I think I know why people are so upset over the leaked videos of Finnish PM Sanna Marin partying, says Finn McRedmond in The Irish Times: the 36-year-old looks too normal to be a politician. She dances, poses for the camera, mimes lyrics – an “intensely familiar scene” to many people. Sure, everyone always bangs on about wanting our leaders to be more relatable. But we don’t actually want them to be like us at all.
This is perhaps because we’re so used to politicians being, well, a bit weird. And when they try to be normal, it tends to go wrong. In 2016, aspiring Labour leader Owen Smith called a cappuccino a “frothy coffee” in a misguided attempt to appear like “an average Joe”. Those who don’t hide their weirdness usually come across much better. When Boris Johnson was once asked how much a loaf of bread cost, he replied that he didn’t know – but that he could “tell you the price of a bottle of champagne”.