This blog is about as apolitical as I can make it. I rarely make any political comments. But you can only bite your lip for so long.
The shambolic excuse for democracy we are lumbered with is a disgrace. Despite the illusion of a democratic process the one thing we know at each election is that we are going to be governed predominantly by public school educated, oxbridge graduates, who are unlikely to have ever held down a real job. Left, middle or right we always end up with these ruling class clones, and in this respect nothing has changed in the UK in 200 years and more.
And as for the upper house, this is nothing less than an affront to the concept of democracy. The appointment of the Lords, without any say by the electorate is nothing short of a gesture of contempt, and disdain towards the voting public.
Successive events have now made it clear that we have a Prime Minister utterly unsuited to his position, and I despair when I look at the alternatives. Most of our politicians are career chasing, image sensitive, self serving empty husks, with an insufferable attitude that they are somehow born to rule.
It could be worse I suppose. When you look at some of the choice of possible future incumbents of the White House you could be forgiven for thinking that the advance of human civilisation is going into reverse.
Britain has tens of thousands of individuals who are honest, hard working, selfless, intelligent, experienced people of integrity. I know some of them personally, so do you.
Why are so few of them in government?
Errrmm.... Because they have the insight to see what a bunch of smug mendacious shitb*gs their then colleagues [in politics] would be... and/or what politics does to the few vaguely honest people who do go into it.?
ReplyDeleteSee, for instance, Ian Gibson, the ex-bioscientist who was a Labour MP and chaired the Sci &Tech Subcommittee, but never became a Minister because he was not a careerist Blairite clone.
Once upon a time, when Labour MPs were union-sponsored and thus often 'graduates' of the union grassroots, they tended to be ex-somethings, usually involving actual work. And even Tories were usually ex-services and ex- some kind of business career.
Nowadays politics is a career you embark upon strainght out of University, or even before, with the only thing you do before becoming a full time runner-for-office a few years political think-tank wonk-ery, or just possibly a bit of management consultancy.
"Britain has tens of thousands of individuals who are honest, hard working, selfless, intelligent, experienced people of integrity. I know some of them personally, so do you - Why are so few of them in government?" - because they are "honest, hard working, selfless, intelligent, experienced people of integrity" - tautological perhaps but true.
ReplyDeleteOrdinary people would shrink from the kind of Faustian pact the likes of Tony signed up for?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z81KyLRH9WQ&feature=related
I often thought about politics (my eyesight is failing so not sure how long medicine will be a career option) but would wince at the media intrusion and inspection of the finest detail of my life. Not that I have any juicy voicemails you understand!
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