A challenge for PM aspirants

What I would like to see during this anticipated long election campaign is a prospective prime minister daring to be different and promptly presenting him/herself at political meetings before the national anthem is sung and the opening prayers said.

As far as I am concerned, the days for “gallerying” are over and I am looking for a prime minister modest enough to be seated at the head table when the meeting begins, and not making his/her entrance a “grand affaire”, interrupting the speaker at the podium, with attendees and TV viewers having to listen to approximately a quarter hour of Indian and African drumming, a vociferous master of ceremonies with the exuberance of a ring announcer introducing a promising prizefighter, while the political leader worms his/her way to the platform, enjoying his/her nightly 15 minutes of glory, which for some will come to an abrupt end when all the ballots have been counted.

I think prospective prime ministers should be humble enough to have some patience and withhold this “gran zaffay” (as we say in Patois) until election night when victory had been established and the threshold crossed, heralding the dawn of our 11th Parliament.

Gregory Cockburn

via email