So Barak Obama has received the Nobel peace prize? It does seem somewhat premature for a president that has only been in situ for 10 months but I can understand from a PR perspective why this may have happened.
It places the hopes of every peaceful national on the president’s shoulders and will make him even more determined to succeed. But should the reward not have been for the world’s most confident leader?
Look at our Gordon Brown… he has a great intellect, outstanding knowledge of how the world economy works, but his body language shows no confidence. He looks stooped, puffy and there have been rumours his health is suffering badly.
It is no coincidence, in my view, that David Cameron has been seen jogging enthusiastically in Manchester this week, at the time of the Tory party conference. Will he become the first Prime Minister to cycle to work? I doubt that, but my point is confidence is what this country needs if it is to recover.
The banking system was in an awful state last year, but it was consumer confidence that tipped it over the edge. Once we, the public, stopped spending the liquidity in the banks dried up and they became paralysed and unable to operate until the Government poured money in.
I feel those who dismiss David Cameron and George Osborne as PR spinners or inexperienced are talking nonsense. Both are intellectually equipped to deal with the civil servants who bring the real knowledge and experience to the table. What they really have is the confidence to make choices they believe in… and confidence is what the voters will be looking for.
For all his mistakes, the dotty wife, the Iraq war, Tony Blair kept the support of the British public because he always looked confident. People believed he did what he thought was right.
And that is why Obama’s award has come so early… it is a victory for confidence over substance and achievement at a time when the world needs that above all other qualities from our leaders.
