[Closed] So, who should be PM?

Martin Lewis

Someone who doesn't want to be

An actual muppet would do a better job so I’m going for

Brian Cox. He seems nice.

Someone who doesn’t want to be

I think that's President of the Galaxy.

Sticking with the Douglas Adam references anyone who is capable of being elected should on no account be allowed to do the job.

Jack Monroe. For a complete 180 from the entitled Eton toss pot

Brian Moore

Chris Boardman.

I think that’s President of the Galaxy.

I think that's the problem, those that go for pm want to be president of the galaxy, pm is just a stepping stone.

Evan Davies.

Brian Cox. He seems nice.

Yep, I'd go with Brian, gets my vote.

Martin Lewis. Rashford and Attenborough for senior cabinet roles. Or maybe rashford the top job and Lewis chancellor

Professor Brian Cox or murdery actor Brian Cox?

Me.

If it has to be right wing (and I don’t think our electorate want anything else right now for reasons that make me feel sad) then Rory Stuart with Ken Clarke or Hesseltine as DPM.

Hugh Grant, he did a pretty good job in Love Actually.

I have some spare time Wednesday evenings if that helps?

Dave

Me

Good question OP.

Prof Cox is a good suggestion, gets my vote 👍

Can we have Obama or Merkel?

Me

No. Not you, or the other Mr Predictable.
Thanks for applying though.

Hugh Grant, he did a pretty good job in Love Actually.

Good call.

Jacinda

Bez from happy Mondays.

Stephen Fry surely?

Or, Mackenzie Crook.

Jack Monroe

Compassion & lack of ego. Literally done more to try and help people than any Tory MP, Tory party member, or Tory voter.

Nye Bevan, but he's a bit dead so take your pick from two magic grandads, either Bernie Sanders or Corbyn.

Edit: FFS Matt, read the OP before posting! Brian Bilston that does the poems on Twitter. Jonathan Pie as PR/Press.

Mike Parry. Might be a bit (a lot) outspoken but at least he's not afraid to speak his mind.

Mary Beard

DrMrsPJM1974 obvs.

Special mention to Debra Meaden, Patrick Stewart, Alexi Sayle, Floella Benjamin (yes, I know she's a politician, but...), my cat Fergus. Fergus would be ace, trust me.

I’ve said this before but here it is again

It’s like jury duty

Pick folk at random from the general poplualton. Build a cabinet from randoms, allocate people to the jobs based on the throw of a dice and let them get on with it

Let the public vote for general principles and make the jury duty government deliver it - anything they do should be able to point at the policy the public want

They get paid double whatever they got paid before, pervious employer has to take them back after 5 years and anyone with even the slightest hint of lining their own pockets or telling porky pies goes up against the wall

Nobody has to consider getting voted in again so all they have to do is deliver the general principles the public want

No more lobby groups, no party politics, no old Etonians (unles they get selected at random of course)

It’s a foolproof plan I’m sure you’ll agree - who’s in?

I'd go brian cox tae, first I thought of.

Ian Hislop & Paul Merton sharing the job.

There's merit in a lottery. I'd rather have a government that had to be forcibly dragged in to office than one that necessitated being dragged out.

Micheál Martin. Back in Europe, no DUP shenanigans, part of our growing empire. Irish passports for all.

They should get the names of all the country's school headmasters in a hat, and draw names until they find one willing to do the job.

Sounds flippant but actually genuinely think it would work better than the current system.

Fueled
They should get the names of all the country’s school headmasters in a hat, and draw names until they find one willing to do the job.

Sounds flippant but actually genuinely think it would work better than the current system.

As a teacher, that could either a REALLY good idea, or a REALLY, REALLY bad one...

Louise........

Or Hambini....

Serious answer someone who has life experience and not a privileged upbringing or Eton education.

They should get the names of all the country’s school headmasters in a hat, and draw names until they find one willing to do the job.

That's fine until you factor in someone like Katharine Birbalsingh.

2nd thought, Billy Connolly. He's the man. 😆

Larry the Cat

Let the public vote for general principles and make the jury duty government deliver it – anything they do should be able to point at the policy the public want

It’s a foolproof plan I’m sure you’ll agree – who’s in?

