Politicians are all mad, by definition. Who but a madman could go around telling everybody I know what we need to do! Vote for me & the world will be a better place! All your problems solved! All your worries over!
The ones who are most mad are those who really seem to believe this
David Owen has written a book about the illnesses of some senior politicians in the past. The implication seems to be that, first, we should know about this at the time – their doctors, presumably, are supposed to tell us
And secondly, by implication at least, they should be removed from office because their judgement is suspect. And it is downright dangerous for them to have their finger on the worlds self-destruct button or whatever
My problem is that a politician does not have to be ill – physically or mentally – nor to be using powerful drugs in order to show the most appalling judgement
It is not enough to show that some politicians who made what we regard as particularly faulty judgements could have been said to be ill. We need to analyse all decisions by the diagnosed health status of the individual who made it
You never know, the sickest people may have made the least worst decisions
