The thing with nearly all these politicians - Cameron, Gove, Corbyn, McDonnell, Osborne, Johnson etc etc - is that none of them have ever done what most of us would call a 'proper' job for any length of time - a mixed bag of journos, union officials (who have never actually done the job the union represents) short term PR men etc etc. I think this is a newish phenomenon, politicians who are professional politicians and are actually unqualified for just about anything other than sharing their opinions on things. Very little genuine knowledge or experience to share, and probably more ominously very cliquey shared experiences - particular types of school or university, the same issues based pressure groups. Very narrow perspectives. In my formative years all politicians, who now seem like giants compared to the current bunch, had the war in common, and many of them had played very honourable roles in it. I now think I was very lucky to have avoided actually experiencing the war but to grow up in a time when the sense of common purpose it engendered was still evident. Long gone now.
On people who share their opinions professionally Hitchens P was on the radio just now. After getting off on the wrong foot by describing Muhammed Ali's life as 'bitter' - I think in reference to civil rights, perhaps 'a struggle' would have been a better choice of words - he piqued my interest by saying that the Aussie points based system is inappropriate for the UK because it is designed to attract immigrants. As he his (obviously) a Brexiter I think this deserves some attention, and I was have obviously not looked at the Aussie system closely enough. Then he spoilt it by saying that the referendum was solely about whether we wanted to be independent or not (at least he didn't mention 'destiny'). For him it might be, and for quite a lot of people, but for many others it's about the economy, immigration or other specific things. This 'one size fits all approach' to everything doesn't do us any favours.
