The cult of celeb PM's

There is a very good piece in the Observer today by the Mail's Peter Oborne in the absence of the holidaying Andrew Rawnsley.

He argues that we now have the cult of celeb Prime Minister and that has led to the issues that have arisen over the last week vis a vis smeargate.

The modern notion of a celebrity prime minister, permanently surrounded by an army of flunkeys and operating out of a great command centre inside Downing Street, is novel.

he argues

1.Celebrity prime ministers are actively hostile to historic freedoms and civil liberties.

2.Celebrity prime ministers see due process merely as an encumbrance and resent the civil service disciplines of impartiality, scruple and properly noted cabinet meetings.

In this new environment, the crucial aide is the press officer, whose job is to burnish the image of his leader, while using smears and other secret tactics to punish and marginalise political opponents.