to read what happened all those years ago and I know that 18 months is long enough to be able to pull it round but only if everyone pulls together. It's a bit like a football team you see. A football team that is losing all the time continues to lose because the confidence is knocked out of even the best players. We need to build confidence. We've got to be bold. We've got to take risks. We've got to re-establish a connection with the electorate. At the moment as we speak in September they're not listening. They're not hearing the message and it doesn't matter how good the announcements are if it doesn't have a substantial impact, a kind of seminal earthquake, then they won't start to pullback from what is a very strange phenomena at the moment. If you put to people that in the past there was massive unemployment, there were big cuts in public spending, interest rates were high. The world really was very difficult. They say ‘yes but'. The but is that over the last eleven years we've got used to having low inflation, low interest rates, high employment, low unemployment, investment in public services and now you're not doing enough and you've not done enough for us with energy, prices, food prices and with housing. It's very difficult to break through that conjunction between what used to be the big issues and how people feel now".

He believes that "Gordon is a profoundly decent man and a totally dedicated politician who's given his life to issues around equality and fairness. I think that what was a strength which was ‘not flash just Gordon' has, over the past year, become distorted so that people now want flash. They want a presidential campaign. They want a politician to have telly charisma and I think we've just got to get back to the situation where people are judged by how they handle the most difficult situations". He goes on to talk about Brown's relationship with Blair. "When they got on extremely well they were unbeatable. They were a great combination. When there was fracture sometimes it was constructive because constructive conflict can actually lead to better decisions and to sharper leadership. When on occasions that conflict led to destructive division it was very hard for them and I think both of them looking back would liked to have had a great deal of the first two and a little less of the latter". He is loyal to his former leader, saying that he believes Tony is "a really tremendous man. I think he will be remembered in years to come, when the dust has settled, as a really great Prime Minister, a great leader. Tony was a team leader and I was only able to do what I did, Gordon was only able to do what he did, Robin Cook and others were only able to do what they did because Tony gave us the space to do it and made that space by winning people who would never previously have voted Labour. It's still hard to get across to Labour activists that being in perpetual opposition changes no one's life. You can belong to a pressure group if you want, and I recommend it, but it's not an alternative to being in government. You can sit in a pub and grumble if you want but it's not an alternative to changing the world. So making a difference is about actually being there. Tony Blair did that and people still don't get it. He made a difference. He actually shifted the foundations of British politics".

Would Blunkett himself have liked to become Prime Minister? "No. You know you'd be foolish to say that you haven't toyed with the idea but I was very close to Tony Blair and saw what it did to him. I saw the hours he worked. I saw the enormity of breadth of issues he had to deal with. I'd love to come back and do it all over again. But my ambition now is actually just to contribute to making a difference and have a good quality of life. If I can balance the two that's great". And he really does appear to have cracked it. For, not only had he given a ground-breaking speech that morning on the elderly continuing to work past 70 (which had attracted wide scale media interest), but less than an hour after our interview Blunkett was on his way home to Sheffield for a long weekend. Finally after nearly 40 years in politics the self-confessed "nerd" has learnt to play as hard as he works.

FYI: David Blunkett is the Labour MP for Sheffield Brightside. He was the first blind man to be appointed to a cabinet post in 1997 when he was appointed Education Secretary, a position he filled for four years. He also served in the cabinet as Home Secretary from 2001 -2004 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2005. His guide dogs are nearly as famous as their owner. His current guide dog, Sadie even has her own column in The Sun!

It all started in May when a "black tie drinks party" was hosted by Channel 4 in a college that wasn't even my own. Alarm bells chimed faintly in the background but with the excitement of it all my fears on how this would come across were replaced by what my friends and I should be wearing on TV. Not a shrewd move. My friend Keir begged me to think about how negatively I could be portrayed: "normal people don't have black tie drinks parties!", he protested. But after talking to the director who assured me she had "my best interests at heart", I signed the contract.

The next week the director wanted to film an interview with me discussing the type of music I listened to, what I did at Cambridge, that sort of thing. When it came to it she obsessively questioned me about sex, boyfriends and religion. And this was where the editing and manipulation began. Jokes were portrayed as straight talking and sentences were messed about with heavily. "I don't go to church regularly but I pop into a church or chapel when I'm passing one occasionally" becomes a radically different sentence when it starts from "I pop into a church when I'm passing one" and drops the "occasionally"! As does "I think it's difficult to say I don't believe in sex before marriage. You just don't know who you're going to fall in love with. I just think it's an ideal" when it suddenly becomes "I don't believe in sex before marriage". It's all in the edit. I was portrayed as a repressed, uptight, devout choirgirl just passing the years singing and listening to S Club until it's time for me to enter the nunnery. I filmed the show for fifteen hours a day every single day for four weeks. So the one hour show was very heavily edited to create the impression the director wanted to create rather than representing the truth.

