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Obviously it's not the only thing, there's the lack of school contacts, lack of inherited wealth, no real route to the job in a bottom up sense, having to spend most of your effort eeking out a living, not owning an ill fitting suit and possessing morals, it's certainly a factor that encourages the fact it's a job for the"elite" though, one that I image would be easy to talk people round on, but also one I feel is unnecessary as I think MPs are already overpaid.
snottyotter-
Maybe that’s it - i don’t think they’re overpaid. I don’t know any other jobs where death threats and violent abuse are commonplace, or where the demands are so varied. Doesn’t mean I think they’re all doing a good job (far from it), but benchmarked against most other jobs I can think of? Not a good deal.
Yes, there are other jobs which may be harder in some ways and pay worse. But I’m not sure dragging MPs down to a lower pay level just because you can find those examples is particularly progressive.
As for the other stuff - what has inherited wealth got to do with being an MP, unless you think that they need prior money to do the job (which kind of goes against everything else you’ve said)? And I don’t really feel that a general ‘slag off MPs as if they’re all the same’ really helps anything much. You’re stereotyping all MPs as if they’re all Tory of a certain ilk.
andyfallsoff
I agree with that, but I really doubt that the thing putting more low paid people off being an MP is the fact the pay is high, rather than all the other really obvious stresses, threats to personal safety, requirement for party political allegiance, etc.