Well, okay, it is, but not entirely. Being a successful politician involves a great deal of ingenuity, coupled with a healthy dose of ruthlessness and unrestricted ambition. The early bird, here, makes sure he kills the others so he can wake up in peace the next morning.

So, anyway, given the difficulties involved in rising to the post of Minister, some bright sparks realised that what they were sitting on was a potential game comparable -- in terms of blood, guts and gore -- to Duke Nukem.

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A couple of brainstorming sessions later, the online game Honourable Member was born.

Currently running on a test version, the site opens with a neat illustration depicting the two sides – one clean public face, another sordid, private one -- of most politicians. The ultimate aim is to become Prime Minister of Britain.

All players start off by being Back Benchers, and slowly move up the political ladder by using persuasion and manipulation, while avoiding common pitfalls like sex scandals and exposures of corruption. As in the real world of governmental affairs, progress also depends on alliances formed and causes championed.

Each game involves eight wannabe PMs, all of whom kick things off by being newly elected to parliament in marginal constituencies. Each player is allowed to choose his or her own party, gender and policies, and can choose to either take on the computer or compete against another player online.

Working in turns, competitors can make speeches, form alliances, leak against opponents and, in short, employ every underhanded trick in the book to make sure they stay a step ahead. There’s also a section on Parliamentary scandals, where users can either choose to appear in one, or insert details of a friend and incriminate them in a juicy bit of gossip.

A political open forum lets anyone who registers communicate their points of view on a range of political policies. Not necessarily Indian politics, of course, but politics all the same. And who’s to say one brand of parliamentary mudslinging is terribly different from another?

All in all, a good place to sharpen those claws before jumping into a real campaigning battle. Download a couple of free screensavers while you’re at it, too.

Could it, like the creators hope, produce powerbrokers of the future? Can playing the game help you become the kind of politician you’ve grown up watching on TV? Will this usher in a whole new generation of potential MPs, not just in the UK but outside it as well? Nobody knows.

What’s certain is that our current bunch of politicos isn’t exactly shivering with fright just yet.