The contrast with the Ford Galaxy-driving First Family Blair of 10 Downing Street, and the patter of Leo's little feet, could not be more pointed. Hague's strengths were at the dispatch box, where he regularly bested Blair at Prime Minister's Question Time. It was all good slapstick stuff, but Hague could never overcome his poor televisual appearances. In one telling counter-attack Blair read out the findings of a focus group on his opponent. Hague was 'a nonentity, who had no substance, no personality, no stage presence' and was 'a complete waste of time,' according to the perceptions of middle England.
Modern politicians live and die on television.
No amount of fancy juvenile debating across the floor of the House of Commons can win you power. Hague built his entire life around the Conservative Party and extracting the man from the machine was an impossible task. I was once with Hague on a school visit where, for the benefit of the cameras, we tramped around the classrooms in a 20-strong pack, frightened the kids for sound bites and generally got in the way of their education. Hague never hesitated, and immediately launched into a sectarian defence of the Conservative position. But all the clever sophistry of his answers revealed not the depth, but the limitations, of his repertoire.