One of the flashpoints of the programme came when I was taken to a hairdresser's and told I was going to have my hair chopped off. In the broadcast version I seemed like a maniac protesting wildly about my hair. The voiceover suggested that this was the first time the topic had been broached with me. LIE. Before the month began I stated quite firmly to the production team that I wouldn't have my hair cut. They even have footage of friends joking with me about my utter resistance to the idea. The hairdresser episode wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't lasted for over 40 minutes. The director insisted I sat in the chair with the hairdresser lurking behind me menacingly with a pair of sharp, shiny scissors. For just under an hour I was subjected to a verbal assault from the director. "You'll be letting people down if you don't have your hair cut". "You'll fail". "It's up to you. Do you want to have your hair cut or walk off the project? Do you see your hair as part of your body? Would it be like losing your virginity?" AAARRRGGGHH! My vehement reaction was towards that treatment not towards the notion of having my hair cut! If I had played along I wouldn't have been portrayed so badly but why should I give in to whims of a jumped up television producer – what change does it really make to the programme?

If I ever find myself in a similar position I shall learn that when you are asked a pointed question like, "would having your hair cut be like us asking you to sleep around?", you don't answer! You certainly don't comply when they ask you to “rephrase the question in the form of an answer”. I.e. "I'm not having my hair cut in the same way that I'm not going to lose my virginity". Countless times I made ridiculous statements because of this. What have I learnt? Don't do reality TV! Unless of course you play along with the producers.

So, to set the record straight, I do swear (though I'm not proud of that fact!), I drink, I go out, I listen to classical and modern music, I went to a state school and my mum's more like Edina out of AbFab than the repressive “deeply religious” woman they implied she was. I've got nothing to rebel against! I said all of this in front of the camera..... but unsurprisingly none of it was included – it wouldn't have made such an entertaining programme. And one more thing, Marilyn Manson's agent actually thought my song was rather good!

In early summer this year I met Jack again. He limits the number of interviews he gives each year and after keeping in touch after our first meeting he agreed to let me interview him on the eve of the opening of his summer collection "Affairs of the Heart" in London's Portland Gallery. In this exhibition the carefree summery paintings for which he is best known were nowhere to be seen. "My style has changed", he declares. "My paintings have become darker. I'm moving away from being the painter of beach scenes". Inside the relatively small gallery were thirty-five of Vettriano's most recent "darker" paintings. Although the exhibition had not yet officially opened all but one of his paintings had already been sold - proving the new style appeals as much the old.

Despite Vettriano's assertion that he is not a sociable person he believes he has a "responsibility to the gallery, to the publishers and to the public" to carry out media interviews and appearances. In the two years since I first met the artist his fan base has grown even larger. Last year one of his paintings, The Singing Butler sold for a record £745,000 and his popularity continues to grow with recent appearances on the South Bank Show and on Desert Island Discs. Jack insists that the view of him being a "celebrity artist" is false. "I'm not a sociable person. I'm not a party animal. I live in a low-key way. My work is more promoted than the person". He thinks it is little wonder that his paintings have become so popular with the public with their provocative poses, "They're sexy paintings... prostitutes and lap dancing clubs". He believes it is also to do with the man in the street's ability to identify with his works. "They know the situations I'm painting and that's why the work's popular. It touches people in a way they enjoy". When he talks about his popularity he is quick to point out the fickle nature of it. "Art is a bit like music and books. Tastes change. Even for me, I used to like van Gogh but now I don't care much for his works. The more you learn about an artist the more you can enjoy him. I registered van Gogh's works more when I understood his life. When you stand in front of his Yellow Chair and you think to yourself: he stood where I'm standing, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up". He speaks with admiration too for the works of Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon and says that the latter had a profound effect on him. "With a swipe of a rag he could have such a meaningful effect on my brain".

