He is, of course, able to speak from some authority, for unlike his own prior background in the civil service, the members of his own political staff lack any significant employment record outside academic circles. Yet three are either current or former councillors whilst two are Assembly candidates. What life skills they would be able to apply to their elected role will be limited and unlikely to develop.
Time was, according to the romanticised version, that the only qualification you ever needed to be an elected representative was an interest in your community and a willingness to work its behalf. It is said by those with dirt on their knees that the most inept at getting to grips with the regulations & budgets and all the unglamorous day-to-day stuff that makes up local government were those councillors who had actually gained a qualification in politics.
But in these days of executive governance where professionalism has made representative skills largely redundant, a ‘research’ job with the local AM or MP is all you really need to get you on your way. A few years making a noise in the council chamber can help but a top spot on your party list is the real ticket to achieving an esoteric existence at the Assembly and maybe on to the Palace of Westminster and you therefore need to be where the action is to be able to make the right impression.
Black expresses a hope that “a more open electoral system such as the single transferable vote that breaks the grip of the parties on Parliamentary seats will reap benefits by opening up the political process and allowing a wider choice of candidates.”
Maybe so, but the fact that he apparently sees ‘choice’ as the issue and a change in voting mechanism as an effective means of addressing a wider malaise then he remains very much part of the problem – and, dare we say it – just a bit out of touch.
6 Comments:
An interesting thesis that unfortunately falls down on the facts. Of the four members of staff who work for me (three part time), one is a former Traffic warden, union official and has worked in private industry, another has been involved in managing a significant property portfolio and a third has significant experience in marketing and of managing a large organisation with a seven figure. budget. The fourth came to me from university but has no ambition at present to secure elective office.
My post did look at choice but did not pretend there was a solution to the malaise you speak of. Indeed it is noticeable that you do not advance one. The growth of a new political class is inevitable whatever system of election is available. That is not a good thing. At least under STV voters may have a wider choice of candidate and could have a better chance of electing one with wider experience.
I would have thought that you could have done a little more research before posting such inaccurate comments about me and my colleagues. Or did I just dream the 6 months working for the NHS, 5years working for South Wales Police, 12 months working for Swansea College and 18 months working for a polythene company? Do you think that working in front line public service and in private business would not give me any "life skills"?
Yes, I am Peter Blacks caseworker now (and have been for nearly 5 years) but if I was a caseworker for the Citizens Advice Bureau, for instance, would I still lack "any significant employment record"?
Get it right before you slag me off next time, as most people in Morriston know these facts about me and it just makes you look foolish to get it wrong!
Typical Labour. All spin, no substance. Yup, all of my working life before this job was spent in higher education - but in student unions, not academic departments. This means I've worked as a welfare officer, a researcher, a departmental manager and a general manager. Varied responsibilities in very different organisations dealing with everything from representation through welfare provision to retailing. Oh yeah, and two stints on TU Branch Executives, as well as one as a chair of a credit union Board of Directors; plus around a decade as a volunteer negociator with major UK stationery companies on behalf of the SU movement as a whole. Oh, and a year as a full-time sabbatical officer at Manchester University Union. Which of these do you dismiss as worthless in terms of experience then?
How about working on the night shift in a plastics factory, in the stockroom of a High St retailer, as a barman, in a car components factory? Worthless?
Anyway, why this contempt for those who have spent their working lives in 'academic circles'? How many of your own MPs are ex-teachers, ex-lecturers, and ex-presidents of the NUS? Shouldn't you be telling them in no uncertain terms that academic work doesn't count?
Perhaps you could list for us those jobs and careers which do count? It would be handy to know just how many people Labour dismiss because of what they do, or did, for a living.
Lacks any significant employment record?
Of course I do. I’m twenty bloody four! In fact, as far as twenty-four year olds go, I have a pretty impressive employment record. Since the age of 14 I’ve only been unemployed once, which was for the first six months of Uni. I then spent the rest of Uni working so I could afford to live after Labour took most of my loan in tuition fees.
Should AMs employ new graduates? Well, if that is all they can pay for, that is all they can get.
But don’t assume that just because someone is young, they have no life experience. I have very different life experiences to you, Peter and many other people. But that doesn’t make them negative. It was only a few years ago that I was scrubbing a fast food restaurants toilets for £4 an hour. Surely that is the type of real world experience that should be replicated in our elected officials?
We need a mixture of young and old, experienced and inexperienced. People who have spent their whole lives working in politics actually gain many skills that are useful to the elected body as a whole. Few would say that Jonathan Morgan or Kirsty Williams are bad AMs, yet they both entered the Assembly while very young.
I may not have any immediate plans to be elected, but if I did, then there are many people that I would be better than. Don’t let someones age cloud your judgement because there are many older Councillors, MPs and AMs who are doing a far worse job than I, or many of our other younger members, could do.
Matt O’Grady
Researcher for Peter Black AM
Wow! Worra lorra protesting from the scouser's cabal. Seems they feel that trading in stereotypes is a Lib Dem monoploy.
What a bunch of over-sensitive and under-achieving losers! No wonder they prefer to eke out a living from Blackie’s generous expenses. BTW how come this Tregoning guy has time to be and hold down the vital role of social services cabinet member in Swansea?
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