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Long life

You can't spin yourself into authenticity – as Ed Miliband is finding out

Self-deprecation can work for a politician. But only one whose faults are charming

2 August 2014

9:00 AM

2 August 2014

9:00 AM

For a politician to draw attention to his own deficiencies is a desperate attempt to curry favour with the electorate that has been tried before with dismal consequences. The most famous case is that of the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith who, at his 2002 party conference, addressed the problem of his dullness as a political performer by saying that no one should ‘underestimate the determination of a quiet man’.

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