There's something deep within us which will forgive you anything, provided you look like you'd buy a round in the pub, could share a joke with a taxi driver, and know one end of a woman from the other.
You could call it charm. Or confidence.
Or, brace yourself, sexiness. You may recoil in horror from the idea, but truth is, these men do have sex appeal. Maybe not to you, but they've done well for themselves.
You may hate them, but it's hard to deny they have a certain alpha-maleness; and it's silly to deny that people respond to that.
Now, here's a problem.
Those who choose the leaders, the political class, the media, are the most immune to the charms of the alpha male (or female) so their success always comes as a surprise. The (culturally) middle class tend to be resentful of charisma, mainly because in its youth it was an unpopular, though self-regarding, spod.
The working and upper classes hate the cultural middle class. Sad, but true.
It's not jealousy; it's because the (cultural) middle class are the least sexy and least charming of all classes. Indeed, they deny the existence of sexiness or charm. They look for their leaders to display things like ideological purity, moral seriousness, all the while wearing terrible ill-fitting suits. Outside of the group this is very confusing.
To the cultural middle class Ed Miliband as Labour leader makes sense. To everyone else it is baffling, verging on insulting. THIS GUY? You are JOKING!
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| Really? |
Who in the Labour party can you imagine seducing anyone? I mean, other than a drunk researcher on the last evening of a conference. Blair's problem was not his transgressions - it was his protestations of wide-eyed innocence. If he'd managed a wink, a shrug, a leak of that Wendi Deng thing, he'd still be in power.
We can't let the fringe parties (UKIP, Respect, Conservatives) have the monopoly on charisma. We need sexy bastards in the mainstream. Are there any out there? Suggestions in the comments.
Ed Balls surely sexier than either Miliband, but he doesn't have the charm, the ease, the élan to have crossover appeal.
ReplyDeleteI really like this.
ReplyDeleteI voted for Ed Balls for Labour leader back when I was a Labour party member, kind of on this basis - I didn't really see him as prime ministerial, but his job was to give Cameron and Clegg shit for five years, really get in their faces, and I thought his manner and general bearing, not quite sexy, but alpha-ish, would be well suited to this.
(Aside: Wendi Deng. That is a TV movie I can't wait to see.)
Sexy politicians on the left or centre-left... Paddy Ashdown? Bill Clinton? Not Obama I don't think, good-looking guy but basically a geek. Did Alan Johnson sort of have it, or was that more of a good old boy charm, not a swagger? Does Vince Cable have a little shred of this?
I feel that this quality is the natural domain of the old-school, One Nation Tory (the ur-figure being Alan Clark), but that the mainstream left should be doing better than it is. I feel there is something inherently spoddy, or if not spoddy than robotic and bloodless, about the neoliberal centre-right, including jokers like Clegg, which opens up ground for a charismatic left-leaning leader. Leftism is arguably grounded in emotion, the emotional tie of solidarity or compassion - is there a way to exploit that? Without it being "student politics earnestness" or wimpy bleeding heart liberal stuff.
Also you dropped in "(or female)" into your analysis, but I reckon it might work a lot differently for women. Not sure exactly how though. I did notice the Tories suddenly put up a lot of "yummy mummys" at the last election - well-heeled, attractive women who looked quite comfortable in themselves, they didn't seem to be playing the role of the politician. They perhaps retained some sense of "feminine mystery"? Stella Creasy is a bit like this for Labour, you get the sense that she's quite good fun, there's a twinkle in her eye, as though she can take or leave politics. Compared to Harman, Cooper etc.
I think Ed Balls has a different sexiness. The guilty sexiness, like Portillo or, according to my wife, Mandelson… Agree that he'd make a great opposition leader, staring down Cameron and Osborne, but he doesn't have that thing which crosses over.
ReplyDelete"(Aside: Wendi Deng. That is a TV movie I can't wait to see.)"
Or porn parody.
Sexy left/centre-left. Leaving the revolutionary leaders aside, Charles Kennedy? Definitely Ashdown and Clinton. Alan Johnson was likeable, a good member of the team, but without that thing which makes a leader.
Yes, agree that One Nation Tories are good at this. The key is to seem comfortable in your skin (something the middle class are very bad at) and that you would be at home and successful in other fields. A key figure in this history is Churchill. And further back, Disraeli.
An appeal to the emotions is critical. Of course it's possible to have a charismatic leftist politician appealing to the heart, with income redistribution, devolution etc. Come on, lads, let's find one!
It may be that there is a trade-off between an emotion-based, divisive, charismatic politics with lots of failures but high voter turnout and a technocratic effectiveness that no one cares about.
Yeah, I dropped in (or female) as a reflexive move to avoid accusations of sexism. I think the public response is probably different. However, it wouldn't do female politicians any harm to wear clothes which fit them. Sounds harsh, but if you don't you alienate vast parts of the electorate - "why should I trust this joker to take care of me if s/he can't even get dressed properly?"
P.S. For all the leftist what-might-have-been dreams about John Smith, he certainly didn't have it and wouldn't have been embraced come election time.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the Tories missed a massive trick in not going for Ken Clarke.
DeleteYep, as ever, really like your thinking.
ReplyDeleteWhile the context is different for different parties, I think there is something in here about a particular quality of "leadership". I really hate how that concept gets applied and talked about, but there is something for me about:
- indication of investment in time and attention in activities beyond national political positioning. Even just a genuine interest in your constituency as an end in itself.
- using that experience to punch, not necessarily above your weight, but punch - maybe -out of context.
What I mean by the latter point is the Stella Creasy phenomenon of taking on battles / power you could avoid taking on in a way that feels purposeful not simply mindless opposition. Decisions to spend personal and political capital on fights you've chosen.
The man dem: Bob Marshall-Andrews had this for Labour. Portillo has / had this for the Tories. I kind of think Diane Abbot has this for Labour. David Laws has this for the Lib Dems. David Davis had this for the Tories in spades. As does the detatchment of Rory Stewart. (i.e. "you think the Big Society is difficult? I've governed Iraq and walked across Afganistan FFS").
Tom Watson has this for labour. His written-for-publication resignation letter to Milliband is slightly self-aggrandising, but his final paragraph is bang on the money. http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2013/07/independence-day-resignation-letter-3
Gyal Dem: Note the surprised and new found respect of journalists for Theresa May after her speech to Police Federation this week. For Labour the one's with TV experience like Gloria Del Piero and the likely election candidate Fiona Phillips. Liz Kendall.