What does it take to become a politician?

[flipster]

We leave the US election circus (word chosen carefully) behind and we cast a thought towards the impending British version.

I comtemplated the great men and women that have done such a grand job over the last few years in taking GB forward as the leading light in Europe and the wider world. However, I was left wondering what qualifications and experience it takes for someone to become one of the glorious leaders of our great island race?

For starters, they would have worthwhile, relevant qualifications and wide-ranging experience of commerce and industry or at the very least, have an in-depth knowledge of foreign affairs, the military, civil powers or the health-service..........wouldn't they........ surely?

Anyone out there care to enlighten us as to what makes a (good) politician?:rolleyes: :cool:

[allan907]

A consuming interest in putting something back into the community instead of taking. That's it - bottom line.

[althenick]

A consuming interest in putting something back into the community instead of taking. That's it - bottom line.

...Amen to that Allan - But you could also add

1/ Telling the truth instead of weaseling out of it.
2/ Having the courage of you convictions whatever they be.

[Melchett01]

"1/ Telling the truth instead of weaseling out of it.
2/ Having the courage of you convictions whatever they be."

Well they would be novel concepts for British politicians. Instead, how about:

1. A self-serving personality.
2. A demonstrated ability to lie convincingly.
3. In the absence of No 2, then a demonstrated aptitude for lying - you can always acquire No 2 through on-the-job training.
4. A demonstrated ability to be morally bankrupt.
5. The ability to not get caught on Clapham Common with your pants down, or to get your 19 yr old secretary pregnant. If you do, then being good at No 2 will come in handy.
6. Did I mention a self-serving personality?
7. An ability to treat those who elected you like idiots, thinking they won't notice when you put up taxes and work your way through Nos 1-6.
8. A thick skin for when you get fired by those who voted for you when they realise you are actually a lying, self-serving tosser that thinks with your head rather than your brains.

If you have more than 3 of these, then you'll probably make a pretty good politician. Either that, or your destined for Air Rank!!
:E

[An Teallach]

Given that in most constituencies one could put up a chimanzee and call it Labour or Conservative (as appropriate) and it would get elected, the only real qualification required is the ability to convince a very select group that you are their man / woman.

That select group (Constituency Selection Committee) will be one of:

Group A: Tory- Around 15 blue rinsers who dream of living in a perpetual Hovis / Werthers Original advert.

Group B: Labour: 15 ethnic / lesbian / one parent families / wasters with an undying belief that the rest of us should subsidise their lifestyle choices.

or

Group C: New Labour: 15 Hampstead Handwringers / Champagne Socialists with an undying belief that the rest of us should pay them inflated salaries for wittering on about 'blue-sky thinking', being 'out of the envelope', 'inclusivity' and assorted other PC crap while they sell off the family jewels, raid our pensions, leave our children in hock and seek directorships with the companies they've given all the PFI contracts to. This so that they can grow old comfortably and join Group A.

Given that all 3 'select groups' have only a passing acquaintance with reality, I would think anyone with a modest ability to persaude the bizarrely out of touch would have what it takes to become a politician.

[Roland Pulfrew]

It has always been my belief that the desire to be a politician should automatically exclude that individual from standing for office! Hopefully then we would get more politicians with knowledge of a profession and a desire to improve the country for the benefit of all, rather than self serving career politicians. :cool: After all when was the last time we had a Defence Minsiter who had actually served in the regular military?:ugh:

[Pontius Navigator]

Several years ago we had a Parliamentary visit to the E3 at Waddo. To a man we would have voted for their wives. Given that the MPs earned the same as a sqn ldr what did we expect?

My tutor also said that TB had joined Labour purely as a career choice.

[niknak]

The trouble is that the majority of people see such posts from a very blinkered attitude, such as the lower ranks of the military, or Mr Average of Putney, Rotherham or Glasgow, who has never worked more than 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

It's very easy to criticise someone when you have no real idea of what their real working conditions are, especially when you live in a vast "comfort zone", such as the UK MOD.

Try "shadowing" your local MP for a couple of days, I did, and it was a real eye - opener, it's not a job I would want for all the tea in China.

[delta96]

A few years ago there was a cabinet minister who declared to the public/press that she felt she wasn't up to the job and resigned her post. That took a deal of courage in these times, and I have the greatest respect for her. After a few months the spin doctors couldn't let such an asset as a politition whom the public holds in such high regard stay unused, so they tried to push her back into the limelight. I think her failing was that she believed that a minister should have a good knowledge of what she was in control of, and how to improve it. Unfortunately cabinet jobs are like musical chairs where it really doesn't matter to government if you don't have a clue about defence, or anything else so long as you read the brief on the party line. 'Song' and 'Hymn sheet' are even more important to Blair since the dessention over the Iraq war.

