No.

Squander Two discusses why Boris isn't up to the job, and then makes an error that I see far too many people making about politicians in general.

[Boris is] supposed to be running one of the world's largest cities...

No. He. Isn't.

London would run perfectly well without Boris. It would run perfectly well without Ken too. In fact, before the London Mayoral position was resurrected less than a decade ago, London carried on quite nicely, thank you. Oh, and Londoners paid roughly £300 less in Council Tax too.

Let me spell this out: politicians do not run anything productive. No one should ever tell them that they should be running anything, because then the evil bastards might think that they have some kind of ability.

Politicians should not ever try to run anything. Ever.

We don't do planned economies because it always leads to disaster. And when you talk about politicians running something, you talk about politicians running human interactions. And we call that "totalitarianism".

Politicians make laws that might—but usually don't—help to grease the wheels of human trade and interaction, but they do not, should not, and should never be allowed to run anything at all.

Oh, and it's not just "politicians": it's anyone. No one should try to run—or may I use the word "control"?—human interaction. Humans do things most efficiently and most responsively when they are allowed to respond spontaneously. The world is fast-changing and fluid.

It is a failure to understand this that makes politicians and governments and bureaucracies so uniquely unsuited to run things.

Think: you have a certain problem. People demand that politicians "do something". The politicians do some research, table a Bill, have it read, get it through, get it passed back for revisions, debate it again, etc. etc.

Finally, it is made into law. But by now, two or three years have passed and the problem that they were trying to solve has either gone away, or the nature of it has changed. So, the Bill to fix a problem that no longer exists goes through and has massive unintended consequences, and causes problems of its own. And now the politicians have a new problem to fix and the whole sorry procedure goes round again.

The politicians, of course, love this because it keeps them in a job. The more laws that they pass, the more problems are caused; and so there are even more problems needing to be "fixed" and even more justification there is for politicians.

But then, it's never the politicians who pay the price, is it?

They have voted themselves fat salaries, generous—and slackly controlled—expenses and gold-plated pensions so even if they are only in Parliament for one term, then they don't really have to worry about slumming it with the proles again (even if they were originally working class).

If they bollocks up the economy, or the budget, the politicians don't really have to answer to anyone. And if taxes go up... well... they just vote themselves an inflation-busting pay rise and yet more generous expenses (with a tax exemption from the Inland Revenue).

The point of this rant is that things would run just fine—and probably rather better, actually—if politicians were just to sit down and shut the fuck up.

And in the name of all that's unholy, don't give them the impression that they should run anything because it is we who will pay the price.