The Portland Gallery run by Tom Hewlett is the only gallery to sell Vettriano's works and despite his mass popularity (or perhaps, as Vettriano feels, because of it) none of his works are to be found in any national art gallery. "My works depict heterosexual behaviour and they [the art establishment] don't respect the art form. I think the art world is a game. The people who control it are cynical. Tax payers views should be taken into account. My work's popular so it counts against me. It encourages a view of them against us". Vettriano describes the influence of Charles Saatchi as a "curious phenomenon. That's why it's a game. The media make or break an artist. Like me, I've got an interesting story [poor miner to rich artist] there may be better painters but that's why I'm famous". Vettriano believes people are fooled into thinking something is art or believe something is art because they are told it is, "There is an ominous significance when a work is in the centre of a room, people are intimidated into thinking it's art". He has the same reaction to the Brit Art generation of artists. Tracey Emin's unmade bed he says is "like the Emperor's New Clothes. It's Art because Tracey says it is".

So what does Art mean for Jack? "I think art has two purposes. It's a form of entertainment, visual entertainment and it's also a form of recording what is going on in the world. The artist filters through his own experience".

Vettriano records and filters a lot. His output is large and he estimates that he has produced over 1,000 canvases. "I'm not sure if I could identify a fake" he admits. Because of his heavy workload, he has developed a strict routine. "My wastage rate is low. When you work on something and you find yourself in the wrong position you know quickly on small pieces. If it goes bad it goes bad early". Vettriano believes he now has a "rigid quality control" but that wasn't necessarily the case earlier on in his career, "I would be embarrassed to see certain paintings from my past but I wouldn't change them. They stand for the time and place they were done".

Talking to Vettriano it is clear that he lives and breathes his work. He explains how his work invades all corners of his life and makes relationships "difficult"; a word he also uses to describe himself. He also dislikes the effect an intensely close relationship can have on his output. "Having somebody with me restricts me. I feel anxious and nervous. I'm used to working in solitude and I'm always at work by 6am. I have an obsessive nature -- an obsession with painting". But this doesn't stop the 53 year old dating a young pretty model named Tracey whose figure can be spotted in many of the Scot's works.

Vettriano who was self-taught stresses above all the "craft of painting, the mixing of colours, the tonal qualities. I never sketch. Images come to me in the night and I keep more notes than sketches. I need a basic idea and then I can fill the background in. I can't afford to get the dimensions wrong. I always need a photo for reference". He gathers background references -- bars, interiors, effects of lighting -- continually. "It's subliminal. They're drawn into the mind". He does this whilst thinking deeply about the art he produces and it's place in people's affections. "It's curious to see the effect my works have had on other people. All the time you've got to remind yourself that you're making the history of tomorrow."

Having dismissed an approach for an interview I was surprised when out of the blue he got in touch with me. "Private number" flashed up on my mobile... "Hello Laura-Jane? It's Lucian Freud here. I was wondering if you'd like to come for dinner tomorrow night with myself and Frank Auerbach. I thought you might enjoy yourself".

Unsurprisingly I agreed. The fact that I was several hundred miles away, the dinner was in less than 24 hours and I was at home for the weekend with all my party clothes at university could not have stopped me from accepting this once in a lifetime invitation. It is undoubtedly one of those experiences that I will recount to my grandchildren.

At the appointed hour the following day I knocked on the door of his townhouse in West London. The large door swung open and the familiar figure of Lucian Freud  appeared holding out his arms to embrace me. He was wearing a long coat splattered with paint and with his silk neckchief looked every inch the artist. Inside his house the walls were filled with paintings -- many Auerbachs, Cezannes, a few Freuds -- which he told me he was keeping for his children to inherit, "everything I paint is usually sold". Downstairs was a huge Rodin sculpture on a table amongst a sea of letters, books, pamphlets and discarded packaging. Looking round his open-plan kitchen, there was little food to be seen save the punnets of raspberries and strawberries on the work-tops amongst paintbrushes and when he offered a drink it was: "green tea or champagne?"

He gave me a tour of his house-studio. He has two such properties in London where he lives, sleeps and works. He chooses between them depending on his mood and the lighting needed for the particular piece he is working on. The first floor was used as a studio and in one of the darkened, curtained rooms was the cast-iron bed and abundant white sheets seen in many of Freud's portraits. On the walls were up to 5 inch thick layers of oil paints where he had wiped excess paint off his brushes and paintings so that in a way the walls themselves were a continuation of his canvases. On the third floor he showed me the bedrooms. In one the military uniform Andrew Parker Bowles wore for his portrait hangs proudly. Freud's whole house is taken up with his art -- there is no escape from it. It seems to be the house of an obsessive artist.

