No belief binds the nation’s pub bores together more strongly than the idea that we need to do away with ‘career politicians’ and replace them all with businessmen. This banausic bleat seems to be the animating spirit behind some recent posts which have gone viral on X comparing the private and public sector experiences of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet. 

Underneath his tweet the CEO of Datablast, Sebastian David Lees, said he ‘would love a law that says 10 years private sector experience before eligible to run as an MP. You can be a cleaner for all I care, as long as it’s not public sector’ and ran a poll asking if MPs without ten years in the ‘real world’ or the private sector should be banned from running. Some 71 per cent of those who voted agreed with him.

First let’s address the inconsistencies in the graph as presented. Andy Burnham is listed as having 25-plus years of experience across the public and private sectors before becoming an MP, which he impressively managed to fit into the ten years which elapsed between graduating from Cambridge in 1991 and being elected to represent Leigh in 2001. The chart also defines working in a charity as ‘public sector’. For example the chart states that Miatta Fahnbulleh has no experience working in the private sector before becoming an MP. But a quick browse of her Wikipedia will tell you that she spent six years as the Chief Executive of a think tank, the New Economics Foundation (NEF).

‘Andy Burnham is perhaps the best case in favour of the careerists.’

‘Andy Burnham is perhaps the best case in favour of the careerists.’

You may disagree with the NEF’s political outlook (which strikes left), you may disagree with the very idea of a think tank – but the NEF is not a public sector organisation. Think tanks, even charities like NEF, are not exclusively funded by the government and their directors have all the same concerns that private sector companies have, including compliance with tax and managing wage bills. Nandy, who worked in several charities after graduation, has similarly had her experience rendered as public sector only.

Why is the BBC so intent on sneering at America?

Airbnbs have ruined........

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