I don’t wish to alarm anyone, but the signs suggest that general election season is upon us. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, is interviewed in the March edition of British Vogue alongside a photoshoot with his wife, Victoria. On Monday, Rishi Sunak took part in the People’s Forum: a Q&A on GB News that was a mix of party political broadcast and angry conspiracy theory. It follows his interview with Piers Morgan last week for TalkTV and an appearance on the This Morning sofa.

This is what we might call the “getting to know you” stage of the campaign, invariably made up of: introducing a spouse and, or, children to the public; rolling out a backstory to explain why you got into politics; and showing you are a real person with hobbies and interests, including insisting that you really do enjoy football, actually. It is effectively the swimsuit portion of the election campaign. Superficial and with minimal dignity.

This is nothing new in itself. Who among us could forget Theresa May’s “boy jobs and girl jobs”, or Ed Miliband admitting he’s (not quite) a pool shark. And yet this election stands out in the way that the two main parties are saddled with leaders who have so far struggled to connect with voters and who, apparently, have few natural skills that enable them to do so.

Both Starmer and Sunak are widely perceived as technocrats. The Labour leader, beset by policy........

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