So, let’s have your thoughts on how to take the toxicity out of British politics. You have 45 seconds to answer and here’s Julie Etchingham to yell at you when your time is over… Go!
Okay. It’s might not be the yogic way of restoring harmony to our politics but on the basis of the first leaders’ debate (an hour-long, 40 odd minutes if you take out the ads, about three minutes and change if you only include the debate), we have a very long way to go. At one point, Etchingham had Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn shake hands but it was the kind of stunt that always goes wrong in horror movies where it’s obvious that elemental forces should never touch. The two leaders faced off like some ancient Chinese symbol representing perverseness and perfidy; Corbyn’s world-weary Ying to Johnson’s shameless Wang. Neither wanted to talk much about the things that define them and preferred instead to spend more time dissembling about what they insist the other believes.
For Johnson, the night was about explaining that Corbyn doesn’t believe in Brexit, would be bad for Brexit, and still hadn’t made up his mind about Brexit. He spent the rest of his time talking about Brexit in the context of Brexit with a particular focus on the Brexity side of Brexit. For Corbyn, he was out to portray Johnson as untrustworthy, ready to sell the NHS to the Yanks, and totally obsessed with Brexit. The time left didn’t leave much room to talk about their plans. Nor were they given much encouragement to do so.
