Politician’s ‘empathy’

[Womanofcustard]

Heard statement on radio this morning, about politicians having more empathy if they knew/were related to people having particular problems.
I think this is why sweet FA is done to help abused children/adults, the homeless, the educationally disadvantaged, those who can’t afford to pay for treatment, etc. And why so much emphasis is on ‘vanity’ laws such as ‘trans rights’, electric cars, heat pumps etc.

David Cameron had a disabled child and it didn’t seem to help him or his party in regards to giving a shit about other people with disabilities.

Of course politicians know and are related to people with problems. There are 650 MPs, how could they not be? There will be all the usual range of disabilities, unemployment, learning difficulties, crime, abuse etc. in addition, all MPs speak to literally hundreds if not thousands of constituents each year with some of the hardest problems imaginable. I think on the whole they have much more exposure to human suffering than most of us.

That doesn’t mean you’ll like their policies. But those policies generally aren’t born out of ignorance.

@HoldingTheDoor I was just coming on to say exactly the same thing. Ditto Gordon Brown. Money can buy help and equipment that the rest of us could only dream of having. No comparison in lifestyles.

They could have all the empathy in the world, there still wouldn’t be enough to pay for everything people think they’re entitled to.

Well it's a truism of everyone isn't it? That unless you've walked in other people's shoes you may not fully comprehend the impact issues and events have on people's lives. We see it on here all the time with clumsy and uncaring attitudes to people who divorce, are bereaved, live with long term conditions etc. Many people find it hard to empathise or understand and politicians are much the same as a microcosm of society.

That said working in the political sphere I meet a lot of politicians who are well briefed and understand many social issues - they are lobbied all the time. But they do have to balance out many conflicting priorities with finite tax income to spend so just having bleeding hearts on everything makes no difference. They have tough choices to make and Labour will have no more money to spend than the Tories - the country is up to its eyes in debt. Without economic growth public spending is unlikely to be able to grow to meet demand.