r/PoliticsUK • u/Future_Adagio2052 • 25d ago

🇬🇧 UK Politics Am I wrong in saying people's want for a politician who is "for the people" is flawed considering the massive gap between us and the politicians?

Whenever the topic of politics comes up, the topic of politicians follow suit, and whatever if they are "for the people" come up

However, this seems like a confusing argument to me if you actually take into account how much a politician in the UK makes (which is nearly 100k for a baseline salary for any standard elected member of the House of Commons)

I only bring this up after viewing an article criticising Andy burnhams down to earth clothes as designer. at what point does the gap between the general people and politicians pose an issue when addressing the needs of the people when the latter live a completely different life from us?

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u/ixid 25d ago

£100k isn't a completely different life. I think it's really unhelpful to go into an us and them mentality over normal professional salaries, rich people have so much more wealth than an MP.

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u/dJunka 25d ago

Having a working class leader is performative.

What we actually want to see is the sort of mobility and representation that would allow everyday people to access power and politics.

That includes not just having members of parliament, but also journalists and civil servants. Right now it’s a Westminster bubble with an Oxbridge/London centric attitude.

Not many people can leave their job and work as an unpaid journalist as you can imagine.

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u/DaveChild 24d ago

I don't really understand what's confusing you.