The disconnected modern politician.

[[KMA]Avenger]

For as long as i can remember i have increasingly heard the term/s that "modern politicians are disconnected from real life/people".

I have a solution for this lil problem...the law should be changed so that A, anybody who wishes to be a politician must have a total combined wealth (including their spouse's wealth) of less than £1million. B, must have worked for a minimum of 10 years in industry, or have served in the armed forces. i'm not talking about some cushy CEO or office job, but 10 years of hard graft. if they served in the armed forces then they will also be allowed to go into politics so long as they worked their way up the ranks starting from the bottom, and also that they were stationed at home and abroad and have served again a minimum of 10 years in the forces. C, they will not be paid a wage, they will be granted living allowances which would be regulated so that it is fair. D, anyone found to have provided false information just so they can get into politics shall be whipped through the streets naked and then imprisoned for no less than 10 years without the possibility of early parole.




What are your* thoughts of what i have said and also please state your solution

[Ashu]

That's radical. Anything radical should not be implemented. I don't agree for many reasons:

1) If he's a hard worker and has earned a lot, why wouldn't he be able to do some politics? What if he just won the lottery? You're going to kick him out because he's successful?
2) Hard work? Say you want to be a diplomat/ambassador. What "hard labor" can you do then?
3) Maybe he's had a disability and couldn't join the armed forces, you're going to keep a man out because he's had an accident or was born that way?

Society isn't meant to function on paranoia, if some or all the politicians are corrupt, its the people's fault for electing/appointing them. If you want to change something do it peacefully or it'll turn into "just cleansing of corrupt monsters".

[[KMA]Avenger]

I want to be an astronaut...sadly for me i don't meet ANY of the requirements to be an astronaut, but hey, they can bend the rules and let me do what i want to do! /sarcasm

If they fail to meet the above requirements, tough luck, let them become an astronaut instead!
That's my reply

So what would your solution be to "reconnect" politicians to the people and what THE PEOPLE want from THEIR elected reps?

PS, this is an open discussion and debate about politicians and what WE the people want from them.

[Ashu]

One should leave through example, so that's what the leaders and politicians of our nations should do. Have a life that would leads others to good, by example. Do good deeds, do wrong to none, help others and speak the truth.

[[KMA]Avenger]

That's all well and good (and i do agree with you), but how are you going to force politicians to abide by those VERY high moral standards?

[Ashu]

You can't force anyone to do that, you just need to find some that fit that pattern more or less. No one's perfect, so lets not ask them to be.

[[KMA]Avenger]

Lets not ask them to be perfect?! i wouldn't ask them to be perfect...i bloody well demand they be perfect! if they don't know how to be perfect then they can come and ask me and i will teach them!

[Ashu]

Lets not ask them to be perfect?! i wouldn't ask them to be perfect...i bloody well demand they be perfect! if they don't know how to be perfect then they can come and ask me and i will teach them!

Feel free to describe it then.

[MEZZANINE]

Couple of points first

1) Office work can be very hard and stressful

2) You cant discriminate against people for being wealthy

That said I do agree that politicians should be grounded by working in the real world before trying to represent the real world, several years in normal life would be beneficial to their perspective.


Personally I think the problem with 'modern politics' is that they want to be all things to all people, not possible. Historically politicians said 'I believe in these ideals and think this is the way forward if you agree vote for me' now politicians look at the media and whatever the polls/newspapers/TV say people want they say 'thats whats we will do if you give us power'.

Basically politicians now dont appear to believe in anything, so they cant make a passionate argument about their ideals and plans. Instead we get spin, soundbites and unrealistic promises.

[Kit-Fox]

Removed

[RepliMagni]

You have a strange way of looking at things KMA....just because a politician does not come from the same background as much of the population, does not necessarily mean they cannot adequately represent the complaints of those people.

ie: Can only people who have been raped, try to improve the law to stop it from happening? Can only people who have lived below the poverty line try to combat unemployment and increase poor benefits? Can only people who have served in the armed forces try to improve conditions for retired veterans?

And history has proven this to be false. Heck, look at the Chartists - almost all the leadership was from an educated middle-class background, but they had the backing of millions of working class people in order to try to get universal suffrage.

Wealth, education, privilege - these things do not necessarily make people unable to lead...

