Tuesday 31 August 2021
Beyond Peak Dud
The late Lee Kuan Yew has been known to refer to certain political actors as ‘duds’, meaning they lack the skills required to play a part in competent government and government agencies.
Yet suppose we contemplate any one of numerous duds in the UK political menagerie. Jeremy Corbyn is a good example, a dud by any rational assessment. A man who should never have been an MP, let alone the leader of a major political party. How is it that millions of voters failed to identify Corbyn as a dud?
Perhaps the question is unfair to Corbyn, strange as it may seem when considering such an abject dud. This is a man who appears to have entered politics because he is a dud, because for decades there have been roles for duds in UK politics.
Maybe we are not able to load the responsibility onto individuals because there are too many duds and far too few talented political actors. Our political theatre has not attracted talent for some time and once we reach this stage we have no way back. One duds form a working majority there is no incentive for them to reform the system and attract talent.
To view this with somewhat unpleasant clarity we merely have to contemplate some familiar evidence. From the coronavirus debacle to gender politics to climate change to absurdly aggressive reactions to free speech to ludicrous censorship to police involvement in trivial social media spats to irrational and uncontrollable race-baiting to deranged media bias to hopelessly inept political actors to politically biased charities to propaganda in education to our abject inability to screen out the duds. It goes on and on.
After a certain point it is easy enough to see why there is no way back. Duds are so numerous that they would have to bar each other from key roles, yet if they were to achieve that they would not be duds in the first place. In other words, even the possibility of internally directed reform makes no sense.
We appear to have already passed this Peak Dud tipping point. We do not tell duds that they are duds, we do not hammer home the message, we do not exclude them from roles they cannot play and we do not eject those who get through the net. Beyond Peak Dud there is no net.
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3 comments:
I'm not too concerned about peak dud, because I think it likely that duds have always predominated in politics. It's just that 24/7 media and the internet sniff them out and require a different kind of nous which people have yet to fully grasp. Boris did quite well at it until covid. Hancock, Hammond, Gove, and Starmer are completely hopeless; Sunak is probably OK.
Perhaps the future lies in some type of puritanical rectitude which has never been caught doing anything wrong, coupled with numeracy /IT technocratic skills. Sunak and Javid personify this, so look to the Asian community. Possibly Chinese. Boring, no sex scandals or the obvious signs of neurosis, but they deliver - so people vote for them.
Or maybe more like Boris. Roguery and wit, possibly with blustering self-deprecation. But, of course, they also have to have the technocratic skills.
Or maybe we will overcome peak dud through teamwork. Bluster and charm for the heart, with mega-intelligence in the backroom boys and girls. A bit like the Boris and Cummings show was supposed to be, before Cummings turned out to be the biggest dud of them all.
We were more democratic when our political leaders paid less attention to the latest public enthusiasms and more to their political convictions. A paradox perhaps but when you understood politicians' political convictions you could vote accordingly.
I don't especially blame the politicians... much of our lives are now spent under the (imagined) gaze of other people as emphasised by the media. I guessed we were in for a rough ride when I saw the over-reaction to the death of Princess Diana.
Sam - I'm sure a different kind of nous is required, but to my mind voting patterns show no indication that it will ever happen. It may of course be a matter of waiting for a technically savvy generation to grasp what is required. Or maybe they will merely adapt to whatever evolves as we have.
DJ - I was quite bemused by reactions to the death of Princess Diana. It was unexpected of course, but I would have expected a much more low key reaction. It's a strange and tangled game pumping up sentimental public reactions.
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