Yeah, what's particularly perplexing is, one reason why some politicians struggle is they have literally no cultural hinterland whatsoever. He has bags of it and loads of it is directly relevant to this question.
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The paradoxical gap of 'boring, unrelatable Starmer (the politician)', and 'interesting, affable Starmer (the man)' is genuinely such a mystery to me. Even 'my dad the toolmaker' ended up sounding like 'dad took a year gardening leave in his shed, away from a middle mgmt job'. Opposite to reality.
sep 2, 2025, 1:13 pm • 4 0 • view
In fairness he therefore joins a long line and long tradition of Prime Ministers who can't seem to reconcile the strands of their character along with being a public performer - Heath, Major, Brown and May for starters. (The irony at this moment being that reticence is a very British thing!)
sep 2, 2025, 1:24 pm • 2 0 • view
it's partly that inability to communicate his inner self tho - isn't it?
sep 2, 2025, 1:21 pm • 3 0 • view
See the point I made just now about Heath, Major, Brown and May - all in broadly the same ballpark. It's unusual to get people like Blair and Thatcher who are so self-assured and devoid of (a very British) reticence. In politics I mean - clearly this doesn't apply to Jagger or Robert Plant etc
sep 2, 2025, 1:25 pm • 4 0 • view