I thought my MP was bad...

[embee]

A fundamental issue is that all the folk who put themselves up for election by definition believe that they know better than everyone else. If they didn't they would stand.
Most who do get elected believe that they need to change everything. If some of them concentrated on running things competently rather than changing it, we'd be better off. It's a standard belief/doctrine that changes make things better, they seldom do. Re-organisations simply give a warm feeling and the illusion of progress.
Very few parliament level politicians understand the "knobhead to normal" ratio of the general public. They believe the great unwashed are reasonable and rational, which to a considerable extent we are not.
Just keep an eye on how readily they relinquish the emergency powers they gave themselves, you might find they get into the habit of using executive powers a bit too freely and don't want to give them up. Next thing you know they'll try to prorogue parliament unlawfully.

[Seeker]

Just a bit of mental doodling produced this list:

David Davis (intial Brexit negotiator) - lazy, often showed up with no paperwork, no preparations, only worked 2 or 3 days/week on Brexit.

Priti Patel (Home Secretary) - fired by Theresa May for lying. Accused of bullying

Chris Grayling (Transport) - ordered ferry services from companies that didn't have any ferries, allowed companies to bid for train contracts and then bailed them out when they couldn't make a profit.

Gavin Williamson (Education) - school exams screw ups (insisted on an "algorithm" to award exam results but many got lower grades than expected - abandoned it. Insisted schools stay open, then abandoned it. No school meals out of school hours - public outcry - abandoned it (getting the picture?)

Matt Hancock - (Health) where to start - general poor handling of pandemic, PPE equipment deals given to buddies (with no experience). "World beating" NHS Test and Trace actually Serco - a private company with a history of screw ups - still not working properly 1 year later.

Boris Johnson - (PM) another lazy person - doesn't show up for meetings, frequent u turns, unfounded optimism ("pandemic will be over by Christmas", etc). Slow to react to virus. Allegedly didn't read his own EU trade deal. Doesn't like being the bearer of bad news.

Gove - stabbed BoJo in the back over leadership of Tories. Known for ludicrous and incorrect comments. He is also a member of Parler (right wing extremist website - as are 14 other Tories, home to more radical Trump supporters).

Dominic Raab - unaware of how much trade went via Dover. Declared Brexit fisheries deal "great". Said that there were no guarantees that second vaccination would occur within 12 weeks period after first injection (bearing in mind it's supposed to be 3 weeks)

Victoria Prentis (Fisheries) didn't read fisheries Brexit document because she was at a Nativity play.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had professionals? I would even give the current losers a bit of leeway if, for once, they said: "we made a mistake, we will fix it", instead of trying to blame everyone/everything except themselves.

[garynortheast]

That's a depressingly accurate list Seeker, and unfortunately it barely scratched the surface with regards to the incompetence and corruption of the current administrative incumbents.

[embee]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Boris Johnson - (PM) ..............

Don't forget the lies (search for "Boris Johnson lies"), sacked by the Times for fabricating stories, sacked by the Telegraph for fabricating stories (about the EU), sacked twice by Michael Howard for lying ...............
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...prime-minister
Spent £320k on water cannon and were scrapped for £11k.
Spent £53m on the Garden Bridge fiasco.
Then there was the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe episode ......

I believe this is what is called being a "character".

[DJ123]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Just a bit of mental doodling produced this list:

David Davis (intial Brexit negotiator) - lazy, often showed up with no paperwork, no preparations, only worked 2 or 3 days/week on Brexit.

Priti Patel (Home Secretary) - fired by Theresa May for lying. Accused of bullying

Chris Grayling (Transport) - ordered ferry services from companies that didn't have any ferries, allowed companies to bid for train contracts and then bailed them out when they couldn't make a profit.

Gavin Williamson (Education) - school exams screw ups (insisted on an "algorithm" to award exam results but many got lower grades than expected - abandoned it. Insisted schools stay open, then abandoned it. No school meals out of school hours - public outcry - abandoned it (getting the picture?)

Matt Hancock - (Health) where to start - general poor handling of pandemic, PPE equipment deals given to buddies (with no experience). "World beating" NHS Test and Trace actually Serco - a private company with a history of screw ups - still not working properly 1 year later.

Boris Johnson - (PM) another lazy person - doesn't show up for meetings, frequent u turns, unfounded optimism ("pandemic will be over by Christmas", etc). Slow to react to virus. Allegedly didn't read his own EU trade deal. Doesn't like being the bearer of bad news.

