Skip to content

British politics is an hereditary stitch up

Sir Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (born 10 June 1957)[1] is a British politician who has served as Speaker of the House of Commons since 2019 and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Chorley since 1997. Before his election as speaker, he was a member of the Labour Party.
….
During Doug Hoyle’s long career as a Labour MP he experienced significant changes in the party’s fortunes and its policies. A man of the left, he shifted his views only slightly under New Labour and Tony Blair. He became something of a grandee when he was elected by MPs as chairman of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in his last spell in the Commons (1992-97); and having once called for the abolition of the House of Lords, he took a life peerage shortly after his retirement as an MP.

Yes, second is pop of the first.

Not a record by any means. Hilary Benn is, if I’ve got my numbers right, a 6th generation MP and a 3rd generation, at least, Cabinet Minister (or, obviously, has been).

12 thoughts on “British politics is an hereditary stitch up”

  1. I remember Doug Hoyle, won Warrington by beating Woy Jenkins.

    I guess to his credit he came up through the Unions, which in those days was what Labour was all about and was a Friend of Israel.

    Didn’t actually realise that he went to HoL, but as we all know, once the snout is in the trough, it is very difficult to remove it.

  2. Bloke in Pictland

    “a 6th generation MP and a 3rd generation, at least, Cabinet Minister”: which of those two qualified him for favourable treatment on defences against coastal erosion?

  3. Neil Kinnock famously said that he was the first of his family to go to university, but he made sure that he wasn’t the last of his line to make a living out of politics.

  4. Hilary Benn was a 3rd generation cabinet minister but he was a 4th generation MP. His father Tony, grandfather and great grandfather were MP’s.

    There is a passage in Tony Benn’s diaries where he talks about sitting and talking with Hilary in one of the House of Commons bars restricted to MP’s and says: “I used to sit there with my dad, who used to sit there with his dad”.

  5. So, Doug Hoyle campaigned for the abolition of the HoL, but then accepted a peerage. A true Labour man then, two faced, and hypocritical. At least, the Tories are quite open about their hypocrisy.
    Benn was a Soviet stooge, whether knew it or not. Apparently, he was known in Moscow as one of the useful idiots of British politics, like Wilson.

  6. Penseivat

    LOL I was trying not to speak too ill of the recently snuffed it, but your are 100% right.

    A W-Benn was so vain and self regarding, he would never have seen it. I remember him saying that the Soviets would not have contemplated war with the West after WW2, because “they had just lost 20 million.” As if a little thing like that would have bothered Stalin

    Hilary Benn is another Labour thicko. But this time he was a useful idiot for the hegemons in Brussels.

  7. It’s always Labour, isn’t it? I’m trying to think of Tory father/son MPs and can’t get any further than the Churchills (except in their case it was father/son//grandson, and Winston Snr never seemed too sure which party he should be in). Certainly nobody has ever suggested Mark or Carol Thatcher be gifted a safe seat, even though (talentless as they may be) they’re at least as capable as the Blair/Kinnock/ Straw sprogs that infest the place.

  8. Randolph, Winston, Randolph didn’t did he….ah, yes, he did? Soames and Winston are grandkids…..Yes? So, 4 generations from Randolph?

  9. Blast got that a bit mixed up

    Harold Mac’s son was Maurice who was a minister under Heath. Alexander is Maurice’s son and Supermac’s grandson.

  10. Penseivat,

    “So, Doug Hoyle campaigned for the abolition of the HoL, but then accepted a peerage. A true Labour man then, two faced, and hypocritical.”

    I don’t see what’s wrong with being opposed to a system, but because others won’t change it, working with it. I’m opposed to arts spending, but I still go and see La Boheme on the cheap. Because that’s what the system is, and I’m going to take from the system.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *