AIBU to want politicians with strong academic and business backgrounds?

Not amusing, OP.

Happily I can think of half a dozen or more worldwide who fit this description

I agree with every word!

Too many young, inexperienced, ivory-tower ideologues are not going to be any good at the compromises, common sense and pragmatism needed for actual government.

We need more women in politics

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/01/men-women-candidates-may-elections-england-scotland-wales

I am interested in this as well

@Catsandjkr ?

I think I would like people who aren’t highly ideological to run the country.
I like even handed pragmatists to run things. Actually maybe engineers would be good, a fix it mind set would be useful. I honestly think having a PPE from oxford should exclude you from government full stop.

@Catsandjkr Can you list some MPs who prove your point - successful MPs with a good education and a background in business 0 so we can see what you're meaning.

This is the key thing. All walks of life. The Covid response exemplified, imo, the problem with lack of diversity.

We need business people. We need academics. We need men and women. All races and backgrounds. How else will we have the experience we need to deal with all the situations that arise?

We don’t, imo, need people who studied politics.

And we don’t need people who comment freely on crap they don’t understand.

I’d say that Starmer is proof of the opposite. Politics isn’t just about academia or business. It’s people job, it’s about knowing who will work well get the best out of people. Can accelerate your vision. Be charismatic and get people on side.

as well as understand how your specific political system works.

@Catsandjkr who are you holding up as someone who fulfills your criteria?

Or just stop them having side hustles.

Nail on the head there. "Small" businesses are a massive employer and generate huge sums for the economy yet have no "power" as there is no union nor other body representing them. Civil servants havn't a clue about small business and don't care. Politicians are often in the pockets of big business, hence why the huge businesses seem to have undue influence over policy etc.

Small businesses are very easy to simply ignore.

Look at Sunak excluding a whopping 3 million self employed, freelancers, casual workers, etc from the covid support schemes. That's a whopping 10% of the workforce glibly excluded for no good reason. That would never have been allowed to happen had small business a proportional say in the running of the country in line with the number of people they employ (in total) and the huge wealth/income they generate for the country.

And the OP doesn't even read other people's posts properly either.

Well, to be fair, your OP was badly written: unclear, ungrammatical, and without evidence.

Exactly!

And barristers are basically small business owners/runners. They are self-employed, and they group together in chambers (which could be seen as business companies), which they manage. They employ clerks, administrators, and junior barristers in those chambers - Starmer has both excellent academic qualifications and has run a business.

Absolutey. The site seems to have had an influx of posters recently who put "make me seem really intelligent while putting down the left" into AI. The posts are characterised by show-off vocabulary and broad assumptions about the other posters. For example, the op describing everyone as Starmer lovers, when no-one has expressed that. I'm not even sure he has fans, more people who think he's not the worst.

It's boring and I'm not sure who it's convincing.

Can you suggest some successful MPs who meet your criteria @Catsandjkr ?

You are being an idiot! Starmer is highly academic. He’s a bloody barrister. How academic do you think they should be ffs? I thought you were going to name the idiot frontman for Reform when I read the title! That would have been more appropriate.

What are you basing your assertion that he did not have a good reputation as a barrister on? Would love to see your evidence. Because I work in a similar field and have had dealings with him over various legal matters over the last 20 years. He always had an excellent reputation amongst other lawyers - he is very clever, dedicated and he was an excellent barrister.

You may not like him, and can take issue with other things about his political career. I don’t align with all he does as PM either. But making up things about his reputation in law is unacceptable and improper. And yet you say you don’t like liars…

Feel free to prove me wrong by supplying evidence of this so called poor reputation he had amongst lawyers.

You can only balance kids and a job if you have the right support.

Yes I suppose it is a clear correlation if you only judge women on the single vector of having a job. Not thinking once of anything else they might be contributing to the country at large. Economic, social, and emotional labour are all irrelevant I guess? Their contribution to the volunteer 'work'force also irrelevant?

But yes, they are all thick and lazy. Amazing.

Yep. If you're ambitious, you don't sit at home changing nappies whilst other women, doing a perfectly good job of balancing kids and a job, steam ahead of you.

You also don't see anywhere near as many SAHMs in well qualified, high intelligence groups of women. There's a very clear correlation.

Who said she doesn't feel capable? I guess all SAHMs are just stupid and unambitious in your mind?