One word, Brexit.
The public vote is dangerous in a country full of idiots. They are simply not capable of thinking anything through properly and will knee-jerk as with Brexit. How many Brexiters would honestly say to themselves it is now better and leaving was a good idea, I would guess nowhere near all of them.
That is why, in theory, you have representatives who know better, can discuss things amongst themselves etc,.
For me the part that goes wrong is having parties so I would agree with part of your idea where the MP is picked at random and does a year as MP on full pay etc,. just like jury service.

They should get the names of all the country’s school headmasters in a hat, and draw names until they find one willing to do the job.

A previous principle of ours ran us into horrific debt whilst lining her pockets and getting drunk quite regularly at work.

Not sure that would be a big change from where we are now.

Fiona Hill, reading her book atmo, she succinctly clarifies what is, and has been going on to lead us to where we are.
If you don’t know who she is, google her!

We're onto something here.

If he wasn't a bit old, Sir Alex Ferguson as PM. He'd co-ordinate the **** and out it and anyone out of line will soon be wearing a teacup and sucking on a well thrown boot.

Martin Lewis Chancellor

Prof Brian Cox for Science and Tech. I'd add Dara O'Briain as an advisor but as he's Irish he can't have the top job.

Job share Deborah Meaden and David Attenborough for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy; business acumen but with total awareness to environmental impact and needs.

Marcus Rashford for Culture, Media and Sport

Jack Monroe for Social and Welfare

Still thinking for Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary / Justice. Steven Fry needs to be in there somewhere.

On the grounds that I wouldn't trust any politician to run our tea fund effectively; the bloke who runs our tea fund (he manages to buy choc HobNobs every now and then too)

Foreign sec; Michael palin

Gail Bradbrook should oversee the planet.

Arsene Wenger, Johnny Marr, Rory Stewart if it had to be a politician.

Dave Brailsford seems pretty good at managing things, he'd marginal gain us to a world beating position.

James May.
He seems quite a sensible chap, he knows how to fix things.

Rowan Atkinson as Speaker of the House of Commons. He'd be good, wouldn't put up with any shit. Plus Parliament has been missing some comedy recently, it's basically just a tragedy at the moment.

Rachel Riley would make a good Education Secretary to rekindle interest in maths and sciences in particular.

Definitely needs Stephen Fry in there somewhere - Home Sec maybe? Chris Boardman or Dame Sarah Storey for Transport Secretary.

Voldemort would do a better job than Boris. At least he wouldn’t pretend to be something he’s not.

Martyn Ashton and Blake as DPM

Stephen Fry or Eddie Izzard.

On a serious note we should immediately adopt proportional representation.
Then the pm should be the last person standing after a massive "square go" in the house of commons every three months.

Helen Mirren as Defence Secretary. If you've seen the film Red 2 when she's in combat gear with a sniper rifle, she's far better than Liz Truss's efforts in that department.

Steve Coogan

But he’d be contractually obliged to do all public duties - press conferences/summits with foreign dignitaries in full Alan Partridge character

As for actual politicians, I'd go with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Jacinda Ardern.

Other than that I'd go with Beaker as he'd make more sense than this bunch of **** ups.

One word, Brexit.
The public vote is dangerous in a country full of idiots. They are simply not capable of thinking anything through properly and will knee-jerk as with Brexit. How many Brexiters would honestly say to themselves it is now better and leaving was a good idea, I would guess nowhere near all of them.
That is why, in theory, you have representatives who know better, can discuss things amongst themselves etc.

This wasn't the fault of those that voted for Brexit, this was the fault of those that campaigned (or didn't in most cases) for Remain. The Brexit campaign delivered a clear, concise, message - a highly misleading message and one which Remain failed to counter.

Additionally - how many Remainers actually did ANYTHING to help the campaign? How many actually got out there and tried to get the message across?

Elections/referendums are decided by those who show up - not enough Remainers did.

Back on topic - of the current crop of Tories - Ben Wallace or Kwasi Kwarteng.

Of the current crop of politicians...Sir Kier Starmer (as I genuinely believe he wants to make a difference), Lisa Nandy or Sir Ed Davey. I'd really like to see the Lib Dems in power.

Of politicians from across the pond - Beto O'rourke, Mitt Romney, or, yes, Barak Obama.

I love this forum sometimes. Prof Brian Cox and Martin Lewis running the shop would be awesome 😎

I think the issue with leave vs. remain was that most folk didn’t think anyone would fall for the epic bullshit trotted out by the leave proponents. There’s a harsh lesson to be learned there that’s for sure.

