Hague's laddist errors
From Mr Richard Tracey
Sir: The Spectator's treatment of the news that Mr Hague used to down 14 pints of beer a day missed the point entirely. Dr Johnson (oh God, not another Spectator Johnson!) noted that the quality of a woman's preaching or a dog's walking on its hind legs was not the point — the point was that it was a ' surprise that such things should be done at all. Similarly, in Mr Hague's case, it is not the fact that he did or did not drink the quantity of beer he claimed that is the point but that he should think that this would in any way improve his chances of becoming prime minister.
The Today programme of 24 August gloat- ingly announced that the latest opinion polls show that all Mr Hague's recent gains in pop- ularity have been wiped out. But is this sur- prising? For all his talk of common sense, Mr Hague seems to have very little of this vital commodity when it comes to presenting him- self. The baseball cap followed by his attempt to portray himself as some sort. of pygmy judo ace were both public relations disasters. But what is more serious is that these absur- dities apparently taught him nothing.
At a time when lad culture' is being cited as one of the reasons for the under-achieve- ment of boys in examinations, Mr Hague is marketing himself as a 'lad' who used to drink 14 pints a day. Has he no nous at all?
Does Mr Hague seriously consider that the voters who deserted the Conservatives at the last election did so because Mr Major was not a yob? Does he seriously believe that they will return to the fold if Mr Major's successor shows himself to have been a yob in his youth? Does he seriously think that even yobs want a yob as prime minister?
Any competent schoolteacher will tell you that a teacher who tries to be 'one of the boys' or one of the girls' may win the short- term support of his pupils but that this sup- port will rapidly turn to contempt. It is the same in the world of politics. Yet just when Mr Blair had started to stick in the elec- torate's gullet and populism seemed to have had its day, Mr Hague decided to renew his catastrophic attempts to portray himself as a man of the people. Where is the common sense in that? It serves him right that he is, once again, tumbling in the polls.
Richard Tracey
Dinan, France
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