Gove - stabbed BoJo in the back over leadership of Tories. Known for ludicrous and incorrect comments. He is also a member of Parler (right wing extremist website - as are 14 other Tories, home to more radical Trump supporters).

Dominic Raab - unaware of how much trade went via Dover. Declared Brexit fisheries deal "great". Said that there were no guarantees that second vaccination would occur within 12 weeks period after first injection (bearing in mind it's supposed to be 3 weeks)

Victoria Prentis (Fisheries) didn't read fisheries Brexit document because she was at a Nativity play.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had professionals? I would even give the current losers a bit of leeway if, for once, they said: "we made a mistake, we will fix it", instead of trying to blame everyone/everything except themselves.

You can't expect them to take responsibility for their actions, this is where they use smoke and mirrors to blame other people for their short comings.
I mean BoJo struggles with answering questions during PM question time . . . speaker of the house had to remind him to answer a question . . . .

[DJ123]

Originally Posted by embee

Don't forget the lies (search for "Boris Johnson lies"), sacked by the Times for fabricating stories, sacked by the Telegraph for fabricating stories (about the EU), sacked twice by Michael Howard for lying ...............
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...prime-minister
Spent £320k on water cannon and were scrapped for £11k.
Spent £53m on the Garden Bridge fiasco.
Then there was the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe episode ......

I believe this is what is called being a "character".

my further question to these is who signs off on the purchasing?

Its not wonder these eejits work in Government where they can shun off the responsibility of their wrong doings. Most of them would end up in jail if they did this in the private sector.

[Seeker]

Value for money? £1000 per day for 900 consultants for Test and Trace. The incompetent Dido Harding strikes again.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/h...-b1789098.html

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by embee

... If some of them concentrated on running things competently ...

Originally Posted by Seeker

... Wouldn't it be nice if we had professionals? I would even give the current losers a bit of leeway if, for once, they said: "we made a mistake, we will fix it", instead of trying to blame everyone/everything except themselves.

These hit the nail on the head for me. When it comes to government, diligent administration and slow evolution would generally be far better than trying to be a heroic, perfect game-changer. Although that probably does require many of the extremely vocal in the electorate to accept that utopia is unacheivable and to tolerate some of their preference issues not being 'sorted'.


Over the years, in the course of my work I've had to meet several MPs or deal with correspondence from them. Sad to say that the trend I have seen is that their reasonableness and sense of duty seems to be inversely proportional to their proximity to front bench or senior government position.

What mostly annoys me personally, though, is the party whip system and apparent slavish toe-ing of the party line when it comes to important policy or legislative debate. We seem to be stuck with trying to achieve two things that aren't necessarily connected with just one vote at General Election time: (i) Elect a decent constituency representative and (ii) select the 'best' government for the nation. My own MP is the same party as the government but seems to be incapable of independent thought away from party policy.

[keith_d]

Originally Posted by Ruffy

What mostly annoys me personally, though, is the party whip system and apparent slavish toe-ing of the party line when it comes to important policy or legislative debate. We seem to be stuck with trying to achieve two things that aren't necessarily connected with just one vote at General Election time: (i) Elect a decent constituency representative and (ii) select the 'best' government for the nation. My own MP is the same party as the government but seems to be incapable of independent thought away from party policy.

Now we're really diving down the rabbit hole. For those who want to jump straight to the quick answer, it's 'money'.

Effectively there is a financial arms race between the two big parties to fund election campaigns. Starting at the bottom, that's money for local parties to have a offices, money to print leaflets and money to transport canvassers around the constituency. Moving up there's money for billboards and posters. Finally, the big ticket items are advertising agencies like Saachi's and TV time. So, whichever party can raise the most money and spend it most effectively has the best chance of selling their promises/lies to the electorate.

If you're down to your last few million quid forget it. The big two will steamroller you completely. Maybe not in one election, but in two or three you'll be gone. Anyone seen UKIP recently??

In theory the local party assocations decide who gets to contest the individual seats, but if they pick an outspoken maverick it's likely that party HQ will 'encourage' them to pick a more amenable candidate. Or in particularly safe seats they will just 'parachute in' a key (shadow) cabinet member. In the past, Labour had some fairly acrimonious and public debates about this, but these days it's all kept behind closed doors so they can present a united front.

So, while MPs can sometimes agitate for a local issue and get a little media coverage for their particular problems. In the end they're going to do what central office says or be de-selected at the next election. He who pays the piper calls the tune!!