Being Alex Scott

Royal Gazette Opinion, Thursday 16 June 2005

I have a lot of sympathy for Alex Scott.

Being the leader of a country – or even a small Island – can’t be an easy job. Whatever you do, you’re pretty much guaranteed to irritate or anger someone. At best, you’re a target for annoyed members of the public and satirical newspaper columnists; at worst, you’re a target for crazed assassins. If you’re unlucky enough to operate in a parliamentary democracy then you have a whole bunch of people – the Opposition – who must dedicate their lives to finding fault with everything you do. Even the most self-confident individual must find it wearing from time to time.

So the Premier must be glad that the polls conducted every couple of months by Research Innovations on behalf of the Royal Gazette don’t just focus on his job performance. In addition to asking “Do you approve of the way Alex Scott is handling his job as Premier?”, the poll also asks “What is your overall opinion of Alex Scott?”.

This seems like a very Bermudian way of doing things. Unlike the British, who are generally mean and curmudgeonly, Bermudians are generous people, who always like to find the good in others. If the pollsters only asked us how well we thought the Premier was handling his job, I imagine that many Bermudians would feel bad about yelling “Lousy!” back down the line, even if that’s exactly how they felt. They’d worry about upsetting Mr. Scott, or hurting his feelings.

Asking us for our overall opinion of Mr. Scott makes this easier. It gives us an opportunity to tell the Premier that he shouldn’t take our feedback too personally. It lets us say, “My kids aren’t getting a decent education, I can’t afford to buy the house I live in, and I’m terrified of being robbed or hacked to death with a machete when I step outside my door. And I think it’s all your fault. But don’t let that get you down, you still seem like a nice bye to me.”

Indeed, that’s exactly what we seem to do. In almost every poll that’s been conducted, those with a favourable opinion of Alex Scott have outnumbered those who approve of the way he’s handling his job, by between 5 and 18 percentage points.

The thing that troubles me about this, though, is that I don’t think that most people have any idea what Alex Scott is like as a person. I certainly don’t. I imagine he’s probably quite nice, but having never met him, or had a beer with him, or had him round to dinner at my house, or gone on a cruise with him, I really don’t know. Just because he spends a lot of his time playing silly political games doesn’t mean he’s a bad person. Or maybe it does. Maybe he’s a really sore loser. Maybe he doesn’t wash his hands after he’s been to the toilet. Maybe he doesn’t put a new bag in the trash can after emptying the old one. Who knows?

So if few of us know what the man (or should I say, The Man) is like, why do the pollsters keep asking us for our overall opinion of him? Isn’t the only thing that matters how good a job he’s doing?

I suppose our overall opinion is a measure of Mr Scott’s charisma. Some people don’t think that charisma is important in a politician; what really matters, they say, is his or her ability to get the job done. I have a different view. We elect our Government to accomplish things on our behalf, true, but we also look to our politicians to inspire us. And for that, charisma is required.

However charisma in a politician is only important as a means to an end – as a way to get things done more easily. That’s why I don’t see the point in asking us for our overall impression of Alex Scott when we’re also being asked about how well he’s doing his job. It doesn’t matter if we all think the Premier’s a nice bloke if he’s doing a terrible job. He wasn’t elected to be likeable, he was elected to run the country. (Well, OK, so technically Jennifer was elected to run the country, but you know what I mean.) Conversely, it wouldn’t really matter if the Premier was a bit of a bore if he was running the country honestly and well.

Mr. Scott’s family and friends are the only ones who know whether he’s a nice person or not. I only care about how he’s handling his job. And that’s all the pollsters should care about too.

Comments

[Tiger Bay on 16.06.05 at 09:16]

I'd just like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that I am not Alex Scott.

* My personal popularity is higher *

;)

[Fourth Estate on 16.06.05 at 12:40]

Not a high standard! Jinx the panhandler is more popular than Alex Scott.

[ace on 16.06.05 at 12:59]

I'm Alex Scott...and so is my wife.

[Why? on 16.06.05 at 17:01]

Why does our premier think that the politicians should be getting paid more for doing NO work? They almost get paid the same amount as some workers and they only work for about 3 months. (if that) Alex is a bumbling idiot.

[Dead Ringer on 16.06.05 at 22:53]

Doesn't the US do the same separation of performance and personality in its poling? I don't think Bermuda is unique here, but I stand to be corrected. Of course there are elections, and no one would dare say that these are purely pragmatic displays of decision-making.

The British approach does have its drawbacks. If you only ask voters about job performance their overall favourability feelings will find their way into the results (like an election). People who do not like Tony Blair are far more likely to give him a lower job approval score if they have no option to judge his intentions separate from his results. By asking two different questions you present the opportunity for them to distinguish their feelings.

Asking about overall opinion makes sense in electoral terms. It also has merit because it allows the respondant to score poorly on actual results but still express support for the effort made by the leader. Meaning I don't believe that charisma is the only thing being measured by asking "What is your overall opinion of Alex Scott? That question can include much more. For example, this could be a measure of effort/sincerity vs results.

The UBP displayed particularly sour grapes over the latest poll. Scott is up 10% in job approval and 5% in favourability. Gibbons unfavourability rating jumped 13%, is performing WORSE in higher income brackets and trails Scott on favourability by 7%. Gibbons can only get a 63% favourability rating among whites! As sure as George Bush's re-election, Jamahl Simmons proclaims that the only poll that matters is the poll on election day. The Opposition loved to see the poll results when Alex Scott's ratings nose dived. But now that Scott's has improved and Grant Gibbons' is tanking all of a sudden polls are seen in a different light.