KBO
August 2nd, 2007The BBC’s decision to give great prominence to this week’s story about former Tory parliamentary candidate Ali Miraj and his dissatisfaction with David Cameron was not matched by other media outlets. The story is unremarkable because it did not involve a debate about policy or substance, but more a question of style and personality, which is supremely uninteresting except to those most closely involved. Up to this week, Ali was making real progress within the Party and making a direct contribution to one of its policy groups. Frankly, he enjoyed greater access to the leadership than most of the rest of us. I know and like Ali Miraj, but perhaps his outburst was his way of telling the world that parliamentary politics is not for him after all. There is nothing wrong in that, but Ali’s comments were most certainly not the best way in which to bow out.
Ali said that he had been trying to be an MP for nine years. Perhaps he wanted it too intensely; it certainly sounds as if the prize, rather than what to do after election, had become all-important. It may well be that he got fed up of being in the waiting room of politics, which has none of the glory of office but many onerous responsibilities nevertheless.
More than the vast majority of current candidates, I know what it is like to be in the waiting room of politics. There are times when it feels as if you are in a great wilderness without end, and that having the patience of Job is not enough. There are times when you just have to turn your back on it all and do other things. Like malaria, however, the old passion re-appears. My character-building and toughening-up process has been a long one indeed - a total of twenty-two years since I joined the Party and fourteen years since I first stood (and won) an election. The answer is to follow Churchill’s maxim and KBO.
I risk being unkind, but perhaps Ali forgot that politics should not be about power or BEING something, but should be about achievement and DOING something. After all, there is so much that needs to be done, and you don’t have to be an MP or Peer to start making a difference. KBO.
