Minimal Qualifications to be an MP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19801666

It seems that the majority of our MPs don't know the probability of getting two heads in a row when flipping a coin. At first glance this may seem a flippant thing to worry about, but it is actually very serious. It is very basic statistical maths and is essential for properly understanding any use of statistics, of which there are a lot when it comes to deciding policy. And maths is also essential when it comes to understanding budgets.

Unfortunately however it seems the only qualifications you need to be a candidate these days is the ability to look good in the media and total devotion to a party line. Then again, to achieve the latter, maybe not having the skillis to be able to independently judge the merits of party policy is a good thing.

You may argue that in a democracy representation should be open to all, but that really makes very little sense. It makes being an MP one of the few, if not the only job, where you don't need to have the requisite skills to actually do the job you are elected to do, just the skills to get the job in the first place (which is a different skill set altogether). And that is a problem because it means the person representing you will then either be attempting to do a job themselves, which they are manifestly incapable of doing, or relying on other unelected people, without the capability to critically judge the advice they are receiving from them.

I think it is necessary to enable those elected to be capable of representing us the electorate properly, and for that it requires that our representatives can show at least basic numeracy skills via at least a decent maths qualification. Otherwise we get what we deserve when MPs can't understand the data they are basing policy on and seem incapable of balancing budgets.