to think that the educated elite running the country can't be all that smart?

[MuseumofInnocence]

This is a Brexit related question, but it's not really about Brexit. The country is in a real mess right now, and the Government (and the opposition) looks woefully incompetent. Yet, if I look at their CVs, these, if not the brightest and best, should be pretty smart people - people with Oxbridge and top university degrees, experience working in industry at top levels, etc.

The example I can give is Stephen Barclay. Cambridge educated lawyer, high positions in City of London firms. The same is true of Dominic Raab (although he has degrees from Oxford and Cambridge).

Chris Grayling went to Cambridge and had a career in business.

I'm not saying I could do a better job, but how come those at the top seem it so incompetent?

Is it that those are top are incompetent, and they're not that bright, or is just too complex for mere mortals? AIBU to think those at the top can't be that smart?

MPs are on a good salary compared to many, but I do agree that to attract the very highest calibre, they probably need to be paid more than they are. There is so much public scrutiny in the age of social media that a lot of people would be put off such a public role, so something needs to attract them.

Otherwise we end up with the likes of Karen Bradley. It honestly baffles me that a person can reach adulthood, be elected as an MP, rise through government to ministerial level and actually be appointed Northern Ireland Secretary without realising that the voters of NI vote on sectarian lines! Surely this is something that pretty much everyone knows.

Pay does not encourage the best
a sense of achievement encourages the best

If MPs were expected to have outside business interests
and thus show breadth of knowledge / experience it would help

I also think that all MPs should have served their time at either Parish or District level and then at county / unitary level
to give them a healthy respect for professional officers
less faith in their own beliefs
and a SOLID training in
evidence based decision making

I was once in a meeting with people from that sort of background. I was asked to evaluate the finances of a PPI type product to cover rent. My first question was "surely this is a major financial and reputational risk because of how it would affect people's ability to claim housing benefit". The other people in the meeting either didn't know housing benefit existed or didn't know it was means tested. I was shocked but it taught me 2 important things. 1) you don't have to be thick to be ignorant on an issue 2) diversity is important.

So, I don't think we have to worry about our MPs being in poverty.

No, but if we want to attract the brightest and the best, it needs to be financially viable for those people. If you are able to earn a 6 figure (and more) salary in industry, why would you choose an MP's less stellar one?

To be fair, many of the “privileged elite” making a mess of Brexit were remainers. They were remainers because they understood it woudl be a strategic and economic mistake to leave the EU.

But that was all dismissed as ‘project fear’.

bananas
If you are able to earn a 6 figure (and more) salary in industry, why would you choose an MP's less stellar one?
How many people in industry actually earn high salaries outside a few London bubbles.

Seriously, there are so many distorted views.
HALF OF ALL ADULTS EARN LESS THAN £20,000

Its not the money that makes the difference
its the requirement to be a psychopath

No, but if we want to attract the brightest and the best, it needs to be financially viable for those people. If you are able to earn a 6 figure (and more) salary in industry, why would you choose an MP's less stellar one?

Sense of public service? I took a £16k a year pay cut to move from the private sector to the public, because I wanted my work to feel more meaningful. I would hope that MPs would be motivated by similar drives, rather than purely financial ones.

Fewer than one million people earn £100+. In my experience of working with some of them not many are worth anywhere near it.

Well they're not that bright that's why they have to pay so much for their education.

No, but if we want to attract the brightest and the best, it needs to be financially viable for those people. If you are able to earn a 6 figure (and more) salary in industry, why would you choose an MP's less stellar one?

MPs get high salaries plus shit loads of allowances. They’re hardly on the breadline.

I think it is an error to say mps aren’t intelligent. By and large lots of them will be. The issue is assuming altruistic motivations. Lots of the very brightest will be pursuing things that benefit their own self interest and position within the party rather than their own constituents. The referendum is a prime example of that. Cameron will have known a leave vote would have been disasterous but did it anyway for party politics. Boris was using it as a way to further his career etc. Anna Soubry has had great integrity in breaking away from the Conservative party (thereby probably killing her political career) to argue against Brexit and she has been heavily criticised for it.

They are in the majority smart but a lot of MP's have their own agenda and will not think of the country as a whole when voting.