Does it matter if Trump is weird?

00:00 04:54

Richard Madeley has narrated this article for you to listen to.

Would-be veep Tim Walz has opened Pandora’s box with his use of the W-word to characterise Donald Trump and his running mate (no sniggering at the back: this W is for ‘weird’). Because, let’s face it, a heck of a lot of politicians are way-out weird, aren’t they? It’s practically part of the job description. If we start calling them all out on it, the currency’s going to devalue fast. My thesaurus devotes nearly half a page to synonyms for weird. ‘Freaky. Wacko. Odd. Eccentric. Crazy. Off the wall. Out to lunch…’ Well, sure, that’s pretty much Trump to a T. He is uniquely odd, but those adjectives neatly summarise plenty of politicos this side of the pond too. Liz Truss. (Oh, come on, don’t get all Truss-defensive – you know she was weird.) Theresa May. May closed the lid of the weird-box firmly over her own head when she said the naughtiest thing she’d ever done was ‘run through fields of wheat’. That’s a really weird thing to say. As for her excruciating conference Maybot dance – I rest my case.

It’s funny, but all the party leaders I can think of that I’d describe as weird seem to have been on the right. Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t weird, he was cracked. Neil Kinnock was delusional. James Callaghan was bank-manager boring. Harold Wilson was dull as ditchwater too (apart from his private life – not so much weird as ‘way-hey!’). But spinning back still further on the right, Ted Heath was proper weird. That laugh! Head and shoulders pumping up and down like a supercharged nodding donkey. As for his private life… what private life? Did bachelor Ted even have one? Apart from his passion for classical music and sailing, it’s a blank canvas, even today.