Mhairi Black is off like a rocket – here’s some tips on the political stratosphere
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Version 0 of 1. Mhairi Black, the prodigy from Paisley who beat Douglas Alexander, Labour’s campaign organiser and shadow foreign secretary in May, is off like a rocket. Yesterday she made a maiden speech that is a Youtube sensation (read that again: maiden speech ... Youtube sensation). It was passionate, funny and generous. It showed the workings of an impressive political brain. But setting off for the political stratosphere before your 21st birthday is no guarantee that you’ll get there. Or like it, when you do. Even that night in Paisley, when hers was the most sensational result of an unforgettably sensational election, she was cool. She manages to convey rational excitement, if that is possible. Her acceptance speech indicated nothing of the emotion of pulling off the most extraordinary electoral coup in recent times. In the early hours of the morning, a time that many of us will remember as the hour of drunken poetry writing (or on better nights, delirious passion), she managed to be sober, generous and sympathetic to her defeated opponent, appropriately grateful to all those that needed to be thanked and on top of that, in only a couple of sentences, dedicate herself to fighting austerity, worklessness and Trident. It’s true that not many people in their very early 20s get the chance of surfing such a monstrous wave as the one created by the SNP (not even half of them could be bothered to vote on 7 May). But looking at Black, her style and directness, you know that she is one of those preternaturally mature people who decide very early on that pimples were far, far outweighed by politics. She has thought about what she is doing, and she knows why she is doing it and she makes it impossible to doubt that she believes it, heart and soul. That’s what she brought to her first speech in the Commons yesterday – confidence and clarity and a sense of timing. There was a clever joke about being the only 20-year-old whose housing was subsidised by the taxpayer, another at the expense of her colleagues and a broadside against the government. Only wizened old cynics ponder here on the folly of youth, and curl the lip at the wisdom of making Tony Benn a hero It was also a smart political challenge – just like her impromptu speech at the count on 7 May – to others on the left. The smiles became a little strained on the faces of colleagues sitting around her when she said it wasn’t nationalism that delivered May’s political earthquake, it was the possibility of hope. Only wizened old cynics ponder here on the folly of youth, and curl the lip at the wisdom of making Tony Benn a hero (great signpost, as Black said, but remind me which destination he ever helped anyone reach?). More important is the challenge of the immediate future. Here sages really can be immensely helpful. So some advice from an impartial observer: 1. Remember that Charles Kennedy was once the baby of the house. Don’t drink, sniff, inhale or do anything more mind-altering than just being an MP, which frankly is quite dangerous enough. Too many glorious futures have been drowned in the bars of Westminster. 2. Male MPs believe they have been elected mainly because they are sexually irresistible. As you will already know, they are not. 3. Resist all blandishments from Vogue or any other source offering a makeover, glamour shoot, etc etc. You are a politician and you look brilliant. 4. London. It’s not Paisley, but some things may be better. 5. Ignore all of the above. You clearly have great judgment. Enjoy! |