Sunday, August 07, 2011

One Day Son, All This Will Be Yours

Labour have chosen their candidate to take on Louise Mensch in the constituency of Corby (twinned with Mordor)- a man named Andy Sawford. The name is familiar because from 1997 to 2005 my MP in the neighbouring constituency of Kettering was Phil Sawford- Andy's father who was:
"one of the few avowed republicans in the Commons."
Because hereditary privilege is a terrible thing.

4 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Yeah! Nice one, I'll add it to the list.

Ross said...

What list?

Matthew said...

I don't think the connection between the two is sufficient. I imagine you are mildly discomforted by families being represented through time in Parliament (or perhaps only when it is Labour MPs?) but surely you would be horrified if MPs were like the Monarchy, hereditary*?

So what do you see as the difference?

*Although we did have that with the Lords, which I suppose you did support?.

Ross said...

Matthew- I don't see a difference, I don't support the monarchy, so there isn't any contradiction there.

You are right that I can't simply assume that nepotism is involved in any individual case- but these family connections do seem very common in politics (and in journalism, acting etc).

Obviously people have a bit of an advantage in going into their parents' professions because they understand it and are likely to be similar in aptitude and dispostion but the extent of these links in politics seems high.