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The politics of absence, that's what we're trapped in.
We've been here for a while now. May offered no glimpse of an internal life. She showed no sign of a genuinely-held opinion, except that she didn't like immigrants very much.
For the first months of time as PM, this blankness meant everyone projected their views onto her. Remainers said she was putting Brexiters in top jobs to make them 'own it', Leavers thought she was one of them.
It turned out she wasn't much of anything really. Just a shallow intellect & a boring personality, unable to live up to the historical moment she lived in. Like trying to write a novel on tracing paper.
Same with Corbyn. There's v little going on in there, except for some occasional muscle-memory expressions of views he first adopted in the 70s.
We project all these strategies and hopes and fears onto him. But the truth he's just not that bright or interesting. It's like watching clothes walk into a room with no-one wearing them.
And now Johnson. Same shit, slight twist. His absence is one of any principle whatsoever. He could do anything, because he has no conviction at all.
He evades scrutiny. And even when he does say something plainly, as he has on leaving the EU in October, it doesn't mean anything because he has gone back on every political commitment he ever made.
We all know his words mean nothing, even his defenders admit it. So we don't bother even considering them as a part of how to assess him.
And that's actually attractive to people, because it convinces them that perhaps they can bring him their way, just like they used to project their preferences onto May in the early days.
There is an alternative to this relentless horseshit. It's old fashioned.
We could have politicians who held clear views on things and were prepared to articulate them, so that we could hold them to account.
I know. I'm off my tits. Too much pina colada on holiday. But I'm just putting it out there for consideration.