Sitting downstairs with champagne glass in hand and surrounded by paintings by the Greats Lucian discussed his craft and his art habits. He discussed his nudes and his choice of models, "I need to get on with them as we'll be spending so much time together. I'm looking for a suitable model for a nude at the moment actually..." He smiled and glanced me up and down. Pre-empting any suggestion of my stripping off I told him "I'd be far too self-conscious to ever pose as a nude". If not his close family and friends the models Freud chooses are usually far removed from the art world. His famous portrait of a pregnant Kate Moss was an unusual canvas for the artist as she suggested it herself. Usually Freud approaches his models himself having met them through friends of friends or acquaintances which has meant that his models have been an eclectic bunch: most recently a student, a lawyer, a benefits supervisor and a singer. Kate Moss described Freud as "cool" in the self-defined cool magazine Dazed and Confused and although it's a bit of a cliché I must admit the word definitely suits him. He told me he used to love to go to dancing but "always vowed never to be the oldest man on the dance floor so I never go to nightclubs anymore". But with the twinkle in his eye one suspects that given half the chance he would! Resting on the wall half disguised by bubble-wrap was an unfinished medium-sized portrait. Lucian told me that "it was an old piece" and that he intended to work into it as he thought it had merit. He explained that he had a high wastage rate, "I often destroy canvases and etchings if I'm not happy with them". Hopefully he disposes of them thoroughly as the price for a Freud on the open market is at least £1 million.

I've never feared for my life so much as when Lucian drove me from Notting Hill to North London for dinner with the artist Frank Auerbach and his family. Continuing our chat Lucian would turn his head and look at me as I spoke. He prides himself on his close attention to detail. When I tell him I'm wearing false eyelashes he looks at me suspiciously, "Are you sure? I never noticed. As an artist I usually do notice these things" as he then veers into the right-hand lane of the road to a chorus of horns. I kept quiet after that but that didn't stop him driving the wrong way down one-way streets, doing illegal U-turns when traffic was fast flowing around us and speeding through red lights. "Don't worry dear" he assured me reaching for my hand as a man put his fingers up at us and started shouting.

Although Freud shuns publicity and the limelight and rarely attends the starry launches for his exhibitions a few days before we met he had gone against this trend when he had attended the advanced screening of the BBC1 programme that looked at his life from the viewpoint of his sitters and those who knew him well. The reason for this was that the director Jake Auerbach is the son of the celebrated artist Frank Auerbach, one of Freud's closest friends and the man whose house we were going to that evening.

Over dinner Auerbach and Freud discussed the film, their craft and reminisced on their past. Auerbach told me how he had been taught by David Bomberg in his youth and feeling on safe ground I was able to join in their discussion on war artists and their works. Auerbach was particularly taken with Gaudier-Breszka whose early death he believed to be a great loss to the art world. On the walls were Auerbach paintings, Sickerts and a large Freud etching of a dog. Freud rushed over to see a newly acquired Sickert although he denies any similarity between his own and Sickert's style of painting. During our discussions Freud was quick to bring me up to speed with biographical details... this was no mean feat as the Auerbachs had known Freud for over forty years. When discussing the sculptor Jacob Epstein, Lucian leaned over, "I was married to his daughter so there were some problems" he half-whispered. Similarly when other artists were mentioned... Bacon, Picasso, Matisse... Freud spoke of his personal experiences and meetings with them. Here is a man who once travelled with Picasso's Weeping Woman in the seat opposite him on a train to an exhibition. It struck me that I was spending the evening with someone who only by accident of his not having died yet is not considered alongside the Greats of the 20^th century. Perhaps by the time I recount my evening with Lucian Freud to my grandchildren, he will be.

Think of Tracey Emin and more than likely the image of her bed and her tent will pop into your mind. Tracey Emin came to fame, like many of her YBA (Young British Artists) contemporaries, in the mid 1990's. Her profile was significantly raised when she was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999. Her installation included mono-prints, a collection of her video works and the now infamous "My Bed" installation, which consisted of dirty sheets, vodka bottles, bloody knickers and used condoms. Emin didn't win and felt that she had been selected merely to gain publicity for the prize. Last year three of her pieces including her tent were destroyed in the Momart fire. A storage facility that held many pieces of modern art by famous artists such as Jake and Dinos Chapman, Damien Hirst and Chris Ofili went up in flames. It is estimated that more than £50 million of art was destroyed. What pained Emin more than losing her tent (for which Saatchi is rumoured to have paid £40,000) was the public reaction to the blaze. "The majority of the British public have no regard or no respect to what me and my peers do, to the point that they laugh at a disaster like a fire. We really don't need to laugh at the culture in our own country." She insisted: "You don't laugh at people's loss on that kind of level and it's really absolutely lucky that no-one was hurt. It is just not fair and it's not funny and it's not polite and it's bad manners. I would never laugh at a disaster like that - I just have some empathy and sympathy with people's loss".

