By Glenn Whitney


Is it time to declare the command-and-control leader dead and buried?

Certainly in the U.K. all talk is suddenly about “trust” and “common purpose.” Newly minted Prime Minister David Cameron is now widely seen as a leader with phenomenal skills of influence and persuasion, the ability to build a coalition with a minority party that was believed to be congenitally resistant to compromise with the Tory Party.

Hastily departing Number 10 Downing Street was a man who might be the last – in Britain anyway – of the unrestrained autocrats. Former P.M. and Labour Leader Gordon Brown, likened by insiders to Joseph Stalin, accused of bullying (denied) and of physical violence (denied). Definitely caught on a surprise audio recording just before the election disparaging a voter as a bigot, someone he was glad-handing moments before.

While the Liberal Democratic Party seemed willing to explore a coalition with Labour, they quickly gave up, despite much greater overlap in values and political priorities. Brown had spent years treating LibDem leader Nick Clegg with barely disguised contempt, even going so far as to only refer to his party as “Liberals,” a moniker they themselves don’t use.

And now Clegg has just completed his first news conference as deputy prime minster, alongside an affable and supremely comfortable looking Cameron. The two of them jovially fending off highly speculative questions and sounding for all the world like a couple of mates who just happen to support occasionally opposing football teams. Maybe there is something to this humble, servant leadership thing afterall…