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Who'd be a politician?
Thinking about all the recent scandals got me wondering who on earth would be a politician? From all the (frankly, often rather sanctimonious) talk that's talked about them, it's apparent we expect them to be virginal saints without a hint of the merest impropriety in their lives, as well as blessed with monumental powers of intellect, foresight and organisation. Allied to this, they must be inspirational leaders and motivators, in touch with the zeitgeist and warm, cuddly human beings. Not to mention photogenic, telegenic and always ready with a good quote.
That's the basic brief. Then there are a number of disqualifications to negotiate:
- You got up to any form of fun in your pre-politics today, e.g. fine dining, going on student demo's, working anywhere as an intern etc...
- You've ever had any form of contact with recreational chemicals (even if you didn't inhale).
- You've got any points on your driving licence.
- You've thrown a party and it was attended by someone who is subsequently arrested for something that was nothing to do with you, anyway.
- You express an opinion that's a cigarette paper's width away from the official party line, even if the issue has only just broken so that line hasn't yet been established and your off the cuff comment is 99.9% on the ball anyway.
- Your significant other ever expresses a view that is even slightly different from your own.
- Oh, and also: if you ever say anything that differs by one scintilla from something you were quoted as saying 20 years ago, then you must acknowledge being a flipper and a flapper and totally inconsistent and resign forthwith.
Where are we going to get our politicians from? And whatever happened to the "by the people" bit in the claim of government of the people, by the people, for the people?
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Given that all of our current crop...
... of party leaders started off as Special Advisors (SPADS) you have answered your own question.
Future politicians will consist entirely of politics, philosophy and economics graduates made up of pure power crazed ambition with no experience of life outside professional politics and therefore little inkling of how actual people live. Political expediency will be all, and real life problems will be largely theoretical to people who view everything through the prism of party politics.
I rather long for the days when tory politicians were former businessmen and labour politicians were for trade unionists.
Hardly ideal but
at least they've got some experience of real life behind them.
True dat
Professional politicians - those who have done nothing outside the narrow sphere of party politics - are both a bane and a danger to the political system and to the country.
At its highest level, all I want from politicians, in nor particular order are:
Intelligence
Open mind
Integrity.
Got drunk as a kid? Me too.
Had an affair? Well, as long as you didn't pontificate about the sanctity of marriage or campaign on family values, then what you do in the bedroom is none of my business.
Are these people really SO hard to find?
Was the past that different?
In say the seventies, some labour politicians were union officials such as James Callaghan Eric Varley, but just as many had similar backgrounds to today's politicians: Harold Wilson, Anthony Crosland and Richard Crossman -academics: Michael Foot and Shirley Williams- Journalists; Tony Benn - a brief stint as a radio producer. One significant difference to today as that many of them had done military service, which may have formed some of their views.
I don't know about the conservative party in any detail, but John Major, Margaret Thatcher or Edward Heath, for example, weren't business people.
A variety of people in the Commons is probably a good thing, but political ambition, like most is born early, and people with it seem to want to get into active politics as quickly as possible.
I bow to no one in my utter contempt of the woman
But whatever else she was/is, Thatcher was a well respected research chemist before she entered full time politics.
In my alternative universe (see tumbleweed blowing elsewhere on the blog) anyone who actively wants to be a politician should be automatically barred from so acting.
far be it from me
to defend Thatcher and Major, but didnt she work as an industrial chemist and he work at a bank? Business of a sort.
The current fondness for youngish (30/40s) politicians means that they have to be careerists - not enough time for anyone else. A friend of mine who has stood for parliament might be seen as too old next time - she would be about 53.
I agree with the OP - we ask our politicians to be people like us, and then expect them to be completely different to us and held to incredibly high standards.
you might be right Mark but ...
you demonstrated extraordinary insights there. Are you an MP by any chance? Which constituency?
Agreed, and an extra special "up"
for using the word "scintilla" (haven't seen that in years - lovely word).
The list goes on...
Politicians must also have an opinion on everything, and know everything about everything. They are not allowed to say "I don't know" because it is a sign of weakness. Even a minister who would be spending an enormous amount of time studying the detail of their own portfolio will be interviewed and get asked about some tiny aspect of another portfolio and be expected to know it all.
Even as a lifelong Labourite I kind of admire Tory minister Grant Schapps for not being afraid to flaunt his blissful ignorance about things outside his brief - even those things I had assumed were common knowledge, like public schools having charitable status.
Also, politicians in the past used to have what was called a hinterland: hobbies or interests that would occupy large amounts of their time, even if for some of them that just meant being on a few boards of directors. Some would even continue to practise medicine or the law. Now they are all doing a poor impersonation of the now-legendary four yorkshiremen sketch about how much time they spend being an MP.
Like some of the other posters, I don't want politicians who are soulless robots who went from PPE at Oxbridge to being a SPAD. I just want people like me except a bit cleverer and less easily distracted. If they enjoyed a joint or two at college that's fine with me. And if they have one to unwind after PMQs even better.