A remarkable thing about people involved with politics is how many of them don’t actually understand anything about politics.
From party members to activists to elected members, there are countless men and women who devote their lives to participation in our democracy without having the faintest idea what they’re doing.
Perhaps this should be unsurprising. If we subscribe to the view that politics is showbiz for ugly people, why would we expect a Conservative or Labour Party member to understand how politics works any more than we’d expect a Paul McCartney fan to know how to write era-defining songs?
My belief that politics is clogged up with the politically-clueless has hardly been shaken by the ongoing contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister. I mean, look at the candidates.
A narrow sect of – predominantly – older men will decide whether Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss should be our next prime minister. What a terrible choice: a multimillionaire, fined for breaking lockdown rules, or a weirdly robotic careerist who – as her transformation from staunch Remainer to swivel-eyed extreme Brexiteer shows – is every bit as self-interested as Johnson ever was.
Liz Truss has now deleted her tweet promising to "hit the ground from day one." pic.twitter.com/8YrBSxRoP7
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) July 20, 2022
I don’t subscribe to the view that this state of affairs is undemocratic. We don’t, after all, have a presidential system. The largest party in the House of Commons gets to pick the PM, and that’s what’s happening here. So, whoever Tory members pick is a matter for them.
It is entirely their business which wrong decision they make.
Because, let’s face it, the Tory MPs who whittled down the list of contenders to the final two have made a huge mistake.
Truss and Sunak are tainted by the Johnson project
If the business of politics is about anything, it’s about winning – and using – power. In order to achieve those objectives, it is crucial to persuade people who’d normally vote for your opponents to come to your side.
Polling, carried out since this contest began, shows that neither Sunak nor Truss has the chops to do that.
Who will ever forget the enthusiasm with which more than a quarter of million dafties elected Jeremy Corbyn Labour leader in 2015?
In fact, among the wider public, Tom Tugendhat – knocked out of the running last week – consistently polled far better than the two who remain in the contest. Untainted by association with the corrupt Johnson project, he stood the best chance of stopping floating voters from switching allegiances.
But, people in politics know best, don’t they? Who will ever forget the enthusiasm with which more than a quarter of million dafties elected Jeremy Corbyn Labour leader in 2015? It turned out the voting public wasn’t keen to back an out of touch crank.
Regardless of whether they pick the law-breaker or the oddball, the Tories are – I think – about to have their own Corbyn moment.
Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers
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