The England/Scotland thing...

[max_tranmere]

I don't know what can be done to level the playingfield with regard to class, unless they introduce a quota system like Blair did on the gender issue. Then it gets complicated, how can you test someone for class? I suppose it would be worked out along the lines of whether someone attended a fee-paying school or whether someone didn't. That is the only way something like that could be established.

I thought issues regarding this sort of thing reached levels of high irony back in the 1990's when Hague was Tory leader and Blair was Labour leader. Hague had been to State school and Blair had been to public school - you would have thought it would have been the other way round.

[max_tranmere]

A lot of people have done real jobs but that doesn't mean they fully consider, now they're in high office, what it is like for the little folk. They may have done once, but many seem to forget it when they're handed the keys to their Whitehall ministry or to their flat above Downing Street. John Major, PM in the 1990's, was on the dole as a young man - the only PM we've ever had who has been on the dole. He didn't seem to appreciate the plight of the little man after the chauffeur-driven motor dropped him off outside number 10. Tony Blair worked in a bar in Paris as I remember, he is fluent in French and wanted to get into the whole French thing for a while. David Cameron worked at (as I remember) a company called Tiger Tiger, they own some bars across Britain, Cameron worked in the head office I think. The list goes on. Many had ordinary jobs and many 'lived' prior to taking up office, but once in office and once the constraints of what is called 'the political game' are realised by these people then they're life experiences go out the window and they become politicians like every other politician across the western world.

[max_tranmere]

I suppose when someone who is working class gets to high office then they cease to be working class. To earn 2 or 3 grand a week (ministerial salary and MP's salary combined), very generous expenses, being chauffeured about, having two homes, and knowing all along that if or when it all goes tits-up they can exploit connections they made in politics to get highly lucrative directorships and well paid speaking engagements, then they cease to be working class in my view. Unless they do what Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland do and only allow their ministers to earn a 'living wage' - about ?15,000 a year or approximately ?300.00 a week.

John Prescott, one time working class guy, lives in an 8 bedroom house on the edge of Hull and apparently has his own yacht. Here is an article about Prescott's huge pad and about how he, like all other parliamentarians, milks the expenses system without a care in the world:

[Sam Slater]

Just a little common sense, Max. I agree that it's not always cut and dried who is and isn't working class but that shouldn't stop us trying to get more MPs from all walks of life and up and down the social ladder.

[Sam Slater]

[quote]I suppose when someone who is working class gets to high office then they cease to be working class.[/quote]

But coming from a working class background does give them a better insight and understanding in how ordinary folk live - what their needs are etc. They don't have to stay on minimum wage and reside in a council house throughout their term. No one's demanding that.