THERE is a fine line between leading a person or a nation to work to the very best of their abilities, to the very edge of their courage and fortitude – and bullying people in pursuit of the same aim. When you encounter good leadership, you know it instinctively. Zelensky has it in spades, doesn’t he? Working for a bully, though, is a different kettle of fish – no inspiration, less motivation towards long-term goals and even less enthusiasm for today’s tasks. The hero sets the example, the bully you avoid, recoil from. The one gives hope even in the most desperate of situations. The threats and aggression of the other often mask something less impressive while those on the receiving end are waiting, even hoping for failure.

Leadership is not the same as telling people what to do. I had a boss once who used to quip that he did not suffer from stress but was proud to be a carrier of it. Every wrong decision, every misjudgement was masked by casting around for someone to shout at or blame. He used the power of position to cover personal inadequacy and professional incompetence. There was only ever one outcome – a spiral of discovery, of cover up and deflection, of wasteful diversion until the inevitable and damaging mutiny. The cardinal sin of top people is not discarding some of the habits and techniques that may have got them there. How grotesque, then, is the thought we may have one such, right at the heart of government. What a waste of time and energy waiting for the outcome.

While most English shires are going to the polls in May, Dorset remains above the fray for another year. What an ideal time to get involved in the political process! There is every reason to make your voice heard, every reason to join a like-minded team to make your voice grow stronger, every reason with a generosity of spirit to seek to understand other points of view. Politics works best when it rises, as a pyramid does, from the broadest possible base. With elections in BCP, levelling up investment in Weymouth, green investment around Dorchester, there is an itch that the Blackmore Vale and our wider part of Dorset, is being forgotten.
We need a volume of voices to make sure the best choices are being made about quarries, about houses being built without the infrastructure of schools, medical, sports and entertainment facilities, to say nothing of green spaces, about magic levelling-up projects that should have been happening anyway. It is the base of the pyramid whose voice must be heard loudest. If the politicians get away with promising the earth but delivering lemons, then we have no-one to blame but ourselves. Join in!