AIBU to want politicians with strong academic and business backgrounds?

[Catsandjkr]

AIBU to want politicans to be highly academically successful And have experience in running a business?

I'm so tired of these low grade politicians ruining our lives. They can lie (as Starmer exempifies), they don't need qualifications or experience to get the job. In inexplicable in other areas of life.

What a joke. But I suppose when its politicans like Lammy, Starmer, Reeves in charge, it won't ever change.

Starmer has high academic qualifications, as does Lammy. Your post doesn't make sense, YABU.

You should listen to/read the journalist Tom Baldwin on Starmer, in this podcast (free) or in the weekly newspaper, The New World

https://www.thenewworld.co.uk/podcast/the-starmer-conundrum-with-special-guest-tom-baldwin/

To paraphrase Baldwin (who knows Starmer well, as he wrote a biography of Starmer), Keir Starmer is the nearest to "an ordinary person" it is possible to be in the post of Prime Minister. And look what he has to deal with ...

Why does having run a business qualify a person as a politician? Look at D Trump! (I believe he once managed to make a loss running a casino). Doing a good job of destroying the world economy though

Gosh, I'll be glad when the elections are over. Then all the Farage enthusiasts can reap what they are sowing all over MN.

I might give this place a miss next Thursday, it’s going to be unbearable.

I am. Are you aware of how many lawyers, outside of the legal firms, are run by lawyers. (Clue... not many!).

I want people with the ability to manage their teams, who know what they need to make decisions and will instruct the best people to bring them that information. Who will listen to a range of experts and apply critical thinking to make decisions after weighing up all the necessary data and evidence.
I want them to make decisions that align with their manifesto and the values, ethics and direction of travel they outlined to win my vote.
I want good diplomats who will represent our interests globally because the wider world feels threatening and our position precarious.
I couldn't care less what job they did prior to being in government or what level of formal education they recieved provided they have those skills and attributes.

It's pretty rare for someone to have completed education and moved straight into being a SAHM without ever doing a day's work. Perhaps someone very young on benefits or very wealthy with a trust fund?

But no, I think some life skills are necessary, parenting isn't enough on it's own.

But when it's run by people who are financially innumerate and financially illiterate, there's no money to pay for the public services needed. We need a balance.

A good start would be only appointing someone with a legal qualification as attorney general, someone with an accounting/financial qualification as Chancellor, someone who has been a teacher or otherwise employed in education as education secretary etc. That way, at least the people responsible for each department have some relevant knowledge and experience of their remit so can challenge their permanent secretaries and maybe even come up with some sensible ideas of their own!

12 months in and Mark Carney is doing well in the polls. Currently he has lots of public support.

So can you give us an example of a major political figure from the last 20 years of whom you do approve, OP? Webb sounds good but is not a major figure, and the Centre for Government Reform is too new.

David Cameron has a First in PPE from Oxford. He gave us the disaster that is Brexit, because he could not be bothered to exert himself to do relationships within his Party with those he didn’t deem important. Neutral sources (ONS, Bloomberg, IFS) concur it’s cost us 6-8% of GDP every year since.

FWIW I agree with @Snorlaxo that it would be good to align ministers’ portfolios with their expertise. This means they will hail from various backgrounds. All this chopping and changing seems odd.

Eagerly awaiting to hear whom you do commend, recent-ish past or present. TIA

PS I see @Badbadbunny is making the same point about ministerial specialisms

There's not a single privately educated person in the current Cabinet.

Several - Lammy, Streeting, Rayner (who I assume will be back soon) - come from very humble backgrounds.

The thing is, a lot of the of the current Labour Cabinet both a) genuinely come from fairly average working-class backgrounds and b) were the kind of academically able, politically interested young people who made it elite universities, where they got involved in politics and moved into politics-adjacent jobs.

So they actually do have early life experience of ordinary people's lives, and presumably maintain contact with childhood friends and extended family still living those kinds of lives, but they moved on from them by going to university.

I'm not saying this is good or bad - and there are exceptions, like Angela Rayner who was a care worker - but it makes them quite unrelatable to most people, because most people are not academic high-flyers who've experienced that kind of social mobility through education.

And Ed Davey, current leader of the LibDems, is another one: two economics degrees but doesn't know what a woman is and neither does his party.

I'd like a variety of people, certainly those who have run businesses and local councils, academic success is neither here nor there. I'd like people who didn't get on with school but did well in life anyway and/or who would value further education and vocational qualifications and training a lot more.

I dont want "business" people running the country, no. I want people who have expertise in their field. Education minister - long career in teaching/ education. Health minister- experience within the NHS etc Why on earth should "business" people make decisions about everything?

Would rather have politicians who can relate to normal everyday working people.

The politicians who grew up rich, private schools, Eaton crew have no idea what it’s like to have a “normal life” yes they can experience tough times, but they don’t know what its like to live pay cheque to pay cheque or worry about energy or food costs, paying for the dentist etc etc most of them simply cannot relate.

Would rather have Joe Bloggs who has run the newsagents for 20 years, who see’s people in the community day in day out and genuinely cares about people.

The trouble is (small) business people don't run the country, but actually employ most of it, it's largely people - in terms of civil servants and politicians - who have done a Politics, Philosophy and Economics degree and then gone straight into politics or the civil service and have a sheltered and narrow view of life. They sometimes don't understand profit and loss and are pretty blasé with public money.

Big corporations, banks, big media companies have huge power over politicians but SMEs have a lot less influence and are often disadvantaged by government policy, as they think "business" means Amazon and Sky, big banks, law firms, accountancy firms and not the SMEs who employ 60% of working people in the private sector.

Are you still responding, I'm sure you said you'd stop a few responses back.

Agreed. Gove in charge of Education was painful. Though Reeves is supposedly an Economist and erm well.. it's not quite working out the way it should.

That's a business - I think Joe would know a lot about small businesses. So wouldn't make stupid decisions like we see currently. Reeves has broken many small businesses and taken employment away from many. Dreadful.

At this point I would be satisfied if they are not a felon and they can form a coherent sentence. I have really lowered my standards.

Indeed. We have a party and PM in charge who don't understand basic biology. Indeed Lammy thinks women who do are rights hoarding dinosaurs. Starmer thinks women can have penises. Mind boggling.

Well indeed. We have bad and then we have very bad. None appeal.

You didn't read my post properly did you.