Opinion

<<<  >>>

Three down and who's next?

Friday 12 March 2010

As three political top dogs step down within a week, has politics just become too nasty for the good guys? asks Abi Daruvalla

No-one expects politics to be an easy ride when it comes to the bashing it unleashes on your personal life both in terms of time away from friends and family and emotional turmoil.

But when three top politicians from three parties (Socialist leader Agnes Kant, Christian Democrat transport minister Camiel Eurlings and now Wouter Bos, Labour leader and deputy prime minister) all announce they are stepping down for personal reasons – just months before a general election – alarm bells should start ringing.

Because whatever your political persuasion, Kant, Eurlings and Bos are all talented politicians. So what’s going on? Has the pressure become too much and/or the political climate just too nasty for the good guys?

Should top political positions be left to elder statesmen/women (Job Cohen? Neelie Kroes?) whose families are already all grown up? Or to hard-hearted loud-mouthed politicians (Wilders? and Verdonk?) who have such a thick skin that they are immune to public criticism and media sneering.

Or is time the political system changed to take account of the fact that the current political generation wants a proper life-work balance and are not prepared to sacrifice their personal and psychological well-being for power?

Eurlings says it’s time to think about starting a family and Bos wants to spend more time with his young children. That’s not soft. Kant had had enough of being vilified by the media. That’s not soft either.

I for one don’t want political leaders who have to work so hard that they lose touch with ‘the real world’. I want politicians who know how hard it is to juggle family life with work, who do care what other people think about them. Who are human.

But perhaps voters get the politicians they deserve?

Comments have been closed for this article.