Behind a paywall - so draft version pasted below
I hope a video of me dancing at a party never leaks. In fact I would pay big money to anyone who has such a video to hand it over. More May than Marin, it would be excruciating evidence that I am never going to be in the running to be the world's coolest politician. And for the record, far from being an unsuitable outfit, don't we all wish we looked that good in the fashion trial that is white skinny jeans? To be frank best saved for Liz Hurley and errrr, Sanna Marin.
It seems we all want politicians to be more normal, right up until the moment one is, then out come the brickbats. Although it may well be fair cop when we take to the dance floor, think Gove, Hancock, Johnson (I am sure Labour examples are available it's just that I cant think of any, and the best the Lib Dems can muster is Vince Cable). But why shouldn't we sing, dance, drink, behave like our constituents do every single weekend?
A bit of normality sometimes goes a long way, read the average MP's twitter feed and you might find a smattering of normal, but not much. A colleague once texted me at 10pm on a Saturday to suggest that "true love may well be found in a cold church hall, but it is extremely unlikely" after I had publicly tweeted about whatever event I had been at, whilst privately lamenting I would rather have been in the pub with a bottle of wine, a steak and ale pie for two and a half adequate man to share it with. Ouch - did I admit that? Best get my tin hat out and prepare for the incoming fire.
Of course normality also means the humdrum, yes, I do go to the hairdresser (we all do or we'd be back to lockdown looks), the supermarket and the car wash locally. Not only is it kind of essential, but it's also a great opportunity to be seen doing "normal things". That is a lot easier to pull off if you live in your constituency, because then it can't be that much of a surprise to find us buying fungal nail treatments in Boots, or can it? It was certainly a great opportunity for an impromptu discussion with a constituent last week of "Can you spot the E45 bath oil? And who are you voting for Liz or Rishi?"
I've never forgotten being told, whilst stood in a freezing cold, muddy field, "You're a dead ringer for that Tory bird - not that she'd own a pair of wellies." Caused hysteria in the Pony Club for months, with me frequently being told I was the spit of Caroline Nokes, although she had better make up. Or indeed make up.
But as for Sanna Marin, what do we actually want? A PM who can switch off with friends or a workaholic who has no ability to relax? Isn't it our wider interests and experiences that make us more of a person than just work work work? Yes, you have to get the balance right, but is there any suggestion that she was at a party at 2 pm on a workday, or was it shock horror, on a weekend? And might it just be the green eyed misogynist monster at work? Did the critics perhaps not get invited to that (or any) party that weekend? And did they just not like the idea of a woman having a good time?
Don't we all love Carolyn Harris because she has pink hair? Are we fascinated by Douglas Ross' stints as a pro football referee? Find Ed Balls a great deal more endearing since he donned sequins for Strictly? Respect people like Will Qunice and Cherilyn Mackrory for bravely talking about their own experience of baby loss. It's really easy to demonise politicians, forgetting that we are all human too.
And humans go to parties, to festivals, wear "unsuitable" clothes , drink more than mineral water, and get forced by their be-suited critics, sniping from the sidelines, to take a drugs test the morning after the night before. Could we not take it as read that someone who is sharp enough to have risen to be Prime MInister, despite not being an avid reader of Hansard or the Finnish equivalent at 8 years old, is also sharp enough not to take class As?
