Be different, be original: that’s what makes a popular politician

I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like being a political leader. I find this difficult because I would be so utterly ill suited to the role. I’m too lazy, too disorganised and too undisciplined to be remotely credible at it. But the area in which I would fail most completely would be in the projection of a suitable image. Not only would I be incapable of saying the right things at the right time; I don’t have the appearance or bearing or dress sense to convey calm, self-confidence and authority. I suppose you could say much the same of Adolf Hitler were it not for his gift for inflammatory speechmaking. He was a miserable, rather jumpy-looking creature. But in those days politicians, and not only dictators, were not pictured eating bacon sandwiches or sipping coffee in their kitchenettes if they didn’t want to be. They were neither exposed to intimate scrutiny, nor photographed off-guard. They controlled their public images with care, keeping their distance from the electorate by choosing an individual style and sticking with it.

With Hitler and Mussolini it was principally uniforms. With Churchill, when it wasn’t boiler suits, it was Homburg hats, bow ties and cigars. With Harold Macmillan it was Savile Row suits or plus fours and shotguns. Even Harold Wilson, with his pipe and Gannex overcoat, didn’t really look like a normal person. I don’t think it occurred to many people then that politicians should be ordinary. It didn’t even seem to tell against them if they presented themselves as rich and privileged. But now with Ed Miliband, for whom ordinariness is unachievable, it seems to be insisted upon. Unfortunately for him, his efforts to appear ordinary — or at least the efforts of his minders to portray him as such — come across as lacking in authenticity.