We need normal people to be running the country

[Marianne1234]

Not these Etonian freaks who have no idea what it’s like to live in the real world.

Where are they all? The lawyers, accountants, teachers. Clever professionals who have been to the state schools. Used the NHS. Lived amongst normal people. Been skint students who have struggled to pay their bills. Cared for elderly relatives. Been working mothers. Worked for a living.

Not ridiculous anachronisms like JRM or hooray Henry’s like David Cameron or national embarrassments like Boris (who was a national embarrassment before he was ever the PM).

It really is true that people who want to be in politics, should not be anywhere near it. Maybe we should conscript the normal people

Is this the same K Starmer who refused to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was DPP?

No. HTH.

www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-britain-savile-idUSL1N2RP200

Until forelock tugging goes out of fashion we have no chance, it'll be Eton all the way.

We need a better system of democracy- first past the post is a terrible system where we end up with a small number of parties that is closed to newcomers.

Electoral reform; and having more small parties (that have to work together) would make a massive difference

Like some sort of extended jury service and being held accountable.

@StarbucksSmarterSister

Until forelock tugging goes out of fashion we have no chance, it'll be Eton all the way.

Basically this.

Too many British people are in awe of posh people and their plummy accents. No matter how useless the owner of said accent is.

Jacob Rees Mogg with a Manchester accent? He'd never have got anywhere.

@Asdf12345

If I were to take five years out to be an MP for a term it would cost me substantially lifetime earnings in its impact on my career unless I found a way to leverage it financially. That is why I want to be represented by someone independently wealthy who would be harder to buy.

I do begrudgingly accept that everyone has a price, but would hope beyond a certain level of security people are much harder to buy.

In my experience the more money you’ve got, the greedier you are.

In my experience the more money you’ve got, the greedier you are.

I don't think that's necessarily true, but greedy and power hungry defintiely go together and I think that's true of people who started off poor, just as much as it is the wealthy born.

The kind of politician I want would consider £80k plus expenses to be a fair recompense for a role in which they can make a difference.

Running the country is skilled and difficult work.
The current salary on offer isn't attractive to successful people in the public sector let alone the private sector.

I would like skilled and motivated running the country, politics is uncertain business and financially it just isn't going to stack up for many people.

From an outsiders prospective it does looks to me that the English especially have some kind of Stockholm syndrome when it comes to voting for Tories.
Maybe it stems from having a hereditary head of state.

I'd be okay with the salary being higher if they were banned from having £££ second jobs. These second jobs they hold means they can usually be persuaded to try and direct questions in the house/policy in favour of these organisations.

How about someone like Andy Street? Normal background, worked his way up in John Lewis, gay. He is a conservative. What's wrong with him?

However, he did PPE at Oxford. Does that rule him out? Or not, as that puts him in the same bracket as KS.

Or you have someone else "normal" like Andy Burnham. Except he went to Cambridge too, and is a career politician.

@oncemoreunto

The kind of politician I want would consider £80k plus expenses to be a fair recompense for a role in which they can make a difference.

Running the country is skilled and difficult work.
The current salary on offer isn't attractive to successful people in the public sector let alone the private sector.

I would like skilled and motivated running the country, politics is uncertain business and financially it just isn't going to stack up for many people.

You’re missing the point. I don’t want politicians to be motivated by money. I want people who could earn more elsewhere but see making a difference as a trade off. I’m very happy for those whose main concern is the impact on their life time earnings to give politics a swerve. £80k a year puts you in the top 5% of the population.

There's nothing stopping those people doing that now BlossomToes. Is it like me wanting a small but perfectly formed penthouse flat that's detached. Lovely but doesn't exist?

@QuestionsorComments

There's nothing stopping those people doing that now BlossomToes. Is it like me wanting a small but perfectly formed penthouse flat that's detached. Lovely but doesn't exist?

There are plenty of those people doing it. Have a look at the back benches.

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB QC, doesn't sound like your average Joe.

No but before he rose on merit he was ordinary which I think is the OP's ideal

This.

@DottyDoge

There’s another thread about Angela Rayner, and it’s clear that some of the animus against her comes is based in snobbery (she’s not classy, she’s loud, she doesn’t always speak grammatically).

Haven’t seen the other thread, but I love that she is passionate and noisy. Don’t care that she’s not “classy”. I DO care that she doesn’t always make sense when she speaks. I want to know what a politician intends to do or achieve, and it’s impossible to determine that if they can’t communicate the information accurately. I fully accept that on the other side Boris speaks very clearly and precisely, but is seldom truthful, so that’s also not helpful.

@BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation

It's because we don't live in a democracy. Just a fake one that's made to look like a democracy. It's all a load of bollocks and they're a load of bollocks.

This!

I'm less worried about their background than their morality and ethics.

Currently we have a prolific liar in charge of our country. A philanderer. A hypocrite. A racist misogynist and a blundering idiot who is taking us all for fools.
The worst thing is that all these qualities were widely known by the Tories, the media and the public, yet he was still put in the position to inflict significant damage to the UK at home and abroad. We have got the child of Trump and Berlusconi - and how we laughed at them!

Power corrupts, so I'm not convinced making MPs meet some standard of "normal" would help much.

I'd quite like the HoL to be chosen randomly, like jury service, to sit for 5 years though. Everyone to have exactly the same chance of being selected. Probably wouldn't be practical (too much disruption to the lives of those selected), but it's a nice idea.

We have got the child of Trump and Berlusconi - and how we laughed at them!**

@StoneofDestiny - what a brilliant description!!

Is this the same K Starmer who refused to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was DPP?

No
But Jimmy Saville was your future Kings' pal (in this non democracy).

Our horrible media and weak privacy laws scared off all the normal people. I’d love to be an MP and have a fab CV for it but don’t fancy having my family’s personal life in the papers 🤢

The way things are set up only the most egotistical/arrogant people can stand the job.

Look what happened with Chuka Umnna. Withdrew his candidacy for Labour leadership because press harassing his gran at home or something like that. So then we got stuck with Corbyn. So then we got stuck with BJ.

@Thirtytimesround

Our horrible media and weak privacy laws scared off all the normal people. I’d love to be an MP and have a fab CV for it but don’t fancy having my family’s personal life in the papers 🤢

The way things are set up only the most egotistical/arrogant people can stand the job.

Look what happened with Chuka Umnna. Withdrew his candidacy for Labour leadership because press harassing his gran at home or something like that. So then we got stuck with Corbyn. So then we got stuck with BJ.

OMG really. The press shouldn't be investigating birthday parties, private finances, relationships with sexual predators of those in power?

The press need to be better at this IMO, so they know they'll get caught

@Asdf12345

If I were to take five years out to be an MP for a term it would cost me substantially lifetime earnings in its impact on my career unless I found a way to leverage it financially. That is why I want to be represented by someone independently wealthy who would be harder to buy.

I do begrudgingly accept that everyone has a price, but would hope beyond a certain level of security people are much harder to buy.

Are you serious?

Where have you been that you've not heard that Rishi 'married to the daughter of a billionaire' Sunak has just written off £4.3 billion worth of fraudulent covid bounce back loans. Yes that's BILLION. Of OUR money.

I wonder why? Could it be that their donors and cronies are involved? His wife's company benefited from a lot of covid support money.🤔

Some of these companies didn't even exist when covid started! The pandemic hasn't even ended and he's writing them off! There must be paper trails to these things so why? That's why Askew quit the other day....he was asking the same questions and getting nowhere.

So, no, an 'independently wealthy' person is not more likely to be trustworthy with money. IMO the scams are likely to be on a bigger scale, as we have seen from this episode!