Mansfield too much focus on self-publicity, as opposed to publicity for the town. The issue was raised again after his prominent role in Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington's homecoming ceremony following her Gold Medal successes at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. In April 2017, Sophie Whitby was elected to represent the Mansfield district as Member of Youth Parliament, on a manifesto which included promoting equality for the LGBT community. Benjamin Bradley has been the constituency (Conservative) Member of Parliament since May 2017, succeeding Sir Alan Meale (Labour), who served the town for thirty years. From 2010 the Parliamentary Constituency boundaries were realigned
Mansfield to include areas to the north of Mansfield around Warsop, which had previously been part of the Bassetlaw constituency. D. H. Lawrence, in "Lady Chatterley's Lover", described Mansfield as "that once romantic now utterly disheartening colliery town". The 2005 and 2007 editions of Channel 4's programme "The Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK" named Mansfield as the sixth and ninth worst place to live in Britain, largely due to the poor performance of schools in the area at the time. This has recently improved due to a large reduction in crime, massive school improvements, and being known