Part-time jobs for the shadow Cabinet are a full-time weakness for the Tories

strapworld

I much prefer Members of Parliament who have experience of life outside politics.

Surely by meeting other people in their business pursuits, they are able to listen to the fears of people other than the Westminster Clubbies! They also may learn things which could help them, the party and the Country.

Far far better than the full time politicians in the labour government who have never had a proper job outside politics, who live and breath partisan politics and their idea of meeting people is a visit to a junior school or a carefully arranged meeting with Labour workers.

By the way, it was ever thus. and I actually applaud Cameron for moving away from what was a Socialistic policy.

Obnoxio The Clown

No wonder they're so bloody useless as an opposition. Too busy worrying about their sodding day jobs.

RobertD

The bigger problem is that with continuing reduction in the number of days that parliament sits and the lack of any real opportunities to get their teeth into the government they are being reduced to part time politicans.

Cammeron should be demanding that the HofC and its committees meet far more frequently and conduct in depth and forensic reviews of government activity. Provide his troops with a reason to turn up and fight every day.

Sally Chatterjee

On all sides, too many MPs are party stooges, spending all their time within the employment of their party and para-political organisations. So outside experience can help.

The trouble is that no MPs are working in additional jobs for the sake of experience, it's for the cash. Above all, a shadow cabinet job should be full time or not at all. Most of them are punching below their weight anyway and need to get the day job done properly.

David

I agree with you, though with Cameron likely to have a reshuffle in the New Year, it's possible his decisions just got a bit easier.

Chuck Unsworth

Why should they give up their part-time work? It's not as if they're in government right now. Maybe things would be different - in several senses - if they were.

But the fact is that this is about competence not time. It's OK for Swiss Des to have two jobs? And it's OK for the rest of them to carry on like a bunch of part-timers - even after ten years of NuLab misrule?

As and when the Conservatives return to power then maybe this is a sensible discussion, but not at this moment in time.

John Adlington

it is precisely the professional, full-time politician that is behind the 11 years of constitutional vandalism and nanny-state erosion of our civil liberties. God preserve us from them! If you want a job done well, give it to a busy man.

Forlornehope

This is a bit like the old one about the difference between involvement and commitment. On a plate of bacon and eggs the chicken was involved. For all the arguments it just does not look as if the Tories are committed, and it shows.

JimBob

When are the Tories going to get a grip? Hague in particular needs a boot up the backside. Mandelson doesnt even have to bother spinning with an opposition like this.

Verity

Sally Chatterjee writes: "On all sides, too many MPs are party stooges".

I'd say on all sides, there are too many MPs, full stop. Given that Britain is run out of Brussels, there's damn' all to occupy their full time. I think the HoC should be cut by at least one third. Possibly one-half.

But to James's point, while I think the Shadow Cabinet should be employed full time in devising ways to shovel the socialists out the door, I think it matters not whether the rank and file MP has an outside job or not - and indeed, I'd come down on the side of them spending time outside engaging with the real world.

Fergus Pickering

Oh come on. Being an opposition politician is NOT a full-time job. You've no boxes, nothing to actually DO.

Pete, Scotland

A part-time shadow cabinet wouldn't get my vote. Equally, a part-time cabinet wouldn't get my vote either.

They have to decide, either they are politicians representing the the people that elected them on what is to the vast majority of the UK a fairly decent wage, or they set themselves up as private consultants.

I tend to think that their private consultancies ( all parties ) is gained on the back of their public roles.

I resent this as my hard earned tax is providing them with an easy basic wage while they moonlight earning much more on the basis they got gullible fools to vote for them

Travis Bickle

Au contraire, it would have been much less damaging for our country if the entire Labour government had been part time for past 11 years, say 2 hours a week would have limited the irreperable damage they've caused with their endless unnecessary meddling.

Cynical Voter

The part-time job is in Westminster necessary for a super pension - the ability to work at Rothschilds makes Oliver Letwin much more in touch with ordinary people - I think the way the Conservative front bench is able to identify with ordinary voters is the real success of the Opposition.

The work-life balance and flexible-working approach of MPs has been one of the more impressive features of modern British democracy and no doubt turnout will be at 90%+ during the next Satisfaction Survey aka General Election

Publius

Full-time "professional" politicians is the problem. They lose touch. They go nuts. They think presentation is all, and content doesn't matter.

