Plastic politics, plastic politicians

Yesterday I was rather piqued by an article by the BBC journalist Brian Wheeler on NHS privatisation.  The concept of the article was good in that it tried to ask a question too often mired in thoughtless and polarised debate.  Unfortunately it was compromised by only having one view from either side of the argument and very little analysis.

What really stood out though was that both individuals interviewed are part of what is becoming recognisable as a wider political class - a group that is largely white, largely male, largely privately and Oxbridge educated, largely metropolitan and largely unconnected with mainstream England.  Certainly those parts that lie outside the M25.

Part of the disillusionment with current politics is rooted in the sense that 'all politicians are the same' because in so ways they are.  Cameron and Milliband are both forty-something white men with little experience outside of the greater Westminster political  establishment.  Which includes a growing range of think tanks in addition to the party research departments that act as the sole incubators of supposed political talent.

Brian Wheeler's two interviewees are the next generation of this in the making.  Thomas Cawston, BA in history and politics from Exeter, MA in south Asian history from Oxford followed by 'research' (I use the term loosely) at Reform.  Oliver Huitson, more unusually with an OU degree (PPE) and postgrad from Birkbeck (politics and government) followed by some work experience in telesales, communications financial services, topped off with writing for OpenDemocracy and editing a pro-nationalised NHS website funded by the Wainwright Trust. All with a thoroughly metropolitan flavour.

Now I've never been one to dismiss academic study and think tank 'research' as 'fancy book learning' that has no value beside a degree from the University of Life.  But it is noticeable that the colonisation of the political classes by people with such narrow range of backgrounds and experience is having a profound effect on political discourse and debate.

The positions taken in Wheeler's debate is a good example. The pitch on both sides tend to be technocratic, theoretical and idealised.  Unleavened with any sense of real-world messiness and compromise.

Cawston's citing of examples from Europe of more mixed healthcare economies ignores the historical and cultural context of the NHS.  His assertion that competition can drive real improvement in care is not supported by hard evidence.  The example he cites is still in progress and whether it really delivers better care will only become clear some time in the future.

This kind of stuff is fine for scoring points in university political society debates, but this is the real world and real people we're talking about now.  The evidence we have from the compulsory competitive tendering of hospital cleaning services back in the late 80s points in the other direction: quality plummeted and ultimately this lead to MRSA and ridiculous spectacle of Gordon Brown ordering the 'deep clean' of hospitals. 

Two decades on from the purchaser provider split and we are still trying to get the results we want from market-based systems, whilst he overhead costs of maintaining that market in terms of contracting, legal bills and regulation proliferate.

It doesn't help that the person trying to make this argument looks about twelve (he's actually about 27).

Huitson makes a better fist of putting together a convincing argument (although I'll confess it fits with my own view), but it still has that desiccated feel of a final year essay rather than a real life issue affecting real people.  Ultimately, both arguments leave a lingering feeling of inauthenticity.

The net affect is to reinforce the perception that politicians are all dishonest and make politics feel remote and un-engaging to the majority of people.  This is the real reason that people feel no connection with national politics and the people that supposedly represent them in parliament.  If political parties really want to forge a better connections with the population at large, they should start by recruiting from a much wider pool of talent both socially and geographically and try to reintroduce some authenticity into the body politic.