I cannot stand professional politicians. By that, I mean people who have got a degree in politics and then gone straight into an internship with an MP (perhaps via a spell working in the NUS[1]) and worked themselves up to a position of power from within the system. Too many members of our current government are of that ilk and they are, in my opinion, a cancer on our democracy[2].
I don’t have strong opinions on who makes the best MPs. I think that, whether you come from Oxbridge or the University of Hard Knocks, you will have valuable experience and skills to bring to the job. I do have strong opinions over who doesn’t, however, and people who have never experienced life outside of Whitehall most definitely fall into that category.
I would like to see a minimum requirement of 10 years as an adult gaining experience (not necessarily work) outside of politics before anyone can run for any form of public office. That would put a minimum age of 28 on the start of any campaign, which I think is no bad thing.
Those people with a passion for changing the world could use that decade to inform their politics. The people that can’t wait that long were never interested enough in the first place and are no loss.
