Liability Leaders

Say what you like expounding that there is no ‘I’ in team. Insist that collective responsibility is paramount. However, when it comes to the clinch, leaders count. Alex Ferguson’s handover to David Moyes provides a timely reminder of how individuals make a difference.

Speculation is rife that Darling is not up to the job of leading Better together. Poor Darling. From the ‘forces of hell’ unleashed by Gordon Brown’s henchmen to the forlorn vanguard of a campaign that has seen its supposedly impregnable lead wither to a precarious level.

Selecting Darling to lead a campaign that essentially required turning No into a positive always sounded like a long shot to me. Darling is an accomplished politician, but not inspirational. As Pensions Secretary and then Chancellor, he accumulated a wealth of experience in the financial technicality of politics. Fascinating for some but incredibly dour for most, and therein lies the problem. This blog has argued that the independence debate is colourful; thereby rendering grey articulation and presentation insufficient.

Fortunately for the No campaign, their opposing big beast is as much a liability as their own. For many people, Alex Salmond personifies the idea of an independent Scotland and yet, curiously, nobody in the Yes campaign seems to have been able to arrest the more unpleasant traits of the First Minister. None more so than the Salmond snigger: The condescending and dismissive cackle that greets many a question; even those posed by senior broadcasters like Andrew Marr.

Commentators point to Ed Miliband’s awkwardness and lack of authenticity as potential barriers to a Labour victory. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s pint and a fag endear his party to swathes of the electorate. If personalities matter, then perhaps both the yes and no camps could do with a changing of the guard. Neither Darling nor Salmond are doing their respective sides any favours.