Saturday, November 15, 2008

Get a job and live first will you?

It is only very occassionally that I bother paying any attention to the student politics that is Conservative Future. When I do it's because they're doing what student politicians do, i.e. bitch with each other like petulent little turds.

It is important though that you keep an eye on what they're doing because Conservative Future refers to the future for a reason right? The people shifting the tectonic plates of "power"* in CF are the ones that hope they'll be best placed in the future to climb the greasy pole of politics for big boys.

The latest rumblings from the tory boys has appeared on Tory Bear with rumours that some kid called Owen Meredith is plotting for a push at the top job. Yes I know, you don't really care and neither do I, but it's his CV that makes for the most interesting reading. There is some brilliant experience of the world in it.... not.

I have to admit I'm starting to become minded of supporting the introduction of rules that means you have to have had a certain number of years doing a proper job in the real world before you can hope to get into Parliament or into serious positions of influence in politics.

I mean, I consider myself to be a bit of a political anorak, but compared to some of these CF people I'm nothing. Frankly, when I was at University I was to busy getting off my head to think about student politics. That's what being young is meant to be about right?
* Power appears in inverted commas for reasons of piss taking.

24 comments:

Simon Fawthrop said...

Same issue for teachers.

I don't know if its practical but here's an idea. Pay them an average of their salary for the past 5 years but non-state funded or party political work doesn't count.

So if there pay is nowt they can become MP's but get paid nowt.

Of course there are problems with this, blocking those with private incomes or being paid by a "sponsor".

Anonymous said...

Very much agree and something all parties should be addressing.

Whilst his `A` level etc good his degree award would seem to indicate he did not pursue his studies as diligently as his outside activities.

His work experience record shows great `creativity` but little positive experience and as we know only too well,parliament has more than enough of such members

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see a minimum age of 30 for entering Parliament, with a minimum 5-year work experience qualification. This work could be in either private business or the Civil Service, however work for trade unions, political think-tanks or parties would NOT count.

Bob Piper said...

I said very much the same myself a few months ago. http://www.bobpiper.co.uk/2008/03/who_speaks_for_the_working_cla.php
The New Labour clones may have a different route in, but these days it rarely involves working for a living.

Anonymous said...

A second in Marketing & Politics from Keele might make it a tad hard to actually get a job...

Anonymous said...

The poor chap is only about 22

Anonymous said...

"2nd class Ba". So that's a 2:2 then.

And "advanced vocational business", "business studies" and "economics"? Hardly amazing, probably equivalent to one A-Level at grade B in old currency.

Giolla said...

Did you notice that only one of his "jobs" wasn't running concurrently with all the others, the 2 months as a campaign manager. All the rest are for the same 2004 - 2008 time span.

Rich Tee said...

He clearly has no experience of identity fraud.

Anonymous said...

Apart from his studies, his time at university should be spent indulging in the pleasures of the flesh, and, listening to music by Slade, and the mighty Quo... did I just give my age away?

Anonymous said...

Apart from his studies, his time at university should be spent indulging in the pleasures of the flesh, and, listening to music by Slade, and the mighty Quo... did I just give my age away?

Mark M Heenan said...

Sod off Brave Sir Robin, if people are old enough to vote they deserve the chance to stand for Parliament. If they can convince their electorate to plump for them despite their age they deserve their place. Your rule would have stopped us having the Prime Minister who defeated Napoleon.

Anonymous said...

lets be fair, they guy is 22, has just graduated. What kind of work experience can you expect from him? What experience did the other commenting have at 22?

As for a minium qualification to enter parliament, how rediculious!! That was you would have an elitist parliament, and never engage the whole country in politics. this is the kind of attitude that puts people off!!

Anonymous said...

I must admit I find it hard to take current politic figure who have no practical experience in running a corner shop let alone national economy when they wax lyrical about how they'll be fixing the system in/or when they are in power seriously.

If after this election I think the rise of full time school - researcher- MP type will be complete.

Anonymous said...

Mock not. You may well be electing him one day.

Anonymous said...

Great post. All MP's should have at some experience of a "proper job".

Anonymous said...

Seems like some police have taken this advice to heart and had successful spells as minor criminals before joining the force...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7732250.stm

Anonymous said...

He's only thinking of running for CF chairman, surely it’s not that big of a big deal? A qualification in child care would probably be far more useful then any real life experience.

Ben Gray said...

I'm inclined to agree. People under 30 shouldn't really stand for election unless they are exceptional.

Anonymous said...

Interesting website design...for some bizarre reason, he or his designer has incorporated an empty i-frame 145,000 pixels high. An unintended metaphor for his lack of experience, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Excellent idea but remember, the qualifying employment must be in genuine wealth-creating private industry.

NO public sector work of any sort should count, nor should work for so-called charities which get more than (say) 30% of their funding from the state.

Ben Gray said...

I don't think that's particularly fair Anonymous 0840. The events of last week would have been particularly more illuminating if we had more social workers and teachers in Parliament.

Anonymous said...

"I have to admit I'm starting to become minded of supporting the introduction of rules that means you have to have had a certain number of years doing a proper job in the real world before you can hope to get into Parliament or into serious positions of influence in politics."
There used to be a system to do exactly this. It was called selection by constituency and on the whole it worked quite well. Nowadays we have an "A" list of all the Leader's friends who to all appearances know owt about nowt.

Anonymous said...

This debate is total off track from the original piece.

But whatever an individuals qualifications, we need a represenative parliament, drawn from a broad base in society. Not all lawyers, not all politico's, not all teachers, or bankers or anything...

Pure and simple, just like healthy eating... a bit of everything doesn't do you any harm but excess of one thing is never good.