Creating the perfect politician

In the current climate it's not the kind of research likely to garner much public sympathy; but Prof Jo Silvester from City University wants to know how we can create better politicians.

And she's been given £100,000 to find out. According to the university:

"The ESRC-funded research will be the first to investigate what factors influence politicians’ professional development. It will look at the support that politicians need to develop specific skills for government and how this support is best provided. In particular, the research will focus on the psychological and political impact of mentoring schemes, which are increasing in popularity within the profession.

 

Prof Silvester said: “Despite the widespread acknowledgement that politician’s work equals, if not exceeds, that of business leaders, there is a incredible lack of research on what training politicians need to govern effectively.

 

“It is essential that we start to understand how to support politicians as they face unique challenges such as the country’s economic recovery and public spending restraints.”

 

Professor Silvester’s research hopes to inform academic understanding of mentoring schemes in politics and produce ‘best practice’ guidelines for their use across the sector. The Improvement and Development Agency co-sponsors the research, which is due for release in May 2010."

There is an ongoing debate about whether our politicians are too old or too young while the new parliament is likely to be one of the most inexperienced in Parliamentary procedure. Conservatives like to point out that most Labour MPs have never run their own business while Labour MPs point out that half of the opposition went to private school and so their experience is of a privileged minority.

The phrase 'professional politician' is usually accompanied by a sneer yet we moan at bad laws or poor oversight. Giving them the proper training must make them better at their job but I don't think we've quite made up our minds what we want from our MPs other than that they keep their hands out of the till.

And the ones people seem to like are those who act independently - how do you train that?

With regard to mentoring I saw, via a tweet from Ellie Stoneley, details on a scheme in Sutton where young people shadow a councillor to find out what the job involves. (I sincerely hope they don't choose someone who sits an audit committee because it will cause them to run screaming from the room).