Exams for MPs
From Mr Harry Woolf Sir: Your leading article of 2 March says that all spin doctors and special advisers to government should sit civil service exams.
Many years ago I suggested to the late Sir Keith Joseph the merits of exams for prospective MPs — nothing serious; perhaps confirmation only of them having read half-a-dozen books such as Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Marx's Dos Kapital, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Malthus, etc. His reaction throughout ensuing discussions was that it would be improper in any way to curtail the right of citizens to vote for anyone, even a lunatic.
I still think the idea is a worthy one. MPs should have some basic knowledge of the different views and the history of the many social and political systems that we have been blessed with.
Harry Woolf
Prague, Czech Republic
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