The JSPrice Perception

Gerald Kaufman with Dennis Skinner (Image: BBC News) It is natural that many of us go through several career changes. This may be due to the fact that the sector we worked at wasn't right for us, or we simply want to tick off certain industries we succeed in off our list. As the saying goes, 'Life is too short so make the most of it.' In the past, this phrase never really applied to politicians. 'Career politicians', as many were known then, notoriously dedicated decades of their employment journey to serving the public. Our modern examples of such include the likes of Ken Clarke, Conservative MP for Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire who has been a politician for 47 years, and Labour's Dennis Skinner, MP for Bolsover in Derbyshire since 1970. Recently, the Westminster bubble lost Labour's Gerald Kaufman (MP for Manchester Gorton, formerly Alnwick for nearly 47 years), another so-called 'career politician'. It's easy to brand them as such, ...

Nicola Sturgeon in Downing Street (Image: The Sun) I was close to dedicating this article to my support for the House of Lords. I will explain why I back a little later, however, I realise I haven't really covered the Scottish National Party (SNP) in a while. Significantly, both Scotland's largest Party and the Peers should be seen as allies as Britain edges closer towards the formal proceedings of leaving the European Union. Over the past couple of years, throughout the EU membership negotiations, referendum campaign and its result aftermath, most of the Conservatives have been on message - minus a few internal critics like Ken Clarke. Meanwhile, the internal communications in Labour is disastrously damaging and aren't seen as a serious opposition, and the Liberal Democrat Party is too small to make a genuine difference in today's political scene. Only the SNP has shown absolute unity. None of their members have publicly rebelled on key issues like Europe...