For PM it should be me because I’d be PM PM. Only for a day though then replace me with Brian Blessed or the other Brian Cox.

Prof Brian Cox also has a ready made campaign tune. Albeit one that the labour party has already used 25 years ago.

If you were only PM in the afternoon rather than a whole day, then you'd be PM PM PM.

Still thinking for Foreign Secretary

Sacha Baron Cohen.

If you were only PM in the afternoon rather than a whole day, then you’d be PM PM PM.

I like the cut of your jib good sir. With ideas like that you can be a member of PM PM’s PM cabinet

Grayson Perry.

One word, Brexit.
The public vote is dangerous in a country full of idiots. They are simply not capable of thinking anything through properly and will knee-jerk as with Brexit.

Yawn. Have you any idea just how elitist and snobbish that sounds?

Almost every experiment in participatory non-representative democracy resulted in a massive improvement in decision making and a reduction in reactionary policy and outcomes. All it needs is power to be taken away from self-interested representatives and given back to the people who are perfectly capable of making their own decisions. The key thing is that it is participatory. That means doing more than having uninformed referenda. Instead of asking people to cast a vote on something they know nothing about, educate them, involve them in the subject, then listen to their views and come to some form of consensus. With current technology that should be easily achievable.

One word, Brexit.
The public vote is dangerous in a country full of idiots. They are simply not capable of thinking anything through properly

Specifically with Brexit, much as I would like to I cannot lay the blame squarely on mass stupidity. Or at least, not for the referendum. Rather the problem (on both sides) back then was ignorance, it was all conducted far too fast. The day before the vote people were googling "what is the EU?" Most voted on a single issue they'd latched on to, some voted on little more than a coin toss. Despite latter protestations to the contrary, next to no-one really understood what they were voting for. I didn't.

Those that subsequently clung on like Gollum to the ever more blatant lies, especially those that still do so today, that I'm happy to attribute to gross idiocy. But that's not how it started out.

Serious answer, Clive Lewis.

All it needs is power to be taken away from self-interested representatives and given back to the people who are perfectly capable of making their own decisions.

I was about to go into this in a second post but you beat me to it.

The problem is that many people will vote in favour of what they want rather than what's actually best. This is compounded by, as you rightly say, not understanding what's for the best. If we replaced those at the top with the great unwashed, we'd simply be exchanging self-serving malice for ignorance. What's needed for that to work is education (and of course, a desire to be educated).

I'm not going to say any more on this, it's derailing an otherwise frivolous but interesting thread.

John Cooper Clarke, but only because I'd love to see him lined up for a photo op with the other G7 leaders.

Almost every experiment in participatory non-representative democracy resulted in a massive improvement in decision making and a reduction in reactionary policy and outcomes.

It can do, but one the reasons we don't have a joined up health service that has outcomes as it's heart is that fact that as soon as a local hospital is threatened with closure, or a change in it's provision; folks get together to protest about it, and it almost always works. Which is why every local hospital does nearly every sort of function not quite as well as it should, and we don't have say 4/5 hospitals that just do heart surgery or pediatrics. Localism is fine for the sort of "pavement politics" like making sure the lights come on or the park is nice, but for some things you need to have a central function that can look at the whole rather than just down the end of the road.

Anyway.

Larry the Cat. he seems to know the score.

Saint Nigel obviously.

Beat me to it.Was just typing a vote John Cooper Clarke

Beat me to it.Was just typing a vote John Cooper Clarke

Just imagine what PMQ's would be like.

Localism is fine for the sort of “pavement politics”

Wasn't really suggesting localism for everything. Obviously some things need to be done at bigger scale. My point was basically that the more power and involvement people have over things that affect them, the better decisions and outcomes will be. At the moment we do the exact opposite across the entire political and economic system. Most of our leaders and decision makers today are not there because they are good at whatever they do, but because they know how to play the system to get there.

Well if the contender is to be someone who isn't straightjacketed by ideological commitment and has an affable and amusing personality which appeals to the wider public then the obvious name that springs to mind is Boris Johnson.

Such is the paradox of US Tea Party style antipolitics. Discrediting all politics and politicians is a well-established strategy of the immensely wealthy right-wing elite.