Yesterday was, I think, the first day when it has been suggested to me that I might (and it was only might, I admit) be too old to take on a new role.
If I'd suggested being an athlete I'd agree.
Actually, the role under discussion was being an MP - not that I have much intent anyway, and not being a member of a political party does not help.
Still, I do think it very odd that someone with the experience to offer advice, and the person I was speaking to had that, would suggest 54 is too old for someone to enter politics. I'd candidly suggest it's probably about right, even if I suspect I'll leave it to others.
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It’s a shame you aren’t interested in running, we need more people like you in office and I’d also say that you age was more appropriate. Candidates need life experience, which comes with age, behind them as well as education to be rounded enough to properly support their constituents. Furthermore, considering that retirement age keeps creeping up then 54 give or take a couple of years is just right. Do seriously think about it, we need you!
Average age of an MP in 2010 was 50 according to this
http://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-commons-faqs/members-faq-page2/
If you change your mind you’d get my vote.
Richard
Think again. MPs need the experience and breadth of knowledge that comes from having a few decades under the belt. You’d have my vote any day.
John
Mine too Richard, though I wouldn’t want to “steal” you from your real work, where you have far more influence than most MP’s. That, however, is largely their fault for not being willing to carve out a real area of expertise, but being content to mill about, bleating and mooing around the feet of their masters.
And that is partly due to the Party system itself – a governing necessity, I’m afraid to say, as a Parliament of independents would soon slide off into extremism, I fear, since it is only Party discipline that works to fashion a coherent manifesto, and its attendant discipline.
However, there is a second reason for the “bleating and mooing”, and that is at the opposite end from your “Too Old” point, which is that MP’s are generally actually “Too young”, at least in terms of practical experience, such as you could offer.
So, rather than set an arbitrary lower age limit, such as 35 or 40, to be eligible to become an MP, I’d impose a requirement that you could only become an MP if you had10, or even 15, years of experience composed of a mix or a single component, from a list such as – earning money from real work, or running your own business, or volunteering in a charity, or being on the dole! since – as I know from experience, having been unemployed all the 4 years I was a Councillor – being on Benefits is a powerful reality check.
This would stop these young careerists and Parliamentary wonks, who only know the Westminster system, and none of the effects of what they set down from on high, so they become “Let them eat cake!” politicians, dutifully spouting the inanities given to them to utter by their bosses.
Instead, we would get a Parliament full of MP’s of the calibre of a Tam Dalyell, or a Tom Watson, or an Ian Gibson, (or even Frank Field, whom I personally do not warm to) on the Labour side, or of a Peter Bottomley or a Geoffrey Johnson-Smith on the Tory side, for example. Then we might begin to have a Parliament we can respect.
Indeed
In fairness to the person I spoke to, he or she did suggest I had a lot more influence in my current position than I would have as an MP!
I hope you saw Tony Wright on BOOKtalk on 31 March 17:45 on the BBC parliament channel. He was discussing his experiences of parliament and his warnings over MP expenses – and the self-serving reaction of fellow MPs to his warnings – and then his role in trying to contain the ensuing scandal. Tony Wright was my MP (we don’t mention the current one).
I think you’re fishing for complements here, Richard!
Go on you’d get my vote.
If you stand in Chester for Labour next time you’ll walk it. The Tory incumbent is a nonentity.
No actually, I wasn’t
I was noting a new experience!
I suspect a lot of Labour candidates will walk next time
But not in Norfolk!
Politics seems to have become one big bun fight. PMQs is played for nothing more than entertainment – who’s winning this round? It’s all really quite depressing, even more so for LibDem voters. It really is hard to see anyone entering this arena and not ending up throwing things, no matter what their age.
Perhaps he wanted to discourage you or encourage you to continue your valuable work?
Might be too busy more likely.
We do have a problem with ageism along with chronic unemployment/underemployment and it will bite us in the bum.