I remember meeting in Bishopbriggs (north Glasgow) the Tory candidate who was put up against Labour’s Sam Galbraith. Galbraith was a brain surgeon working in the west of Scotland and his politics were oldfashioned Labour: the Tory looked about 16 and worked for a Japanese bank in London.

I knew that this Tory would never beat Galbraith in a million years, and was baffled at his selection. Galbraith won. Then the egregious Nicholas Fairbairn died and his Perth and Kinross seat became vacant.

For this solid Tory seat, the SNP put up Roseanna Cunningham, mainly known then for being a republican and a trekkie. The Tories – incredibly – put up Tory Boy again, and I correctly foretold he would be wiped. The couthy folk of P&K looked at Cunningham and saw one of their own daughters: they looked at Tory Boy and saw an incomprehensible alien.

The Scottish Tories actually defeated themselves throughout much of Scotland, but have hung on (and have in some cases grown) in places where they put one of their own up.

Labour has of course put up absolute duds as well and paid the price for it when the opposing candidate was quality: Jim Sillars won Govan against a classic union nominee, who, when asked a simple question at a press conference, said ‘You’ve got me there’.

The SNP are ahead – barely – in Scotland for several reasons, and there seems consensus that for the moment they have the best candidates: but the trick of arguing for socialism in working-class constituencies while at the same time proclaiming that Scotland is ‘Open for Business’ can’t be maintained for long.

It is not just the social class aspect of MPs background, it is the lack of experience. Most MPs come from a middle to upper middle class background m have a degree in the humanities and have little or no experience before entering the H of C. Hardly any MPs have any industrial , manufacturing, farming , military, seafaring, construction or overseas experience . The lack of debating, current affairs and public speaking activities in comprehensives may also be a factor in children from these schools not having the confidence to enter politics. The days when Tory and Liberal MPs had considerable industrial and overseas, including military experence are long gone. An etonian Tory MP who had 10 years of working for the families manufacturing company ( British and Commonwealth, Jardine and Matheson, Swire, Pilkingtons, GKN ec , etc,)and had combat experience in Malaya /Oman/ Borneo/Yemen would have far worldly experience than most MPs in the H of C today. If one was a troubled manufacturer I would rather have a MP with industrial experience and If a was a soldier in Afghanistan, I would ather have an MP who had combat experience.

One of the prime reasons why independent schools are retaking their position at the top of politics is the death of the grammar school. If you look at the years between the defeat of Alec Douglas-Home and the election of Tony Blair (1964-1979) the succession of Prime Ministers were almost all grammar school (Wilson, Heath, Thatcher, Major). Only Callaghan broke the trend – and he was at what would have been a secondary modern. Since the end of the grammar school it has become much harder for lower income children to break through.

That’s not to say that grammar schools would be the answer now, but we should recognise what was lost when they were largely abolished.

If we look at the forthcoming Norwich North by-election, we have the spectacle of a 28 year old management consultant and a 27 year old masters’ student fronting up for the Tories and Labour, backed up by hundreds of taxpayer-paid MPs’ research assistants and other full-time staff to get the leaflets out.

Meanwhile, never mind old Labour GMB or NUM, we have the disgraceful stance of the University and Colleges Union – of all organisations – excluding the distinguished independent candidate Craig Murray from its own hustings event in Norwich on Thursday.

Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador and now human rights campaigner, is the (student-elected) Rector of Dundee University, and has worked with UCU on an anti-cuts and anti-commercialisation agenda!

This by-election is the direct result of the recent expenses scandal and it is a valid and necessary platform to be arguing that we can’t rely on the establishment parties to clean up politics and state corruption. So, even if you don’t agree with it, it is outrageous for a union to deny that platform even the chance to be heard.

More at http://www.putanhonestman.org/ and http://www.craigmurray.org.uk

Your beloved St Margaret of Thatcher consented to the abolition of grammar schools because too many thick Tory voters’ kids were failing the 11+.

The easist way to get REPRESENTATION in parliament for all sections of the electorate, that is PROPORTIONAL to their size, is….

I think you know where I am going with this, but to persuade MPs to introduce more democracy is going to be tough. We will only get change when the people demand it in their millions. We got the vote through mass protest and civil disobedience, it will take the same again to get equality of votes.

After fair votes, the next most important step, is improving our political parties’ internal democracy. There should be no expulsions of members for holding views their leadership dislike and the power to select candidates should rest solely with the members.

People have stopped voting because they have come to realise that where you live influences how important your vote is. If you live in the 75% of seats that are safe, your vote is worth little or nothing, so why bother?

People have stopped joining political parties because members’ views are ignored, so what is the point?

Address these two issues and we will be back on the road to having a decent representative democracy in this country rather than the scam we have at present.

http://vpcyn.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/av-stv-fptp-the-only-thing-that-will-make-mps-listen-is-fear/

Fear is the key – and life experience.

“That’s not to say that grammar schools would be the answer now, but we should recognise what was lost when they were largely abolished.”

Actually there’s no reason why grammar schools couldnt be restored. The former GDR replaced their selective gymnasium system 50 years after it was trashed by Marxoid fanatics. The same could be achieved here if our rulers cared a shit about good education.

Its also funny how the liberal elite endlessly calls for our MPs be more racially and sexually representative of the country yet they would never tolerate a Parliament that was even remotely representative of the divisions in this country. Just to take grammar schools as an example. All three parties are now opposed to selective education yet half the public want to see academic selection restored. As for the issues of crime and immigration there couldn’t be a wider chasm between the rulers and the ruled. But do you hear anybody here calling for the Labour party to be more representative of the OPINIONS of Labour voters? Not a chance! They think that if they just let in some more gays and women they can allow the people some semblence of representation while continuing to ignore them.

9. Historically the British people were for capital punishment but the H of C voted against it. Many workin class labour voters would support capital punishment for paedophiles who murdered children . There used to be a rumour that any defence lawyers wanted sex crimes to be heared in courts in the west of London as those in the east of London drew more from working class people, who were more likely to find those guilty of sex crimes than those in the west of London.
The reality is that most MPs have a metropolitan middle to upper midle class view of social mores and culture. Personaly having far more working class MPs would have a beneficial impact as they would probably be more concerned with issues relating to employment, skills training, immigration ,housing and crime than social /identity and cultural issues.

I wish people could make a distinction between private schools and posh public schools like eton

I went to a private, catholic school on government assistance, it wasn’t particularly good, but it was decent and far better than my local sink-hole of a comprehensive – now for some reason I am punished by everyone for being ‘privileged’ – were I to go near the house of commons (which I am nowhere near connected enough to do) I would then be lumped in with the aristocrats as ‘privileged’ – all because there wasn’t a grammar school in my area