Forget the fusty constitutional quagmire of House of Lords reform, and gleefully cataloguing Olympic embarrassments, and look to William Hague.
Storming around Libya, searching for the abducted Olympic chief, navigating unwieldy UN security council resolutions, and chastising Russians, the foreign secretary makes you realise what politicians actually should be spending time on.
No wonder only 0.36% of Telegraph readers want to oust him from position, and that the bookies have pitched him at 6/1 for becoming the next chancellor.
As his Westminster pals dither over the same old coalition tug o’ war, which manifests itself weekly in various impenetrable ideological forms, and disrupt the motorways of British society with incessant U-turns (oh, and the Games Lanes), our man in the FCO is the one minister who really cannot afford to prevaricate. Syria is his remit, and innocent civilians – not a red-faced mob of pasty and petrol guzzlers – are depending on foreign ministers across the world such as himself to put an end to the Assad regime’s terror and rebel violence razing the beleagured Middle Eastern state.
However, like everyone else, he is darting away from conviction, following the UN’s cosy route of half-promises and semi-scolding, rather than inciting any action along the firmer line on Damascus the UK and US governments are attempting to pursue.
He spoke today of “serious consequences” for those defying Kofi Annan’s peace plan for Syria, but failed to delineate what these “consequences” would be. Surely if he wishes to write punishments for non-compliance into the peace plan, he has to outline what these would be.
Unlike his fellow cabinet ditherers, he stands to lose no face by trying and failing to instigate this plan – particularly when the Syrian people are losing far more than face by his and the UN’s failure even to attempt to act.
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