CAMBRIDGE, England -- We get the leaders we deserve, so we are told. But do we always know who our leaders are? I am constantly frustrated in China by being told what a great prime minister Margaret Thatcher was.
And I hardly recognize the description of Tony Blair in the U.S. press as the man who is the prime minister of Britain. A great statesman? Surely there is some mistake. This is the man who is single-handled doing more to nullify parliamentary democracy and British Cabinet government than any political leader since the older Oliver Cromwell.
We seem to have the same problem with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. I wonder whether the Japanese people with whom he is apparently very popular are aware of the image that he is developing abroad? For some reason, the word clown is the one that most easily springs to mind.