It is difficult to be humble. Even if you aim at humility, there is no guarantee that when you have attained the state you will not be proud.

            Bonamy Dobree (British scholar and writer, 1891 – 1974)

July 2 2016

Just lately I’ve been choosing quotations which have, in my mind at least, a political resonance. This is not what I imagined this little blog would be like, but it’s very hard to resist the momentous changes that have been taking place. Anyway, it’s rather entertaining to see how innocent words from another time can have a much more pointed modern application.

So today’s words from a great scholar (now sadly forgotten, but that’s the way it goes) are chosen with Michael Gove in mind. He happens to be a person I admire, for many reasons, and I was one hundred per cent behind his desire to transform education. But Michael Gove has said again and again that he would not want to be Prime Minister, and to say that is to profess a degree of humility we are not used to seeing in politics. But I do believe he is a man of integrity and that when he made the statement he truly meant it. But if a week is a long time in politics, so is a day – these days, at least! And when Michael Gove saw how Boris Johnson failed in the weekend after the referendum result – faffing about when he should have shown leadership – he realised that this man could not be Prime Minister of Britain. So he pulled out the dagger – and surely he was right to do so.

BUT the truly ‘humble’ thing would have been to say, ‘It cannot be Boris, but in the interests of national unity, it cannot be me either. To declare himself a candidate for the top job he never wanted is indeed to be ‘proud’….or, if you like, to have pride thrust upon him by the turn of events. The medieval Seven Deadly Sins are never far from my mind; they are alive and well and stalk the souls of humankind.

In my entirely unexpected later-life career as an advice columnist I am often called ‘wise’ by readers, and that is – yes – a source of pride. When you have lived for 69 and a half years, seen governments come and go, witnessed colossal changes on the world stage and endured many personal family problems, you become a little sanguine about daily politics. I have no allegiances – not really – except to my country. That is why I’d like Mrs May to be crowned as Prime Minister NOW and all the others to be given good jobs by her, so the whole government can move on efficiency to implement the referendum decision and keep this country stable. That would be wise.

Will that happen? Dream on. For I never yet met a politician (and I’ve met a lot, believe me) who had not ditched his or her quota of humility when the champagne corks popped and they became Members of Parliament.