The spectacle of a prime minister declaring that ‘boyfriend duties call’ is not merely an embarrassing gaffe. It is a symptom of a deeper intellectual decadence, a hollowing out of the very idea of public office. Once, we expected our leaders to invoke Churchill or Pericles.
Now we get the love-life excuses of a teenager. The decline of the West, it seems, is chronicled not in battles lost but in dignity squandered. When the man at the helm of a G7 nation speaks of ‘boyfriend duties’ with the same earnestness one might discuss the corn laws, we must ask: have we elevated charisma over character, and shallowness over substance?
The Victorians, for all their faults, understood gravitas. They knew that the state was a sacred trust, not a reality show. Yet here we are, watching a leader prioritise personal dalliances over national interest.
This is not a scandal of the heart but a scandal of the intellect. It signals a rot that has set in at the highest levels, a belief that the state is merely a vehicle for personal brand management. The Romans might have been distracted by bread and circuses; we are distracted by a leader who treats the premiership as a side hustle.
The institutional gravitas that once anchored our politics is gone, replaced by a perpetual adolescence. We should be angry, not amused. For if the captain of the ship announces he is too busy with his girlfriend to steer, we are all headed for the rocks.
