Which qualities would you say are essential for a prospective MP, a government minister or indeed the Prime Minister?
- Integrity?
- Honesty?
- Common sense?
- Intelligence?
- Compassion?
- Empathy?
- A desire to serve?
- A passion to make your community and country better?
I would suggest that it’s a yes to all of the above.
However, it appears that the most important quality needed, would never be listed in a job advert…
Arrogance.
Specifically, an arrogance so immense that, no matter how many mistakes you make, how many calls you get wrong, you still believe you were right, are right and will forever be right.
Simon Clarke, MP
Take Simon Clarke, probably the biggest cheerleader for Liz Truss and her Chancellors mini-budget resulting in a catastrophic 49 days as PM.
Surely in any other job, such a person would be handed a box in which to put their mug and personal property, relieved of their security pass and escorted out of the building?
If this were me, I’d get my head down, grow a beard and hope nobody recognised me.
Simon Clarke? He doesn’t do embarrassment or shame or even contrition.
No sooner did he hang up his pom-poms for the architects of a multi-billion pound hit to the economy, than he finds himself drawn to the TV studio to discuss anything and everything.
Simon is an expert you see.
Be it the economy, international treaties or even the conflict in the South China Sea, Simon knows that we should all be listening to him.
Simon is right and will always be right.
And the others?
There are so many examples of this from his colleagues…
Jacob Rees Mogg can be counted on to be wrong about everything, everyday whilst being a font of all knowledge.
Chris Grayling giving a ferry contract to a company with zero boats.
Nadine Dorries not having a scooby regarding Channel 4, whilst being Minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
John Redwood on basically everything.
These people can be incompetent and ignorant of facts or the truth on any given day, and still wake up the following morning, get dressed, look themselves in the mirror and know with complete certainty that they were, are and will forever be right.
This is just a small snapshot into the level of arrogance required to be a Member of Parliament.
There is a book on the scale of the Encyclopedia Britannica to be written about MPs and Ministers who are wrong on so many occasions but are still able to pontificate and lecture from a position of insurmountable confidence that they were, are and will forever be right.
“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”
Unfortunately, these MPs are not as useful.
This arrogance is not a quality unique to the Conservative Party, it is just that they have been in power for 13 years and the examples are there for all to see.
I anticipate returning to this subject if and when we get a government of a different hue.
How do we get this, all too common, trait out of our politics?
We deserve better than this.
We need better than this. There must be a much more rigorous selection process to get better quality candidates, because as we all know there are constituencies in which a lettuce wearing the correct colour rosette would
