What is this parochialism which is creeping into politics? Whenever a candidate is selected we hear a chorus of "he / she is not local / never lived in the town / how can they know local issues..."
Perhaps we should consider....
Margaret Thatcher didn't come from Finchley
Harold Wilson didn't come from Huyton
Neither Michael Foot nor Aneurin Bevan came from Ebbw Vale
Winston Churchill didn't come from Woodford
Tony Blair didn't come from Sedgefield
Jim Callaghan didn't come from Cardiff
Harold Macmillan didn't come from Stockton
Hugh Gaitskell didn't come from Leeds
Tony Benn didn't come from Bristol
William Hague didn't come from Richmond
Roy Jenkins didn't come from Birmingham or Glasgow Hillhead
Alec Douglas Home didn't come from either Lanark nor Kinross
In fact, I am not aware of any great national leaders or parliamentarians in the post war period who did actually come from the constituency the ended-up representing in parliament.
Never mind Pitt or Gladstone...
ReplyDeleteWell, Calum - Gladstone represented one of the Oxford University constituencies and Pitt one of the two Cambridge University constituencies. As they had attended Christ Church and Pembroke respectively, one could actually argue that they they did represent their home turf!
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