If you’ve ever been in group therapy, you will have recognised many of the behaviour types in the BBC’s Tory leadership debate. There was Mr Avoidance (Boris Johnson), who kept his head down and let the clock run out, and Mr Calculating (Jeremy Hunt), who kept his interjections to a minimum and studiously ignored his rivals in favour of speaking directly to the inquisitive punters.
There was The Overachiever (Michael Gove), trying to one-up everyone by boasting about his achievements in government and his many plans to solve all of Britain’s ills. Sajid Javid was the Passive-Aggressive Snarker, agreeing with Gove here, jabbing Boris there, and mugging sceptically throughout Rory Stewart’s every answer. For his part, Stewart was the Obsessive-Compulsive Antagonist, unable to resist an opportunity to point out how different he was from the other candidates by slaughtering one Tory sacred cow after another.
So many personality disorders, so few personalities, and proceedings were not assisted by Emily Maitlis, who couldn’t decide whether she wanted to be a moderator or an interrogator and ended up the substitute teacher who couldn’t hack the problem class.
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