What Every Politician Knows

I keep meaning to write something intelligent about the French elections but each time I abandon the task as beyond me. There is at once too much and too little to say about a process which just goes on and on: we won't really be shot of the thing until after the legislative elections in June, by which time we will all be exhausted.

Politicians are subject to such relentless scrutiny nowadays that you might wonder what on earth induces them to subject themselves to such hostile exposure. But the public and the media quickly tire of a news item, a scandal, etc. and soon set off in search of fresh meat. All a politician has to do is keep his head down and weather the storm. As Brigitte Bardot's favourite politiican, Vladimir Putin, is fond of saying: "The dog barks but the caravan moves on".