#bepol sidebar. The troubles of GLB have strong “Sideshow Bob standing on rakes” energy, but it’s interesting to me how such a self-consciously 21st-century leader is getting smacked in the head by Belgian insistence on collegiality.
There’s definitely a model where political parties are ephemeral things built around strong personalities (this is presumably the French model referred to by the unnamed third MR grandee). You see it in the UK as farce, but in PR systems it’s a real possibility.
But there’s also a wider and more associative model, which is the polar opposite – where one person with a taste for Twitter doesn’t rule the roost alone. What you lose in clarity of message you can gain in breadth of vision and length of connection, I would argue.
But it needs parties that can act in formation more than follow-my-leader, and 20+ years of consumerist politics don’t help.
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 6 October 2020. View the original thread.