{"id":1334,"date":"2009-06-18T22:05:36","date_gmt":"2009-06-18T22:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.widmann.org.uk\/2009\/06\/18\/1334\/"},"modified":"2009-06-18T22:05:36","modified_gmt":"2009-06-18T22:05:36","slug":"the-best-mp-is-somebody-who-never-set-out-to-become-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/the-best-mp-is-somebody-who-never-set-out-to-become-one\/","title":{"rendered":"The best MP is somebody who never set out to become one"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n
\nAs MPs blather Oliver stands alone<\/a>
\nOriginally uploaded by Steve Punter<\/a>
\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

I’ve always believed that in a democracy, people should as a rule choose people like themselves to represent them.<\/p>\n

As a consequence, I don’t think being a politician should be a job for life.<\/p>\n

People should set out to be something else, then get involved, become politicians for perhaps ten years, and then return to normal life.<\/p>\n

Because of this, I urge you to read this article by Benedict Brogan<\/a> in the Telegraph.<\/p>\n

He claims that some of the reforms being proposed at the moment will make it even less attractive for outsiders to become MPs:<\/p>\n

Mr Brown has fatally undermined that notion in recent weeks with two changes \u2013 one voted through last month, the other threatened \u2013 that will transform the House of Commons from a collection of individuals representing the varied interests of the nation, to a cosy home for professional politicians subsidised exclusively and generously by the taxpayer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know whether it’s true that these reforms will have this consequence, and I definitely don’t think the status quo is ideal, either.<\/p>\n

When I moved to Scotland, I was shocked by the way the media talked about the political class<\/i> as if it was a separate part of society, rather than a part of us all, so change is sorely needed, but possibly in the opposite direction of what is being pushed through at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As MPs blather Oliver stands alone Originally uploaded by Steve Punter I’ve always believed that in a democracy, people should as a rule choose people like themselves to represent them. As a consequence, I don’t think being a politician should be a job for life. People should set out to be something else, then get involved, become politicians for perhaps ten years, and then return to normal life. Because of this, I urge you to read this article by Benedict Brogan in the Telegraph. He claims that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,130,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en","category-politics","category-scotland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}