The good people of Erith and Thamesmead are the latest to have an approved candidate thrust upon them.
Georgia Gould, 22-year-old daughter of Philip Gould, one of the architects of New Labour, is competing with a Brownite candidate in the seat which has a comfortable 11,500 majority.
Sitting MP John Austin is retiring before the next election and will be chosen from an eight-strong all-women shortlist
Put aside the wrongness of an all-woman shortlist - we have had this madness before - do we really want to elect a 22-year-old to parliament?
A large part of the malaise affecting modern politics is that it is seen by many as a career choice and not a chance to put something back into society after having actually done something with their life. It affects both sides and while politicians continue to be drawn from the ranks of schoolteachers, failed lawyers and polytechnic lecturers, we will have more of the same.
The American Constitution specifically forbids anuone becoming president until they are 35, lived in the US for 14 years and were born in America. For senators these are the requirements:
- A US senator must be at least 30-years-old
- a citizen of the US for the past nine years
- and a resident of the state which elects him
To misquote C.L.R. James, "What do they know of politics, who only politics know?"
