Thursday, July 12, 2007
Ming Wants Parliamentary Researchers as MPs
James Graham informs us on LibDem Voice that Ming Campbell held a reception this week for female LibDem parliamentary researchers. The aim was to persuade them all to get on the LibDem approved candidates list and stand for Parliament. The LibDems have an even worse problem than the Conservatives in getting women selected and then elected, so Ming's initiative should not be too surprising. However, instead of urging them to get on the candidates list in their early twenties, shouldn't he be encouraging them to go out and get some experience of the outside world before going into Parliament? Don't we have too many political apparatchiks in Parliament already? They can't all be as good as the excellent Jo Swinson.
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13 comments:
Jo actually went out and got her hands dirty for years in LDYS and beyond, and does you know. She's not just a westminster girl!
Jo Swinson worked for a commercial radio company for a while before being an MP anyway.
Maybe Ming just wanted to check how many of them Matthew Taylor had shagged.
Iain, Just doing your survey. I'm the one suggesting you "lose a few pounds mate" in the comments to Q2. However surveymonkey (related to recess?) takes ages (3 mins+) to deliver Question 3 / Page 3. Have word with your IT outsourcing dept.
Too many apparatchiks?
Perhaps paying MPs loadsamoney dissuades potentials from having a proper career before heading to the subsidised bars and free flats of parliament?
No wonder we are stuffed.
I predict Jo Swinson will be history after the next election. The people in her constituency think she is anonymous and got elected for being young and marginally less anonymous than labour her predecesor! The Lib Dems who are well-organised in the area are collapsing. Swinson herself was out of sync on some bigger local issues with the former Lib Dem Council leader who was ousted at the recent eletions. In fact, they went from largest party to smallest at council level. In the Scots parliament elections the Lib Dems bombarded constituents with their 2-horse race leaflets... hoping to oust the Independent hospital campaigner Dr Jean Turner, they were trounced into 5th place. Labour took the seat back and I think will do so at the UK level too.
Iain you did get this wrong - Julia goldsworthy and Jenny Willott were both researchers, although Jenny is in her early 30s and did it for a year or two after uni only. Julia never did anything else, but did secure the patronage of one Matthew Taylor MP. Jenny Willott went out and worked in the real world. Ms Swinson - yes she worked briefly for a local radio station, but really 'getting your hands dirty in LDYS' shows a pretty shallow understanding of the phrase 'real world'. I think the follow-up to the story is more telling. Is James Graham actually suggesting the acounting system for the Liberals is in fact not transparent and open? He infers that campaigning accounts are less than 'opaque'. Whatever do you think he meant? It seems to have provoked high level reaction.
I wonder if we should demand that to be an MP you need:
1- 5+ years working in the private sector.
2- NOT be a lawyer or married/civil partnershipped to one.
Lawyers make bad law makers - they have "an interest" in making money for their "brotherhood".
Word verification: qsexaufn
"They can't all be as good as the excellent Jo Swinson."
Ouch!
That's the cruelest form of attack Iain.
Don't forget that many researchers only do the job for a year or two (or a few months as an intern) and then go on to do things in the real world.
Half of our candidates list is made up of full time politicos
Can you erase comments that mention the word verification unless it's clearly made up?
Word verification - sickofinanity
yes the council results in east dunbartonshire were very interesting with the Lib Dems collapsing. From my calculations of the council results the East Dunbartonshire Westminster seat would have been a dead heat between the Conservatives and Labour.
Scottish Conservative
I don't think Jo ever was a Parliamentary researcher though it's possible she did a few months over one summer.
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