OPINION: Why truly representative politics is just not possible
By: Gursimran Hans
To campaign to become an MP costs around £20,000 on average
If you want to be an MP, you’re looking on average to be spending around £20,000 just to campaign according to research by Isabel Hardman for her book ‘Why We Get The Wrong Politicians’.
There’s no guarantee you will get elected either. There’s campaigning for selection, attending hustings, sometimes having to quit your current job. With an average yearly salary of £30,000 for all British citizens it’s just not possible for most to spend that much on essentially, a job interview.
It’s no wonder people don’t feel represented by their MPs. It’s a closed club. Of course, you will get highflyers, people of wealth and intelligence, but that does not cover everyone, they cannot be expected to know how everyone else lives.
"As a group, the current crop of MPs is not socially diverse enough," says Hans
Individually, these MPs may well deserve their seats, but collectively, the group is not diverse enough to be guaranteed to give everyone what they need.
If Westminster really is the ‘Mother of all Parliaments’, we should either have a jury service system based on demographics OR a system of funding parties in order to help those from diverse backgrounds. This could get those unheard voices in Parliament, where it matters.
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