STRAIGHT TALK
MARK BARNES: Let us learn from the past and not make popular mistakes
Elected decision-makers are increasingly asking others’ opinions, but the right decisions are invariably not the popular ones
It all started as a popular mistake, and that’s how it’s going to end, with another one. The democratic process is designed to seek out the opinion of the masses, but only occasionally, every five years or so, to elect a government to govern, to lead, not to keep asking us what to do next. I don’t remember why David Cameron had to ask the people what to do? The world’s best leaders didn’t ask people what to do. Once they had the mandate, they led. They may have had to seek support for their decisions, but they made the decisions — that’s leadership. Of course, they’re human, flawed, fallible — so they made mistakes, some big and some small, such is the nature of risk and return. But they made progress, they changed things. I thought I’d reference a few leaders, but you’d have to be brave to face the inevitable criticism for the wrong decisions that they made. Right decisions just aren’t newsworthy nowadays. My take on the very close 52%-48% outcome of the Brexit vote about three ye...
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