I mean actually gone front line

Johnny mercer served three tours in Afghanistan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mercer_(politician)

there’s a list
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_veterans_in_British_politics

Current politician – Rory Stewart I believe.

Plenty of ones from the past century, obviously.

Farage probably claims he did.

and from the other side of the House, Clive Lewis did a tour as TA too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Lewis_(politician)

Does Dan Jarvis count

Lots of blue on that list.

This chap was front line apparently:

JFK

Paddy Ashdown? ex Marine and SBS

Do you mean the other way around? i.e. they were a politician and in a war that had the consent of parliament ended up fighting themselves? Maybe a pre WW1 politician ended up on the front line. Doubtful though. As above though – soldier then politician is/has been relatively common.

though I guess most of them have family they’ll be visiting

Politics aside, Rory Stewart is a remarkable person with a fascinating career. That career does not however include military service, he was a foreign office diplomat.

Winston Churchill resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty after Gallipoli and went into the Trenches on the Western front, he was still a MP as well.

Someone’s already beaten me to Paddy Ashdown.

Both Lord Carrington and Willie Whitelaw were awarded Military Crosses during WW2 – as indeed was the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, Robert Runcie.

That career does not however include military service, he was a foreign office diplomat.

It does actually, but only a very short six month commission which the Army has historically used to “network” with potential future opinion formers.

Winston Churchill resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty after Gallipoli and went into the Trenches on the Western front, he was still a MP as well.

That sentence doesn’t quite tell the whole story. 🙂

Bobby Sands and Martin McGuinness

Tony Benn served in WW2. Dunno how much action he saw. Michael Foot was a member of the auxiliary units apparently – their intention was to wage a campaign of sabotage and assassination if the Germans invaded in WW2

Edward Heath was in the Royal Artillery in WW2, landed on DDay

Tommy Robinson?

I think they all should have at least one tour of duty on the front line before they even attempt to become an mp.

Tommy Robinson?

I don’t think fighting for Luton Town is really the same. But who knows, he’s gone by at least 4 different names during his ‘career’.

That sentence doesn’t quite tell the whole story. 🙂

Maybe not. However, it is factually correct.

George H W Bush. WW2.

I did the best fighting. With the greatest fire & fury. Against the bad guys. In some big league huge wars. Believe me.

Serving in the military does not necessarily mean that you are qualified to lead a nation and, in some cases, might actually be a reason not to lead a nation.

A government needs people from all parts of the country to lead it. Maybe there is an argument for insisting on public service of some sort, or genuine technical skills to prevent the career PPE/politician doing things, but not an insistence on the military.

You could always make it a lottery… You register to vote in your ward, get chosen at random and become an MP for your ward for five years. After that term, the process repeats and you may get chosen again, but that’s not likely.

Why so many conservative MPs?

David Davis, ex- 21.
Gerry Adams.

Andre Thome was a member of the French Chamber of Deputies and exempt from military service. He still volunteered and was killed at the Battle of Verdun.

John McCain had a distinguished US military career (obviously not a real hero though seeing as he carelessly got shot down, captured and tortured).

Rory Stewart wrote a book about his time in Afghanistan. Well worth a read, fascinating and quite an epic challenge he set himself. He managed to do something both dangerous, informative and adventurous that few others could have achieved. It undoubtedly gave him just the sort of outlook anyone in Politics would benefit from.

Why so many conservative MPs?

Assuming you mean, “why are such a high proportion Conservative rather than Labour or that other lot”, the answer is probably because it is a predominantly male, authoritarian and hierarchical organisation whose ethos is to look after your own and do down the fuzzy wuzzies. The Conservative party, I mean.

Che Guevara

Fidel Castro

Robert Mugabe

Adolf something

Colonel gadaffi

It was very noticeable the gulf war 2 when Blair said that they would be welcomed in tripoli as heros for freeing the people that the main dissenting voices in parliament came from those who had served and actually fought.

As for tories – while a lot have served in some form its mainly TA and ceremonial troops – not actual fighting service where you have to kill someone. Plenty of exceptions to that but plenty who fit the description

Robespierre

Trotsky

In WW1 one third of MPs served in the forces. And that’s not 1/3 of those eligible to serve, that’s one third of all MPs, full stop. Incredible when you think about the average age of MPs.

More here:

Alan Clark was way off the mark.

Bonaparte

Half of the pre war Labour Party claimed to have fought with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.
I say claimed….