| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Nice bit of writing | |
| Posted by: | T P Howell | |
| Date/Time: | 19/06/19 20:06:00 |
| Rory Stewart ran a good campaign. He is head and shoulders intellectually above the rest of them (Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights at Harvard University, Director of the John F. Kennedy School of Government Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, taught on a Masters' course at The Harvard Kennedy School, and has published a couple of books). He has had a proper career in public service before entering politics. He has a real world understanding of negotiating: i.e. negotiation success does not come from macho posturing and chest beating, or pretending to be a "tough" negotiator. That can work when you really do have the option to walk away, or are willing to nail your opponent to the table where you will never have to deal with your counter-party again. But it certainly doesn't work where there is continuing relationship. A bad deal (even if only bad for the other party) will always ultimately break, and end in tears. Like it or not, we need a trade deal with the EU as our biggest business partners (by a very, very long way) if we ever do leave, and roughing them up is not going to get anyone anywhere. They (apart from possibly Ireland) can afford "no deal". We cannot. The real skills of a negotiator are in finding a solution when you have no real power position - e.g. holding elections and resolving tribal disputes in Southern Iraq. He also showed far more self-awareness, and far more honesty than the other candidates. Stewart is a realist. Many of my friends (on the left and the right) have been impressed by him. I don't share most of his political views, but I respect his integrity. He does look like Plug from the Bash Street Kids, but then "Politics is Show Business for ugly people". I think that we will see far more of him in years to come, if the Tory party's rightward drift stops and it returns closer to the centre ground. |