Prince of Bureaucrats calls for guided democracy...

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I'm told that Gus O'Donnell is a terribly clever man. I'm sure this is the case but he clearly has lost all grip on the concept of democracy:

Would-be MPs should be forced to meet "pre-qualification criteria" before being allowed to stand, a former cabinet secretary has suggested.

Lord O'Donnell - once the UK's most senior civil servant - said the idea could make Parliament more effective.

Government policies would also be vetted by former ministers, accountants and ex-civil servants under Lord O'Donnell's proposals.

I wanted to take this apart bit by bit. But is so completely and utterly stupid - unless, of course, the Prince of Bureaucrats has converted to Sukarno's concept of 'guided democracy':

He proposed a government based on the four main parties plus a national council representing not merely political parties but functional groups—urban workers, rural farmers, intelligentsia, national entrepreneurs, religious organizations, armed services, youth organizations, women’s organizations, etc.—through which, under presidential guidance, a national consensus could express itself.

Of course, there was a much earlier form of this idea invented by an Italian called Benito!

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