A casual thought for the day.
Lord Sugar has described
Jeremy Corbyn as a clown and although it is easy enough to see why, the insult
could be more interesting than insults usually are. Interesting enough for a Sunday morning that is.
As a political leader Corbyn has nothing to offer. He is a poor public speaker and hopelessly inexperienced with the additional burden of extreme political views. In that sense he is a clown, but clowns are not easy to hate and the modern political trend leans strongly towards hatred, particularly from Corbyn's end of the spectrum.
As a political leader Corbyn has nothing to offer. He is a poor public speaker and hopelessly inexperienced with the additional burden of extreme political views. In that sense he is a clown, but clowns are not easy to hate and the modern political trend leans strongly towards hatred, particularly from Corbyn's end of the spectrum.
By way of contrast, Boris Johnson seems to have made a
consistent and long-term effort to adopt the public persona of a clown. An
intelligent clown rather than Corbyn’s dimmer version, but Johnson is
unmistakably a clown and it seems to be deliberate. Does he foster this
image because clowns are difficult to hate and because he thinks political life is mostly about
hatred?
7 comments:
Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I'd always thought of Boris (note how the first name comes so easily, unlike Cameron or May) was a natural or unthinking buffoon who also happened to have a lot of political acumen. But it's quite possible that the whole thing is consciously planned.
An interesting corollary is that calling him a clown is water off a duck's back, and it's now very hard to demonise him at all. He has even referred to "piccaninnies" and otherwise been openly racist, but the left find it hard to make it stick. Corbyn, however, has already been thoroughly demonised. I suspect that convincingly showing him to be a clown would be the end of him.
I think politics has a problem - can sensible people achieve anything useful as a politician? For now I think the answer is no, too many barriers to sensible actions.
Indeed rather hard to see what the sensible actions might be. Rees-Mogg has the right idea, look amusing and interesting from the sidelines but never enter the fray, that would be foolish, clownish even.
Sam - it is hard to demonise Boris and I think Corbyn may be equally difficult unless he becomes PM and reality takes a hand. Corbyn's quietly patient manner and even his lack of charisma seem to be assets.
Roger - I'm sure you are right - sensible people cannot achieve anything useful as a politician. Rising above the noise seems to have become virtually impossible.
Johnson's golly-gosh-cripes bluster is a useful political tool because it allows him to dodge difficult questions by turning everything into a joke. He avoids accountability by not being taken seriously. This can be an effective campaigning tactic, but a cabinet minister or - let us hope it never comes to this - Prime Minister who tries to wing it and bluster his way out of getting blamed when things go wrong is a major liability in government. That's especially true if the pretend clown has any responsibility for something really difficult and serious like Brexit. If that goes badly wrong he and every other member of the government will be very widely hated.
Andrew - I think most are doomed to be widely hated eventually. The job seems to be near enough impossible but debating it constructively seems to be impossible too, as if too many people think ideals are potential realities.
"but a cabinet minister or - let us hope it never comes to this - Prime Minister..."
I am hardly a fan, but I find it hard to see how Boris would not be *vastly* preferable to the ghastly May (admittedly a very low bar to jump). The Stupid Party is all that stands between us and the Evil Party, but May cannot lead an effective counteroffensive against Corbyn because not only does she lack charisma, she believes far to many of the same 'Social Justice' things that Corbyn does.
Perry - the optimist in me has hoped that May is quietly effective in ways we don't see, but those days are gone.
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