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Former British PM can transcend the narrow vision of many EU leaders on the European Council president’s role, writes JOHN WATERS

THE RECENT award of the Nobel Peace prize to US president Barack Obama – and he not even a wet day in office – summarises eloquently the attitude of western culture to political leadership in our time. What we look for in our leaders is the preservation of moral and political virginity, uncontaminated by responsibility or decisions. This touching but unrealistic desire is a byproduct of six decades of tranquillity, interruptedly momentarily by 9/11. At the core of this culture is the idea that peace is natural and conflict always a self-serving choice made for base reasons by bad people. This outlook has gained increased traction of late as a result of the internet, which allows an active minority, overburdened with free time and entirely unburdened with responsibility or accountability, to increasingly dictate the drift of thought in our democracies.