Will we soon be hearing: “Arise, Lady Jolie?”
Yesterday, in The Telegraph, Christopher Hope and Paul Clements waxed lyrical in their ‘People’ column about the prospect of Angelina Jolie becoming a member of the House of Lords.
Referencing examples such as the dual US/UK citizen Baroness Shields and the Bosnian born Baroness Helic, the duo argued that “the prospect of Miss Jolie, the former Lara Croft star, sitting on the Lords red benches might not be as far-fetched as some of her films”.
Miss Jolie – who was made an honorary dame last month for her campaign work fighting sexual violence and for services to UK foreign policy – has not discounted the possibility. She told ITV News:
“[I would enter politics]… If I felt I could really make a difference, yes. I’ve always gone wherever I felt I was needed”.
“When I started working with the UN, I felt I loved working in the field and I felt I was useful in the field and then there was a point where I realised that I was only so useful in the field because someone had to go to Washington and plea the case”.
Miss Jolie passes requirements for such a role as, since 2010, new peers need only “be resident in UK for tax purposes and accept the requirement to remain so”. Whilst here this week to promote her forthcoming film Unbroken, Miss Jolie is reported to have looked at properties in the £20 million range and perhaps this is indication that this suggestion isn’t as unlikely as it sounds.
Given many bemoan the fact that Westminster is packed with career politicians who have little or no experience of the real world, could this be such a bad thing? Angelina Jolie is undoubtedly a force for good and someone who has the passion and drive to get things done. She would be a welcome and refreshing addition to British politics.
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