[Jack]

ie: Can only people who have been raped, try to improve the law to stop it from happening? Can only people who have lived below the poverty line try to combat unemployment and increase poor benefits? Can only people who have served in the armed forces try to improve conditions for retired veterans?

I would argue that these people are the very ones who should not be giving those responsibilities. As they would largely not approach them with a level head.

For example, a woman whom was raped might try to make it law so that anyone accused of rape(accused, not convicted) would drawn and quartered, publicly, after having their genitals publicly mutilated.

[[KMA]Avenger]

Lets not ask them to be perfect?! i wouldn't ask them to be perfect...i bloody well demand they be perfect! if they don't know how to be perfect then they can come and ask me and i will teach them!

Feel free to describe it then.

The perfect politician, or in this case, the perfect PM would:

Get rid of the Bank of England and arrest everyone inside for fraud.
Get out of the EU.
Take back our fisheries.
Bring our troops home quicker than ASAP!
Close our boarders and if needs be, put the troops in control until such time as our boarders are Secured by a NEW agency.
Bring back all our industries.
Nationalise all oil fields and kick out the oil company's.
Renationalise water, power and gas grids.
Arrest the "British" monarchy and try them for treason, sedition and usurpers to the thrown
Start trading with our commonwealth partners again (as well as everyone else...which is forbidden by the EU).

I could go on and on but you get the picture...i hope.


For me what would make a politician/PM perfect is their actions and intent. what we currently have are self serving ego-maniacal wet rags who couldn't run a pi$$-up in the proverbial brewery never mind the country...as has been proven by the state of our economy and debt level.

[MEZZANINE]

The perfect politician, or in this case, the perfect PM would:

Get rid of the Bank of England and arrest everyone inside for fraud.
Get out of the EU.
Take back our fisheries.
Bring our troops home quicker than ASAP!
Close our boarders and if needs be, put the troops in control until such time as our boarders are Secured by a NEW agency.
Bring back all our industries.
Nationalise all oil fields and kick out the oil company's.
Renationalise water, power and gas grids.
Arrest the "British" monarchy and try them for treason, sedition and usurpers to the thrown
Start trading with our commonwealth partners again (as well as everyone else...which is forbidden by the EU).

That might be your idea of the perfect set of policies but I thought this thread was more about the kind of people we would prefer to become politicians.

As for these policies

Remove bank of England ? Really ? Why ? Surely the banking sector needs more regulation and The Bank of England would be the best placed body to regulate the private banks.

Get out of the EU, 100% behind you on that one

Take back fishing rights, not practical, without agreement would result in fighting at sea, but enforcement of agreements is needed, how often do we here about French fishing our waters.

Bring home troops, truth is troops are demonstrating weapons, weapons we sell and make lots of money from. Bring troops home and becoming isolationist would cost us a lot.

Close borders. Silly, we need more of certain professions right now. Tougher border control and stricter points system to make sure we only allow in the people we want is better.

Bring back industry, easy to say but with working time regs, health & safety, environmental regs and minimum wage our industry cant compete with countries that dont have our high standards on working conditions, only way to do this would be to tax all imports so they cost the same as locally produced products and this would increase the prices of everything we buy. People wont accept it.

Nationalise oil & gas, to late, it's mostly played out, also we already get tax and licence duties from producers.

Nationalise Utilities, in theory I agree essential services should be state owned, but in reality when they were state owned they made huge losses, were horribly inefficient and badly run. Utilities were privatised because of lazy demanding unions dragged them down, if nationalised those Unions would return and screw it up all over again. Better choice would be price fixing of essential services by an independent body.

Monarchy serve a purpose, not as monarchs but as a tourist attraction they generate far more money than they cost, technically their property is there own it cant be taken any more than any other wealthy citizen, but without support death duties would slowly strip them of there holdings. Monarchy also help hold the commonwealth together technically being the head of state for several non UK countries, they are good for international relations ( far more trustworthy and respectable than politicians ), and if done right ( slipped in recent years ) make role models.

Trading more with commonwealth, certainly sounds good in theory but trade happens where money can be made and unless subsidised ( or non commonwealth taxed as above ), it's simply not economically viable.




You mad revolutionary bar steward lol

[Mordack]

The answer to the issue of disconnected modern politics is not to prevent people from one background from running in favour of another, it should be to encourage people from all backgrounds to run. I am not sure how this would be down, precisely, but the draconian restrictions you suggest are utterly absurd and contrary to the concept of fair democracy.