ARE politicians normal human beings?
The public judgment on our democratic representatives was written when the MPs' expenses scandal exploded in 2008 and, for many, in the court of public opinion, they are still all guilty.
But the season of the ballot is upon us and there will be numerous occasions when the likes of you and me will be confronted repeatedly with the proposition: trust me, I'm a politician. Nigel Farage, "the bloke from the pub who went to Strasbourg", will be puffing out his chest, glorying in the public endorsement of his anti-EU, pro-controlled migration prospectus.
Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat Coalition minister bruised by the English local election results, suggested the Ukip leader and his colleagues won over many voters by dint of their plain-speaking, which meant they "managed to sound like human beings". She decalred: "That's Nigel Farage's big win. All of us have got to the point where we are so guarded, so on-message, that we seem to have lost some of our humanity."
Given so many people would find it difficult to use the words Ukip and humanity in the same phrase, this is an interesting observation. Labour's Sadiq Khan made a similar point, suggesting voters felt politicians from all the mainstream parties were part of the establishment, not understanding the lives of ordinary folk.
"We speak the same, we look the same, we sound the same, we have similar polices, and one of the challenges we have is to cut through," he said. One would have felt understanding the lives of those you wish to represent was a pretty fundamental prerequisite for getting elected.
But only this week we had the intriguing sight of Ed Miliband, who has built Labour's whole electoral pitch on the "cost of living crisis", not knowing the cost of living for his family. One observant party insider pointed out no-one in the Westminster bubble, certainly not those at the top of the political tree, knew the cost of living, noting that most of them would have their groceries delivered.
Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries famously denounced David Cameron and George Osborne as "two posh boys who do not know the price of milk". When Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, was ambushed bythe notorious pint of milk question, he over-estimated it by 100% but declared: "Well there you go, I don't know how much a pint of milk costs. So what?"
As the Prime Minister dips his toe into the Scottish referendum waters, having already acknowledged he is a Tory toff from the Home Counties, his aides are increasingly intent on trying to make him seem three-dimensional; even, dare I say, an ordinary human being. But do voters want ordinary human beings leading the country? Yes and no.
They want politicians to understand the pressures folk face and come up with policies to help them bear such pressures as painlessly as possible while, of course, being extremely capable, diligent and responsible.
So, they want their leaders to be ordinary yet extraordinary; a difficult but not impossible combination.
By the way, the cost of a pint of milk is, so my butler tells me, 49p.
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