However much he sincerely believes this (and, sadly, it’s difficult not to believe he’s being wildly optimistic) Seumas is pissing in the wind. These days we apparently choose our leaders on whether or not they are ‘weird’. The privately-educated, Oxford-attending Blair and Cameron are the ideal; comprehensive-attending Brown and Miliband are useless. Kiss goodbye to being Prime Minister in the 21st century if you have the audacity to be working-class, that’s for certain. The pervasiveness of this insanity was neatly encapsulated at the last general election by Nicola Roberts, who celebrated the Eton millionaire David Cameron’s ‘common touch’ while attacking Gordon Brown for having ‘no idea how people live’. This attitude was all-too-common.
It’s a truism that when questioned, people will generally say they hate spin and favour ideas and policy over personality. Even if this is sincere, it’s nigh futile in a system and media obsessed with a particular mould of who is fit for success. Add to this the modern obsession with snap opinions and an entitled sense of how every opinion matters (no matter how ill-informed) and you have a toxic mix which ensures the status quo forevermore. How far we have come.
