Sarkozy, Power and Politics

Blade objects, with the haughty disdain of a supermodel, to Max Davidson’s condemnation in the Telegraph of French President Nicolas Sarkozy as “a textbook case of an ageing man clinging to youth”.

Davidson lambasts Sarkozy for “sporting funky tracksuits  and demonstrating his virility by taking a trophy wife”, not to mention the grave sin of hiring a personal trainer. The Telegraph hack’s evisceration of Sarkozy – who, of course, recently collapsed while jogging – contains rhetorial questions, such as “Quite how an intelligent man like Sarkozy has become such an out-and-out fitness freak, pushing his body to the extremes of exhaustion in pursuit of the mirage of physical perfection, is a question for a psychiatrist” – before concluding that “If he were not the President, he would be a laughing-stock.”

It appears that Davidson’s ire has been provoked by the notion that being fit is a good thing.  As he says: “Go into any gym in London and you will see men with that same tormented look on their face – one per cent pleasure, 99 per cent pain. Why do they do it? Even they don’t know.” Armed with palpable contempt for those who believe that being physically fit is of value, Davidson concocts a theory that politicians across the globe have embraced some sort of cult of the body in an attempt to woo us, the “gullible voters”. He wonders where it all went wrong, perhaps dreaming of the days when the ruling class were fat and slothful, content to wear the results of their wealth around their vast waists, before sounding a spurious cautionary note: “Fitness fanatics are a law unto themselves, desperately trying to keep the Grim Reaper at bay but, as often as not, pushing themselves closer to an early grave.”

Blade is not impressed. History abounds with examples of high achieving men – and women – for whom fidelity to Juvenal’s maxim mens sana in corpore sano has paid dividends. It is unfortunate that Sarkozy collapsed while jogging but little more, and certainly not indicative of a dread societal trend. We should continue to admire those who manage to stay in shape at the same time as occupying positions of responsibility and, yes, power, mindful that those very same people, as age catches up with them, will doubtless have the sense to listen to their bodies and adapt their training regimes.

Then again, Davidson is writing in the Telegraph. How close was he to announcing also that Carla Bruni is the source of all the French President’s woes? For to paraphrase, in Torygraph-speak, the old saying: behind every great man stands a supermodel pushing him to the brink. Oh, if only the Suffragettes hadn’t had their way!

Pictured thanks to John McNab: Lord Castlerosse, star columnist of the London Daily Express, Surrey, United Kingdom, August 1940 – a role model for hacks and politicians the world over.

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