You may not recognise the name Tobias Gough. But his face – or possibly body – has been melting the internet this week. He’s the man social media likes to call “hot podium guy” – appearing in Downing Street for the customary “one two one two” sound check whenever a Prime Minister is about to resign.
And the reason that he’s been talked about with even more attention this week is because he’s now outlasted five prime ministers in seven years.
He’s garnering the same cult status as Larry the Cat – more bicep than whisker – and, in a sign of our attention deficit age, has notched up greater Instagram salience than the very man who’s resignation he presaged, like a political grim reaper.
Keir Starmer took to the podium at 9.30 on Monday morning. By 9.40 he had left a small collection of well-wishers outside his door, and was back inside. The world moved on. Indeed, it began tracing the very train carrying our putative next PM from Manchester. And in that moment – the acceptance of something so dramatic as normal – we should pause.
The binning of one democratically elected leader – who was not the subject of scandal, personal disgrace or misdemeanor – as if they were an empty vape is an extraordinary moment. A bloodless coup – more of a stun gun to the head than a butchering – may tell us something about the era in which we live. We’ve run out of patience, empathy, and protocol.