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

I always get butterflies when I hear a parliamentary/local government candidate say (as they nearly always do) "If the people want me to run for office, I would consider it an honour to serve them".
Utter c**p. It's about power.

[Wiley]

The following comes from a recent ex-politician, Martin Bell, (ex BBC television journalist) in his book, ‘Through the Gates of Fire – A Journey into World Disorder’. Part of the problem is the professionalization of politics. A new political class has come into being, with little experience of life outside the feverish precincts of Westminster. These arc young men and women who complete their education (usually still at public schools and Oxbridge) with high ambitions, a good degree and even better connections; hut they don’t yet know anything. It would he good for them to find employment for a while as Street cleaners, plumbers, or even (in an extreme case) lawyers. Then they would have experience to bring to the practice of politics. Instead they obtain jobs in M Ps’ offices or party headquarters, progress into the ranks of special advisers, and hope to he selected for a winnable seat before they are thirty. Half the Conservatives’ new intake in 1997 belonged to this category. They were not like the Conservative backbenchers of old — a broader-based coalition of knights of the shires, farmers, ex-soldiers, lawyers and businessmen — but a new breed
of pin-striped machine politicians unrepresentative even of the mass of Tory voters. Their emergence as a group reflects a disconcerting sense of the otherness of politics.
This leads into the issue of quality. There is a wider gap between the best and the worst in politics than in any other profession. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, soldiers - even some journalists these days - have to pass certain tests and acquire certain skills before they begin to practise their trades. All that MPs have to do is not to be a lunatic or criminal (although some of them come alarmingly close), and then, every four or five years, to submit themselves to the voters for election. It sounds democratic enough — and hut for the party system it would he. it is the party system that, valuing loyalty above all other qualities, stuffs the back benches with stooges. The parties themselves pay the penalty for it when they are voted into power, and find their ranks rather thin in MPs with the calibre to be ministers.Like much of his book, this makes a lot of sense to me.

[teeteringhead]

There is a wider gap between the best and the worst in politics than in any other profession. And particularly true of the present HoC. And before they areselected for a winnable seat before they are thirty. they are expected to "win their spurs" at a very UNwinnable one, after which predictably disasterous result, the good stay on to try again, and the dross give up. Usually!

I had the (mis)fortune to be working in Whitehall at the time of El Presidente's landslide. Talking to some of the Millbank Mafia, the most wildly optimistic thought they might get a majority "just into 3 figures".

So when they got 170 odd, net result was that many no-hopers that were expected to lose and give up didn't .....

.... and without being sexist about it, many of those were "Bliar's Babes"!

[Roland Pulfrew]

A new political class has come into being, with little experience of life outside the feverish precincts of Westminster. These are young men and women..........with high ambitions, a good degree and even better connections; but they don’t yet know anything.

Martin Bell agrees with me ;)

niknak

When I worked "in the vast comfort zone of the UK MOD" at least I knew what the job was about, and a good idea across all 3 services. I would love to have the time to shadow my MP but I don't. I did meet a good number of MPs and Ministers (of all 3 main parties) and was regularly horrified by their lack of knowledge about Defence.:(

[Zlin526]

"What does it take to become a politician?"

Mainly doing naff all for the people who elected you, thinking only of yourself and the perks that you can grab, and generally being something of a lying Tw@t?

Well, most of the MPs that I have dealt with over the years have fallen into one or all of those definitions!

Lets have a coup!:ok:

[Lee Jung]

Totally agree with the inherent dangers of being ruled by a professional elite whom have never worked outside Whitehall, actually having never worked at all, undoubtedly being 'trustafarians'.

A 'common-sense' party, represented by a broad spectrum of professions and trades, including the armed forces, would get my vote.

Perhaps the growing professionalisation of public life has caused the 80% increase in the cost of government since 1997.

Oh, and get rid of the pinko jobs in the Guardian on a Thursday aswell.

Anyone want to but a soap-box?

Also why do MPs get 65p a mile for duty travel when we get 25p?

[sweep complete]

Niknak..... real name Alistair Campbell???

So what does it take to become a Politician?

Someone who totally misses the relaevance of the word 'Commons' in House of Commons and forgets they are one of us, elected by us to represent us.
Someone who feels that sorting out our schools, hospitals, roads, trains and (yes) defence is above them, and use the time they bother to spend in Parliament debating irrelevant bo****ks like fox hunting and telling us how to raise our kids (usually seeing them as pawns in some social experiment while their own spoilt brats are at private schools)
Someone who feels the need to 'educate' the rest of us on how bigotted, racist and intolerant we all are.
Someone who is happy to constanly increase their own wages, benefits and pension package having fleeced the pension pots of the honest, hard working majority of citizens who they now want to keep working into their 70s.

In short - a pompous, arrogant, hypocritical, power mad, lying, greedy b*****d.

A bit of a rant there, but these people really do take the pi*s.