The Levers of Power

It strikes me that the further a political party moves to the right or the left, the more it falls prey to incompetence derived from over-promising and under-delivering, not to mention outright lying. 

Another thing that's driving the incompetence is the promotion of politicians who have no previous experience of running a bath, let alone a department or shadow department, to positions of power.

Time was when a new member of Parliament would spend years in junior roles learning the ropes, possibly with periods in opposition between those roles, before being allowed anywhere near the upper echelons of government.

I know it goes against democracy, where anyone can stand for Parliament, but isn't it about time prospective MPs had a system of minimum qualifications, whether those be academic or vocational, or at the very least some form of on-the-job training before being handed the levers of power? A bloody IQ test, at the very least.

It would help enormously if politicians were permanently wired to lie detectors when on TV or making statements in the House.

A bane on 21st century politics is the party within a party - a small cabal that controls policy by stealth, threats and populism. The ERG and Momentum come to mind, which are totally unrepresentative of the wider party or the Parliamentary Party.