Look, in politics … sometimes it’s not so much how you ride the horse, but how you get off it.
Some people get off it with grace and walk to the rail and sit on the rail and people go up and talk to them, but some people just can’t help themselves and they keep a foot in a stirrup and get dragged around in horse manure. And we are seeing a couple of people with their foot in the stirrup and are being dragged around in the horse mature.
They have gone former prime ministers to current pains in the neck.
If I walked in your studio or workplace, or your morning tea at school, or the pub calling everybody a liar, you just look at the person and say, “I don’t care what your former job is, you are a dipstick.” You can’t just walk around, brandishing those sorts of allegations. You have to have some decorum for the office you held, the nation you led, and act like it.
And even if you have a concern, you know how to say it … subtly in deference, to not create a massive problem.
Because when you leave politics you are supposed to rise above politics. You are always an idealist as you walk up the hill and you’re more broadminded as you walk down the hill, but you are more broadminded with a brain between your ears.
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