Tag Archives: matthew engel

Mark Pack

No, Christopher Wren and Isaac Newton were not great MPs

By Mark Pack | Sat 16th May 2009 - 11:11 am

Matthew Engel in today’s Financial Times has a pop at our current MPs, saying:

The House of Commons used to be filled with men of renown. Sir Christopher Wren was an MP. So was Sir Isaac Newton – and John Stuart Mill.

It’s an easy jibe to make – ‘MPs aren’t as good as they used to be’ – but his examples seem to me to be rather badly chosen. John Stuart Mill, I’ll grant you, was a man of renown and an admirable, hard-working MP who used Parliament to promote the causes he believed in.

But Isaac Newton? He barely contributed …

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