Self-indulgence has paralysed British politics
Everyone needs to grow up
I have been thinking about this since Monday, but have not written about it because I hoped to find a nicer way of saying it.
A friend overseas messaged me earlier this week to say how strange it seemed that the Labour Party could engineer a by-election and parachute in someone they would now prefer to be Prime Minister.
They know, because I have explained it after the previous four occasions, that our system allows this for reasons that are well rehearsed.
Putting that to one side, I am not sure the argument that people vote for a party rather than a leader carries much weight anymore. British politics has been personality-driven for a very long time. Every new leader arrives with a new cabinet and often treats manifesto commitments as guidelines rather than promises. It is entirely reasonable to argue that a significant change in leadership ought to require some form of public mandate.
The obvious objection is that this would mean more general elections and potentially more changes of government, making it harder to run the country effectively.
My counterpoint is that a political system in which leaders constantly fear being removed by their own party is hardly a model of stability, either. When leadership can be overturned through pressure, even large parliamentary majorities stop looking like a meaningful source of authority.
The only real solution is for politicians to exercise a little more restraint. It has been remarkable to watch Labour figures argue that a general election is not required, given the arguments many of them made during the Conservative leadership changes in recent years. Equally, it is difficult to take seriously demands from people such as Robert Jenrick for an immediate election when he argued in 2016 that the last thing Britain needed was a general election after Theresa May became Prime Minister.
What strikes me most is how normal all of this now seems. The political and media establishments have become accustomed to it. That is understandable; prolonged exposure to something unusual has a way of making it feel ordinary.
My concern is that politicians, commentators and the public are becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea that governments can effectively be reshaped through pressure campaigns. The impression created is that real democratic legitimacy is earned outside Parliament and outside election cycles.
In reality, that means whoever can generate the most noise has a better chance of getting what they want.
That is an unhealthy dynamic. It weakens democratic institutions rather than strengthening them, and it will persist for as long as influential people continue to encourage it.