There is something infinitely melancholy in hearing what political ambition does to perfectly nice people. I awoke on Monday to hear Danny Kruger (an MP, formerly Conservative, now defected to Reform) defending his party’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, one of whose past social media posts was simply too disgusting for me to repeat here.
True, Mr Kruger was not defending the post itself, but the candidate’s right to a ‘private’ (protested Kruger) history of such social media comments. Well, maybe. But I seem to remember Kruger’s past speeches have been especially admired for their high moral tone – he is a strong Christian – and so his being forced to defend a candidate’s right to a history of filthy misogyny in a public forum will have hurt him. Or at least I hope it did. I can recall making a ‘lock ’em up and throw away the keys’ kind of speech about law and order to the Matlock Conservative branch, hearing the applause and feeling ashamed.
He really is a nice man, but his whole career is shortly to turn sour and end finally in bitterness, anger and failure
Democratic politics degrades its practitioners and must always do so to some degree. The compensation the individual may hope for is that political success may enable him or her to achieve at least something positive in public affairs. Rob a politician of the feeling that at least they did some good for the country, and you rob them of everything, for they have lost a part of themselves in the attempt.
