Waving goodbye to the 'career politician'

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, however, in the modern world, they're incredibly rare.

In January, Labour lost two relatively young MPs who chose to ditch their daily responsibilities of representing their constituents and test their waters in other industries. 43-year-old Jamie Reed decided being a politician wasn't for him and he moved to the nuclear industry and is settling into his new role as Head of Development and Community Relations for Sellafield Ltd. He was an MP for Copeland for 12 years. Meanwhile, Tristram Hunt, a former historian, waved goodbye to his role as MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central - a role he obtained for almost seven years - and hello to being Director at Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Away from Labour, we hear from the north of the English border that Scottish National Party (SNP)'s MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire, Mhairi Black hasn't ruled out not running for re-election in 2020 - she's not been a politician for two years yet.

George Osborne (Image: Daily Mail)

The Conservatives have stories of their own too. David Cameron, who was UK's Prime Minister until last year, is no longer a politician. George Osborne, who was Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer until last year was appointed editor of the newspaper, London Evening Standard. The latter insists he can remain being an active MP for Tatton in Cheshire and also be the champion of the government's Northern Powerhouse dream, despite this recent capital appointment.

I could talk all day about Osborne's catastrophic conflict of interest, but I won't. You can read my concerns on my Facebook page. But since the EU referendum vote nearly one year ago, little by little, we're starting to see once-popular and respected politicians sliding away from such limelight and trying out new things. This may be because they prefer not to face daily scrutiny from social media users that their predecessors didn't need to endure. We cannot hide this isn't a factor for the decisions made by Cameron and others.

However, for me, the reasons go beyond social media - the press play an equally powerful role in politicians' decision-making. Acting as the voice for their public, broadsheets and tabloids alike have been analysing in depth recent global election outcomes. The connotations for these were largely negative where a particular result is seen as a defeat to a rhetoric. During the EU referendum, the message was largely circled around 'the defeating of the establishment', likewise with Donald Trump's US Presidential victory nearly five months ago. When it came to the elections in Austria last year and in the Netherlands last week, where dubbed 'far-right' groups didn't progress as far as anticipated, it was a victory 'against hate'. Remember, these results can have a detrimental effect on the individuals involved.

Philip Hammond (Image: The Sun)

The papers also have a powerful effect on government policy. When current Chancellor Philip Hammond announced an increase in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for the self-employed, he performed a u-turn a week later. Some argued Hammond did it because he risked going against the Conservative manifesto they published in 2015. But for me, they recognised the fierce press backlash and chose reputation over economic impact. It is their job to be people pleasers, but not only there's a limit to doing this, ultimately, a journalists' affection is a number one priority. They can smell a crisis from a mile off.

In a world where protecting our own reputation is paramount, our increased self-awareness gives us plenty of time to mull over life-changing options - more time than we think. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. With this in mind, however, politicians now realise there's a life outside Westminster. We can no longer accuse them of being 'career politicians' where an election can easily spell the end of that person's chapter, or force a policy to be rescinded in an instant, regardless of how it's received. The quicker we realise MPs are also human, the easier their job is and the less angry we become of their judgement.