The tent called "Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-95" which first brought her to public attention was emblazoned with the names of everyone she had slept with in that period including her two unborn foetuses which she'd had aborted. Emin explains that this piece and all her pieces are irreplaceable as they represent a particular emotion she was feeling when she made them. You can't recreate that, she says. "I had the inclination and inspiration 10 years ago to make that, I don't have that inspiration and inclination now. My work is very personal, which people know, so I can't create that emotion again - it's impossible."

It is slightly disconcerting knowing so much about Emin's private life but this is the nature of her art. It is hard to separate work from life from personality with Tracey. Her two abortions have been well documented -- even recorded in her infamous tent piece for the world to see. For Emin, art has a very particular purpose. "There's all different reasons why art exists. For me it's a means of communication". This of course if why we know so much about the artist. Her autobiography lies scattered in galleries and private collections around the world.

In the Autumn of 2004, Emin was elevated into the Pantheon of Great Artists, or she was at least in the eyes of the powers that be at the Tate which bulk bought eight of her pieces. The pieces went on immediate display in an Emin-only room at the Tate. She joins a distinguished list of artists to be given her own room -- Constable and Turner amongst the other artists deemed worthy enough. At the time the Tate commented that the purchase was "an acknowledgement that the Tate takes the view that she is a very important artist". As does Tracey herself who famously once declared: "If you've made seminal work, you never know when the next one is coming or where it's coming from. Most artists never make a seminal piece of art in their lives, and if you've made two, which I have, then I've done all right".

But do the public think the same? When I ask Emin if she thinks the general public understand her work she replies succinctly. "Yes". Oh dear. Dead-end. I can see I'm going to have my work cut out with this YBA. Before the interview I had read several articles and interviews she had given before. What struck me with many of them was the bad relationship she seemed to develop with the people interviewing her. I put this to Emin and asked why she thought it was that journalists have been harsh and hostile towards her in their write-ups. "I think it's jealousy sometimes and also a lack of understanding. Also some journalists make a living by just sticking the knife in". But Emin doesn't make any effort to endear herself to me. She remains not the most helpful interviewee when I ask her what she thinks about Charles Saatchi. She replies "I think he's an art collector who really loves art". She doesn't give me much to get my teeth into but then she knows if she gives too much rope she'll hang herself. After several bad media experiences in the past- perhaps you can't blame her.

Emin has recently branched into designing handbags for the posh retailer Longchamps. I ask her whether they are works of art or "just" bags. "They're a multiple. I think they are far more like art than bags. I think they'd be equally at home in art museum shops as well as boutiques". In light of these bags being produced, I ask Emin where she believes the line is drawn between designer, maker and artist. She replies forcefully, "I'm not a designer, I'm not a textile maker full stop. I'm an artist and have been for the last twenty years. I've been making a living for the past ten years. My strength is making art that communicates an idea. Some art is beautiful images. I deal with the essence of the subject". This forcefulness reminds me of an interview I did with Jack Vettriano (who by the way Tracey claims never to have heard of). Vettriano spoke of Emin's art being "like the Emperor's New Clothes. It's Art because Tracey says it is". I can't think of a better way of summing up her attitude and her success.

At the same time as producing bags for the well-heeled Emin has produced a film called Top Spot. A film that documents teenage life in Margate which follows a group of girls around who most certainly could not afford a Tracey Emin hand bag. Her stubborn streak rears again. She informs me: "You can't see it in cinemas. I've stopped its release". This she explains is due to it being given an 18 certificate. "I made it for teenagers and the audience I made it for can't go and see it". The cast is made up entirely of females. This, she says is because "I wanted it to be from a female perspective. I thought men might ruin that". Emin was born in Margate in 1963 and lived a relatively charmed existence until she was seven when her parents' business crashed and her parents separated. At 13 she was raped and within a year she was sleeping around and had become, in her words, "a slag". It is her teenage years that she has used as a basis for her film.

Emin does appear terribly self-absorbed. When I ask a playful question about meeting someone from the past, present of future she doesn't take the bait and play along. She takes the question literally, "I have some dead friends and family that I wish I could speak to sometimes, especially my nan."

The final question I ask Tracey is how she would like to be remembered. Her short answer reveals Emin the person behind the artist and the media celebrity. Something I've been trying to get at throughout the interview. Not for great art or for changing attitudes does she wish to be remembered but purely and simply, "for being generous". In that answer I get the feeling that the weight and riches of fame are sometimes too much for our Tracey from Margate.