Questions to ask your political candidate

The subject of conversation at this morning’s breakfast table once again turned to politics with my youngest son, who’s having his first opportunity to vote in a general election asking me again who I might vote for. Always keen to wind him up I launched into reasons why I might vote UKIP, citing some of their immigration policies as great ideas. “Send everyone home” I said, “and stop anyone coming her from Europe just because they want to. If my Eldest son can’t come back his with his American born wife then I don’t see why anyone else can just walk in.”

I’m not saying those are my opinions, as I mention, I like to wind him up a little, but on that last sentence I have to admit I’m a little aggrieved. My Eldest son studied in the USA and met his wife there. They are both smart people, university educated. His wife studied for five years to become the teacher she now is.

You’d think that with good qualifications and my son being a British citizen, that they could both happily move back to the UK and take up residence, but that’s not the case. In order to do so they would need to have at least sixty thousand pounds in their bank account and be able to demonstrate how they could support themselves financially. I am not allowed to sponsor them, and my support financial or otherwise does not count, despite the fact that they would get my roof over their heads until they got a place of their own. This with both of them at the ripe old age of twenty five. Hardly realistic I think, and yet we see economic migrants with little skill or no English language skills coming to the UK every day only to live off the state. So my son and daughter in law continue to reside in the USA, he now with a green card and working for a US company contributing to their economy.

I won’t vote for Nigel then (why is it that when I think of him I hear the song Making Plans for Nigel in my head?) and my morning debate moved on to who I would vote for and why. I expressed to my youngest that in my opinion it really didn’t matter much as once in power they would all pretty much do the opposite of what they said they would anyway. The politician in power always tows the party line anyway. I gave the example of the local Labour MP in the constituency of where my office is located. In power he only ever gave me the party line. It didn’t matter what question I asked, if it conflicted with the party line then I only got the party line and a politicians answer to my questions on why. Once Labour were out of power then his answers changed. He would have promised me the moon on a stick had I asked for it. He confirmed all of my suspicions about politicians and I never invited him back again. This for me is a big problem with politicians. Their primary motivation is to be elected. Once elected their primary motivation is to stay in power.

The question I left my son with is another that has bothered me for many years. “Ask yourself, and them if you ever get the chance, what qualifies any of them to run a country?”

It’s a serious question. What makes them more qualified than anyone else to run an economy, the defence of the realm, the country? Most of them have only ever been lawyers. OK so you’d hope a lawyer is well educated and smart, but does that give them the skills to run a government department or the country itself?

Do we have ex armed forces personal who rose through the ranks, or ex business leaders who have demonstrated excellence in those professions? Sadly I don’t think we have. Many of those people are not natural self-promoters. Sure we have a few, Richard Branson for one, and I wonder if he ran for office how many would vote for him?

If you’re (un)fortunate enough to find a politician in your workplace, school, street, at your door I would be sure to ask that question, though. “What makes you qualified to run the country or even this county. Explain to me what you’ve achieved that qualifies you, what experience you have that tells me you are going to do or are qualified to do an outstanding job other than the fact you can move your jaw and words come out.