PARTHURBLOG

A rather youthful Willie Bain has just won Glasgow North East for Labour.

Is there more to his Party roots than officials are letting on?

I think we should be told.

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According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, the word ‘campaign’ means: an organised course of action for a particular purpose.

I raise that because all the press coverage I read today about Emily Benn says that she first campaigned with her grandfather Tony when she was two.

This was obviously a display way beyond her years: about the only particular purpose that any of my children showed at two involved cereal packets, free action figures, and screaming on the floor of Sainsbury’s. None of which could be described as an organised course.

Then again, none of my children are fifth generation politicians.

THE FAMILY WAY

Ms Benn’s father is chief of political affairs at the Royal Society of Chemistry (sic); her uncle Hilary is Secretary of State for the Environment; grandfather Tony was an MP for 50 years, and is still one of the great draws on the speaking circuit; great-grandfather William was a Liberal, then a Labour MP; both great-great-grandfathers, John and David, were Liberal MPs. The family presence in Westminster goes back to 1889.

"It's about policies, not personalities"

No doubt there is great hope that this 120-year lineage has rubbed off on Emily. Why else would the members of the East Worthing and Shoreham Labour Party have chosen a 17 year-old as their Parliamentary Candidate?

Perhaps it was the quality of her application. According to the BBC, she had found out about the Worthing vacancy and sent the local party her CV “to see what would happen”.

It’s easy to imagine the letter: “Dear Jim. Please fix it for me to become an MP.”

To be fair, that was two years ago (I’m a bit behind on this one), and she will be 20 by the time the General Election is called. I worry for her: she might then be past it.

She says that she has done “many weeks of work experience in the prime minister’s political office in Downing Street, giving me the chance to see how policy is developed first-hand.” Presumably, this was a placement she gained through the careers office at Hogwarts.

POLITICS V LIFE

Want to know what’s wrong with UK politics? At surface level, it appears to be dodgy expenses claims, second homes and an affair or two with your staff. But these are just symptoms, not the root cause.

The real canker at the heart of Westminster is personified by Emily Benn: how on earth can you represent a constituency, participate in debate, and take considered decisions on issues that effect the daily lives of millions when you’re worrying about your A-levels?

From childhood to chamber, with no life in between.

Of course, Ms Benn is an extreme case. East Worthing is a very safe Conservative seat, and the majority is unlikely to swing towards Labour at the next election. She has been given the opportunity as a testing ground, and as preparation for future elections. But you can almost guarantee that she’ll be in Parliament by the time she’s in her mid-20s.

And what will she know of life by then?

She isn’t alone. The nature of the political system means that you have to enter early to play the game long enough to get noticed. That’s how you get your seat. And so the vast majority of MPs have spent much of their early careers as researchers or as advisors to Quangos and other edge-of-government bodies.

So it’s hardly surprising that twenty years later they lose their sense of normalcy, and start making expense claims for garden features and flat-screen TVs.  When you’ve been  swimming in the system all your adult life, that is normal.

The PM and The Chancellor

LIFE LEDGER

Therefore, I have a proposal to put forward to all political parties to help with the selection of candidates. It’s independent of race, gender, creed or party, so could be used across the House.

As you interview your would-be MPs, look for 3 out of the following items on the ledger of life:

1 Has the candidate held a job? A real job. A job with working hours, measurable targets and a salary. A job with a boss and regular performance reviews.

2 Has the candidate ever run a business? Experience of profit and loss, having to make the payroll, and understanding the relationship with a customer would seem to be useful.

3 Has the candidate ever served in the Armed Forces? We Westerners have been very lucky to have lived in a time of peace, but our politicians still have a penchant for sending troops into war in other parts of the world.

4 Is the candidate a parent? Has s/he been through the ups-and-downs of mid-night feeds, grazed knees, lost teeth, broken limbs, broken hearts, forgotten lines, lost homework, left-off veg, tantrums, tears, negotiated TV/PC/Wii time.

5 Has the candidate lost a loved one? I don’t wish this on anyone, but the death of a family member – parent, sibling, partner, offspring – is one of life’s staging posts that changes you forever. Deal with this, and you can deal with anything.

6 Has the candidate ever been fired / made redundant / ‘let go’? It’s going to happen to most of their constituents at least once, so wouldn’t it be useful to have the insight into the fear / lack of self esteem / financial worries that usually accompany it?

7 Can the candidate live on a salary of £63,291? After all, it is only three times the National average.

This isn’t a definitive: it’s just a place to start. I’m sure you’ll have better criteria with which you’d like to vet our potential leaders. Drop me a line. Maybe we can start a quiet revolution?

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