RW

It's worth remembering that, apart from Cameron and the Chief Whip, McLoughlin IIRC, none of the Shadow Cabinet draw a salary, other than as a member of Parliament.

Jim

We need people in government who have had jobs and worked for a living - at the moment we are governed by people who for the most part have gone straight from university to full time politics.....and look where it's got us.

If Hague can pull in £250k pa good for him.......

Susan Hill

They are still constituency MPs. They were elected by those constitutents. There are enough individual problems in every one of their backyards for them to get down to. I know people who have despaired of getting their MP actually to DO anything for their serious crisis other than write a couple of letters. They could get out there, hold double or treble the number of surgeries, learn a lot about ordinary people. People might respect them a bit more. Donkeys' years ago my father`s MP was Anthony Eden and he went to his surgery about some small trouble... my Dad was a card-carrying Labour Party member and a Shop Steward but Eden gave him so much practical help and advice that though he could never vote for him, my father would not hear a bad word about him - and said many a good one himself - ever after. It`s surprising how a good constituency MP doing his job properly can be like the stone thrown in the pond that sends ripples out for miles.

Athesius the Facilitator

Verity's correct again. A few years ago before the days of 24 hour news it was good to have these highly experienced people coming in and working for the love of the country and the power. Now we have greater demand sput on them even though they have little power. It's rubbish really. Anyway they will have to give up the extra's if they want to get back in. It just stands to reason in todays feely touchy rolling news society we live in now. I don't want the sixties and seventy's back but I would settle for the eradication of baseball caps and hoodies.

TGF UKIP

There is an air of unreality about many of these posts seeking to excuse these guys on the grounds that "outside experience" justifies neglect of a front line political post.

Outside experience should come before becoming an MP and in my view be an absolute pre-requisite. Indeed, we would have better politicians if there was a minimum age of thirty with five years required to have been spent in a "proper job" outside politics and "researchers" need not apply.

This is not what we are talking about here though, and what adds to the air of unreality is that a number of Coffee Housers pursuing this pathetic excuse are identifiably among those who most regularly gripe (along with myself) over what a singularly useless opposition the Cameron Tories are.

Get real folks and face up to the brutal fact that the main reason Gordon can be so contemptuous of the Cameron Tory "opposition" is because he knows full well how pathetically amateur and part-time it really is.

Here's a little test by the way. Go to the Tory Party website, bring up the list of the Shadow Teams and then ask yourselves how long it has been, if ever, since you have seen or heard them mentioned in the media.

As for Cameron putting up with it - "Weak, weak, Weak!"

Donna

Why oh why am I spending every spare hour of the day slaving away for the Tory cause in the shires, rallying support, making my local candidate known far and wide (vote Jason Sugarman for Lewes), when our esteemed leaders can't even commit to doing their jobs?

I'm absolutely shocked and horrified by this story!!!

JohnAnt

"I much prefer Members of Parliament who have experience of life outside politics."
And I agree with you, strapworld.
But now they've had experience of life outside politics - or in the case of after-dinner speakers, a life battening off a reputation made at the taxpayers' expense. And 'Oh, look, one of them's a merchant banker!' is not an election winning slogan. Far from. In fact it needs no alteration at all to become a Labour Party strapline.

Verity

TGI UKIP - Cameron's weak because he doesn't want anything, except to be PM and then move on to Brussels.

The man has no fire in his belly. I have never heard him express a governing principle.

He wants to be Prime Minister.

And it's his turn. He has been very polite. He ordered a hip-hip-hooray for the outgoing Prime Minister, the most destructive vermin ever to be in charge of our country. But seriously, Dave can recognise a public school chap, even if he's not Eton exactly, and can play by the rules.

"My turn. Not that I have any burning issues. But I think it's my turn in No 10, there's a good chap."

David F

We really can't have it both ways. If politicians are full-time careerists who have never done anything else we bitterly complain that they can't run/organise anything (plenty of evidence for that) and are out of contact with real world problems. If they engage with the outside world they are non-serious dilletantes. Not so long ago MPs were nearly all part-timers and HofC hours were adjusted accordingly; no longer. Are we better served? Arguably not. An observation: my experience of watching Parliament on TV suggests that the Consevative benches are usually better populated than those of the other side.

Ray

Cameron should do a deal: they can keep their 'outside interests' in return for donating 50% of the proceeds from them to Conservative Party coffers.