Rich MPs? Bring 'em on!

 

The Yanks and Limeys like to imagine that they are joined at hip and thigh by language, culture and values.

 

Up to a point, Lord Copper.

 

There is one area where we are diametrically opposite.

 

In America, if you work hard, make a success of your career, and accumulate loadsamoney, you are admired.

 

Every sensible kid wants to be like you. If you drive around in a Rolls, they will say ‘Wow’ and want one for themselves.

 

It’s the essence of the American Dream, even if you wake up in Obama’s  quasi-socialist, over-regulated, union-pandering, high tax Shangri-la.

 

Not so in the UK.

 

Success breeds envy and jealousy. If you come from a humble background and make a fortune, it’s assumed that you are on the fiddle. In the days when we  still had a ‘working class’, they would sniff ‘Who does he think he is?’; ‘Too big for his boots!’; ‘Fancies himself’, and the ultimate condemnation ‘Class traitor’.

 

If you drove around in a Rolls, some yob would scratch the  paintwork.

 

This was brought home to me this week by a media rant (which admittedly got little traction) that one of our Ministers had sold the business which he founded before entering politics, for a sum not unadjacent to £17,000,000, as if being rich and in politics is wrong. ‘What can they know about the lives of ordinary people?’ ‘Fat cats who don’t understand us or care’ are the constant refrains.

 

I wonder who are these ‘ordinary’ people for whom the Left claims to speak on behalf.

 

I for one welcome the wealthy into politics, for very sound reasons.

 

They have independence. They don’t rely on their MPs salary. They have more experience of life than the artificial world of politics. They will be disinclined to fiddle their expenses. They will not spend time soliciting freebies. They will not be in the pockets of special interest groups like the Police Federation, they will not be Trade Union puppets.

 

Most importantly, a wealthy MP can be one of that almost-extinct species, the conviction politician. They are not members of the ‘payroll’ vote. and don’t have to grovel to the Whips.

 

The more the better!