Farage’s appeal? He isn’t a political robot

The Reform leader – for his many faults – could teach our political leaders a thing or two about authenticity

I don’t know about you, but I have found most media interviews with leading politicians in this general election campaign to be intensely tedious affairs. These interactions are invariably characterised by trite and repetitive sloganeering on the part of the interviewee, as well as a determination by him or her to avoid saying anything on policy that might be considered remotely interesting.

One such performance I witnessed a few days ago by a senior Labour figure was so robotic – stuffed with scripted phrases such as ‘turn the page’ and ‘draw a line’ – that I was reminded of a joke that did the rounds during the Tony Blair years. It went something like this: