Why We Get the Wrong Politicians

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The UK political system doesn’t appreciate gifted legislators and MPs are like every other human being too. They are determined and want to gain a lot of success and credit for their skills. Additionally, the best method of attaining this is by becoming a government department as a minister. Perhaps that power-hungry personality is inherited. “My father put a mark on me, like I was part of the Bokassa brand,” Marie-France told me. “Bokassa — it’s a name that is powerful,” she said with a grin. “I wouldn’t want to change it.” Isabel Hardman is a journalist and broadcaster. She is Assistant Editor of The Spectator and presents Week in Westminster on BBC Radio 4. In 2015, she was named "Journalist of the Year" at the Political Studies Association's annual awards. She lives in London. In this searching examination of our political class, award-winning journalist Isabel Hardman tries to square this circle. She lifts the lid on the strange world of Westminster and asks why we end up with representatives with whom we are so unhappy. Filled with forensic analysis and revealing reportage, this landmark and accessible book is a must read for anyone who wants to see a future with better government.

Review: Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman

Endnote: At time of writing a 2022 edition has been recently released, with an update to include the events of the last three years. Comments on the update are welcome. This is not really a book about excoriating out of touch Westminster Bubble elites, posh toffs or any of the other stereotypes we have of MPs, although it does have a fair bit to say about such things. This is a book about how the whole culture of Parliament makes it inefficient, ineffective and basically impossible for a well-meaning MP to make a difference, starting from the astronomical costs of running in a constituency (something I hadn't known about), to the useless rubber stamping bodies that most committees are (something I had some idea of before), to the fact that so many votes are held that MPs often have no idea what they are actually voting on. The only way to make a difference is to become a minister, and the only way to become a minister is to shut up and follow the government's lead. Even when you become a minister, the Yes-man culture of parliament prevents your bill from getting the scrutiny it would need to become an effective piece of legislation. A whole raft of perverse incentives act to inhibit MPs from actually making that difference that most of them entered the Commons with dreams of making. Meanwhile the metrics by which we measure a politician's effectiveness (number of questions in the commons, speaking time in debates) are measuring the least effective ways that MPs can actually influence legislation. Auditioning for a job with such a ridiculous financial drain, a job that you’re not even sure whether or not you will get it and this discourages a lot of people from standing. Worse, it makes it impossible for brilliant, poor individuals to go into government. By doing this, a process meant to examine and debate legislation becomes a party loyalty competition. Britain’s political structure support members of the committee phase to become biased puppets and not objective lawmakers.Select committees are good for lawmaking, however, they can’t avert the damage caused by out of touch politicians. Hardman spends most of the book analysing the flaws in our system. However, as well as illuminating my perspective on the range of issues above (and more), she also posed a more direct challenge to the way I normally think about politics. I tend to think of political problems as requiring structural solutions: that a Proportional Representation electoral system rather than our adversarial First Past the Post would fix a lot of things, or that more Deliberative Democracy would help these issues, etc. But in her concluding chapter of recommended changes, she makes a very clear argument: "It is more important to change the culture rather than the overarching structures of our political system". Typically I think cultural change requires structural change, but she makes a strong case for this not to be so. how despite the fact the House of Lords are unelected, they actually do a surprisingly good job of scrutinising legislation, and much better than the House of Commons in most cases (makes you think - would abolishing the Lords be more ideological than pragmatic?) Hardman began her career in journalism as a senior reporter for Inside Housing magazine. She then became assistant news editor at PoliticsHome. In September 2014, GQ magazine named her as one of their 100 most connected women in Britain, and in December 2015, she was named "Journalist of the Year" at the Political Studies Association's annual awards. She is currently the assistant editor of The Spectator, and writes a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph. Douglas Adams once wrote of a planet on which humans are ruled by lizard overlords. There’s a paradox: the planet is a democracy, the humans hate and outnumber the lizards and yet the lizards always get elected. It turns out the humans vote for the lizards for a simple reason: “If they didn’t ... the wrong lizard might get in.”

Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman - Waterstones Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman - Waterstones

She appears on television programmes such as Question Time, This Week, The Andrew Marr Show and Have I Got News for You, and is a presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme Week in Westminster. Not for the first time, either. In fact, an alien observing modern Britain might wonder whether our system of government rewarded those who lied and cheated and engaged in sleaze, so long as they used clever turns of phrase and delivered them with a roguish smirk. is this how politics is done everywhere or do some countries do it better? If so, who? And do not say SWEDEN or I will bite you. There are no comparisons so for all the reader knows Britain is doing politics much better than anywhere! It might be rubbish but you should see the others! Members of the public repeatedly tell pollsters that they’d be interested in becoming an MP (the latest poll, from YouGov in February of this year, puts the proportion at 21%). But on the basis of the sort of people who end up actually becoming MPs, I wonder whether this poll is similar to those showing that one in eight men think they’d probably win a point in a tennis match against Serena Williams, in that it doesn’t bear much relation to what would really happen. In these polls about whether they’d like to stand for parliament, people then make it very clear they’ve noticed the downsides of the job that would put them off: online abuse and the impact on their family tend to be the reasons most cite for not wanting to enter parliament. Ask the next Briton you come across to explain how bills are formed and passed into law in the UK. Probabilities are you’ll be greeted with a puzzled look and some respectful apologies. However, that’s not down to this poor Brit who is politically illiterate and it’s because the UK lawmaking process is complex, long-winded and ineffective.Also, there are actually some politicians that would go toe-to-toe with Frank Underwood from House of Cards; there are also more who are upright, hardworking and enthusiastic to serve their own country. Although, their age, race, sex and wealth might not be representative of the country at large, however, it isn’t essentially their fault. The problem is far deeper in the organization and culture of the Parliament itself. Hardman also does not shy away from the toxic aspects of politics with chapters on ‘Getting caught’ – money and sex feature prominently, including sexual assault by MPs- and a section on illness with emphasis on mental health and substance misuse.

Why We Get the Wrong Politicians, by Isabel Book Review: Why We Get the Wrong Politicians, by Isabel

The absurdity of our complacency is often most obvious at the extremes. In the remote village of Stebbins, Alaska, the police department had trouble filling vacancies and hired whoever came forward. As a result, there was a period in which every officer had been convicted of domestic violence. The chief of police was no exception. He had been convicted of 17 crimes over 25 years, including assault and sexual abuse of a minor. I am not a reader of overtly political books. When I have tried in the past, as part of an exercise in keeping up with the Joneses or some stupid belief that if I hadn’t read Alan Clark’s diaries I would be less good at my job, I found that they are usually either overly cerebral – to the point of self-aggrandisement – or needlessly cynical. Hardman’s book is neither. However, the whipping system doesn’t only influence MP’s votes, it also manipulates their scrutiny. The party whips agree on which MPs will examine a bill during its committee phase and it’s possible that those that get chosen will be loyal to the party and it is unlikely that they will have knowledge on the specific subject at hand. Isabel Hardman’s book explores some of the fiddly, complicated and frankly unbelievable ways in which our political system works.It is true that these surgeries are drivers for good and most MPs truly enjoy the work they do and are aware of the positive impact it has on people’s lives. However, we should ask if this is the best use of politicians’ time as they are part of the most skilled people in Britain and charged with formulating as well as scrutinizing its laws.