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.

Yes to academic success, not so much to business ... need a mix, people who have worked in health abd care, business, academia, law etc et

Who was in charge when self-ID was brought in? 🤔

I want MPs who've lived and achieved in the real world, not 25 year old Oxbridge graduates with a degree in PPE and an employment record of being a Parliamentary Researcher or similar.

MPs used to be doctors, lawyers, trades union officials, postmen, businessmen, farmers, miners, steel workers, soldiers etc. They had risen in their sphere through their abilities and brought a range of skills and experience to the job of MP. They had credibility and mostly a genuine mission to serve.

Move Parliament to Birmingham - then you'd get MPs who really want to serve their constituents, and not just people who want to swan around Westminster felling glamorous!!!

We certainly used to have a greater range of MP life experience years ago. I'd be interested to know how many lucrative second jobs were done by MPs in days gone by too.

All of this is true, but what's worse I think is the life that now comes with being an MP, especially the risk to personal safety and necessity of having security at your home and office. Be an MP, earn (relative) peanuts, have people shouting abuse at you in the street and have security alarms throughout your home so that your children can raise the alarm when someone breaks and murders you, or earn 10 times as much in privacy and safety? Amazed anyone does it and I take my hat off to them for that, even the crap ones.

And your evidence for this is...? And parents don't have other Iife skills?

More scientists and engineers.

I didn’t say it wasn’t a business?

Pay MPs more and stop them having side hussles.

Keir Starmer, Boris Johnson and David Cameron are all objectively academically successful. They’ve done more damage to this country than we could possibly have imagined.

Donald Trump is a successful businessman - would you want someone like him as PM?

Yes…
the problem is, most good scientists and engineers really want to be scientists and engineers not politicians. And tbh IME they’re not always ‘politically astute’. It’s one reason why our House of Lords is valuable as it can recruit experts later in their careers. I’ve heard it described as an institution which works much better in practice than in theory!

Of course she can stand... but if anyone votes for them, they want their head testing! If a woman doesn't feel capable of balancing a job with childcare how on earth are they going to run multi multi billion pound budgets whilst looking after 60million people?

Who said she doesn't feel capable? I guess all SAHMs are just stupid and unambitious in your mind?

Yep. If you're ambitious, you don't sit at home changing nappies whilst other women, doing a perfectly good job of balancing kids and a job, steam ahead of you.

You also don't see anywhere near as many SAHMs in well qualified, high intelligence groups of women. There's a very clear correlation.

You can only balance kids and a job if you have the right support.

Yes I suppose it is a clear correlation if you only judge women on the single vector of having a job. Not thinking once of anything else they might be contributing to the country at large. Economic, social, and emotional labour are all irrelevant I guess? Their contribution to the volunteer 'work'force also irrelevant?

But yes, they are all thick and lazy. Amazing.

What are you basing your assertion that he did not have a good reputation as a barrister on? Would love to see your evidence. Because I work in a similar field and have had dealings with him over various legal matters over the last 20 years. He always had an excellent reputation amongst other lawyers - he is very clever, dedicated and he was an excellent barrister.

You may not like him, and can take issue with other things about his political career. I don’t align with all he does as PM either. But making up things about his reputation in law is unacceptable and improper. And yet you say you don’t like liars…

Feel free to prove me wrong by supplying evidence of this so called poor reputation he had amongst lawyers.

You are being an idiot! Starmer is highly academic. He’s a bloody barrister. How academic do you think they should be ffs? I thought you were going to name the idiot frontman for Reform when I read the title! That would have been more appropriate.

Can you suggest some successful MPs who meet your criteria @Catsandjkr ?

Absolutey. The site seems to have had an influx of posters recently who put "make me seem really intelligent while putting down the left" into AI. The posts are characterised by show-off vocabulary and broad assumptions about the other posters. For example, the op describing everyone as Starmer lovers, when no-one has expressed that. I'm not even sure he has fans, more people who think he's not the worst.

It's boring and I'm not sure who it's convincing.

Exactly!

And barristers are basically small business owners/runners. They are self-employed, and they group together in chambers (which could be seen as business companies), which they manage. They employ clerks, administrators, and junior barristers in those chambers - Starmer has both excellent academic qualifications and has run a business.

Well, to be fair, your OP was badly written: unclear, ungrammatical, and without evidence.

And the OP doesn't even read other people's posts properly either.

Nail on the head there. "Small" businesses are a massive employer and generate huge sums for the economy yet have no "power" as there is no union nor other body representing them. Civil servants havn't a clue about small business and don't care. Politicians are often in the pockets of big business, hence why the huge businesses seem to have undue influence over policy etc.

Small businesses are very easy to simply ignore.

Look at Sunak excluding a whopping 3 million self employed, freelancers, casual workers, etc from the covid support schemes. That's a whopping 10% of the workforce glibly excluded for no good reason. That would never have been allowed to happen had small business a proportional say in the running of the country in line with the number of people they employ (in total) and the huge wealth/income they generate for the country.

Or just stop them having side hustles.

@Catsandjkr who are you holding up as someone who fulfills your criteria?