I don’t understand the intense obsession with career politicians

Posted 12 Oct 2014 by Walaa Idris

Why do we demand our politicians to have other careers besides or before politics when we expect the exact opposite from all other professions? We don’t want or need our surgeons to be or even understand anything else, nor do we care if our bus drivers can make a sandwich. It seems we highly respect professionalism in all fields except in politics.

Why is that?

Don’t get me wrong, I too want my political representative to be empathetic, speak like human beings, and understand and address issues and concerns that are important to me. But these qualities are not exclusive to ‘non-career politicians’ they are unique to people who care about others and their needs and those who genuinely want to help people – all people, regardless of who or what they are. Plus, we expect and welcome these qualities in people from every profession.

To me, a career politician is someone who made politics their life. I therefore expect them to understand all matters relating to politics, from debating to diplomacy. And I require them to have the ability to fight my corner in the national and international arenas full time. In other words he or she must be the best equipped in their field, an expert in policy-making who knows and understands all there is to fathom about the world of government. I don’t care one zilch if they were a nurse, a solider or a postman before coming into politics, but during their time in office, I very much expect them to understand and know all there is to know about the country and its affairs.

But isn’t that what we elect our politicians for?

So why would anyone want an amateur politician? Why would anyone not want a career politician? If by that we mean people who haven’t had experiences outside Westminster, then we should address diversity of experience and call it that. However, is it important to have outside experiences when you can hire the best experts in any field to give you the best counsel? Maybe yesterday’s politicians needed to be jacks of all trades, but not today.

Today there are experts for hire in every field and they come in all political shades.

All politics needs nowadays is someone who can get the job done, a man or woman with an aptitude to read situations correctly, act on them swiftly and have at his or her fingertips the advice of the best experts in their discipline.

To have someone like Nigel Farage preach against political careerism is laughable. Besides his stint in the City, the only difference between him and the other three leaders – David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband – is that they went to university and he didn’t. Cameron and Clegg quit smoking and he still does. As for the pint of beer at the ready, well, Farage is a man who likes his drink and happy for that to be his Trademark, while the others don’t – big fat deal.

Nigel Farage is as much an ordinary man as I am a white, blond, blue-eyed bombshell.

We don’t ask or expect our physicians to understand plumbing. We don’t care if our pilots can boil an egg, and all we want from our teachers is the ability to educate our children and do it safely and efficiently. Yet when it comes to our Members of Parliament we want them to do everything, pay them a pittance to do it and disrespect them at every given opportunity.

Dedication to a career is respected and applauded in every profession and it should be in politics too. Particularly as politicians are the ones who decide what taxes we pay, the level of healthcare we receive, the type of education future generations get, what direction the economy takes, what houses to build and where to build them, when to go to war These are life-changing, life-determining matters. I don’t know about you but I expect a professional career politician who knows his stuff to sort it all out on my behalf.

Categories: ,

Commenting is closed for this article.