{"id":617,"date":"2007-09-27T04:06:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-27T10:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=617"},"modified":"2007-09-27T04:06:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-27T10:06:00","slug":"off-topic-a-tale-of-two-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2007\/09\/off-topic-a-tale-of-two-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Off topic: a tale of two politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>wo politicians, both of whom I had a chance to see close up at university. For Labour, I present Dave Miliband<\/a>, JCR<\/a> President of Corpus Christi<\/a> (I was his oppo at Exeter<\/a>). We both represented the most over-privileged electorate in the world (he more conscientiously than me).<\/p>\n

For the Conservatives, Boris Johnson<\/a>, president of the Oxford Union, whose mantle of shambolic geniality I observed being cast off in the university newspaper offices, as he grumbled about some lost opportunity for self promotion. Later too, whilst Spectator<\/a><\/span> editor in Doughty Street, he chose to conduct his liaisons in a coffee shop on Grays Inn Road, next door to ITN<\/a><\/span> where I worked. It was unedifying stuff. Enough to sour the froth on your macchiato.<\/p>\n

Miliband was enthusiastic, decent and smart. Someone with probity, who has probably not lost that quality despite – one imagines – getting his hands dirty along the way. The kind of person you thought ought to go into politics, but probably wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Johnson was ruthless, ambitious and amusing. A ventriloquist taken over by his dummy<\/a>, victim of a public charade that brought success – but only so much. The kind of person you thought ought to stay out of politics, but probably wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The voters, of course, elected them both to safe seats.<\/p>\n

Do personal qualities influence the choices open to politicians? The Foreign Office will find out, and so too may London<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two politicians, both of whom I had a chance to see close up at university. For Labour, I present Dave Miliband, JCR President of Corpus Christi (I was his oppo at Exeter). We both represented the most over-privileged electorate in the world (he more conscientiously than me). For the Conservatives, Boris Johnson, president of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[492],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}