To think only those with life experience should be Minister of a certain topic? (Looking at you education)

[HoveringKestrel]

I wish a party could be formed which has members who are not only fair minded and reasonable but also know what they're talking about.

At the next general election I won't know which party I'll vote for anymore.

Nope YANBU. I've often thought that to be Minister of any department you should have appropriate experience. Particularly close to heart is the fact that Jeremy Hunt has no experience of working in healthcare and is minister for health and reforming a system he clearly does not understand. Ditto Michael Gove and his zero education experience.

Yy esp Gove and Hunt - doing untold damage in their respective fields that I fear will be irreversible

YANBU!!!!

YANBU!

I mean what other job, with such responsibility, would employ someone with limited experience of that particular field?

How on earth are these ministers meant to know their arse from their elbow when they have never had any relevant grassroots experience in healthcare or education?

Yanbu - however those with experience have traditonally not been great - estelle Morris was a former teacher but resigned because she wasn't good at being a minister. My issue is that they rarely take advice from those in bog standard positions in the job- it's always heads etc many of whom have not actually taught for decades.

He went to an elite private school in Scotland. How does that prepare him to run state schools in England?
Anyone?

YANBU. But I do second the Estelle Morris thought - she was pretty useless. The trouble with Gove is his absolute inability to listen to his advisors and his unshakable belief that he is always right.

His u turn over scrapping GCSEs has actually made him worse - he had been even more determined to push through his agenda.

Oh and to make it even worse, if Georgie Boy doesn't start sorting out the economy pretty soon, my money is on Gove unleashing a power battle and becoming the new Chancellor!

YABU, though I'd like to see more MPs coming from a greater variety of jobs.

But the idea of having a qualification for certain roles in Government could lead to awkward gaps is say, one party had no ex-Service MPs for MoD, or their only ex-teacher was a university don who was a utter twat.

Oh, and would it mean bankers only for Chancellor?

I think you could probably take Gove, train him as a teacher, set him to teach for umpteen dozen years, and then see what he'd learned.

It'd be unfair on the children he taught, a waste of money, and he'd come out of it with the same ability to ignore other people's expertise completely.

Some people are just like that.

Gove came to my school once. He got a carefully staged tour and met all the nicest kids. One of the teachers commented that he really seemed to listen to what they were saying. I watched him interact with the journalists who turned up to interview him, he was really slick and personable, very good at schmoozing it seems.

It worries me that he can charm people into thinking he's actually a decent bloke who cares about their opinion. The only opinion he actually seems to care about is his own.

Ok scaevola I dont agree with u in the slightest.

hahaha bless you.

The government take their advice from John Atkins who is an Education Tzar, he's head of a chain of academies, and there virtually zero information out there about him. But he was a teacher many moons ago. A very powerful man behind the scenes.

I have no problem with ministers not having a background in the area which they oversee. I have a HUGE problem with them not taking advice from people who have studied or working in that area for decades. Gove's biggest problem is that he "only listens to those whose opinions I respect" (i'm paraphrasing) which basically translates as people who already think the same way I do. Oh and he's a massive twat. That's a handicap too.

twitter.com/DawnHFoster/status/295198875675934720/photo/1 sums Gove up.

Yes, and not just Gove and Hunt. Gideon Osborne should really have some kind of qualification in or experience of economics to be chancellor. Hell, I'm more qualified to do the job!

Great cartoon, JennyDee.