Politics

Elaine Byrne: Bad news for Ireland as Truss and Sunak don the Thatcherite mantle

A dirty and derisory Tory leadership contest has seen both candidates summoning up the spirit of the Iron Lady, which spells even more polarised politics ahead

Tory leadership hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak: this is a deeply dirty contest which has been characterised by backroom briefing wars, ugly leaks and dossiers of compromising allegations against rivals. Picture: Getty

The basic personality type of a politician necessitates a good dollop of narcissism. In 2020, an academic paper published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin looked at the psychological motivations of those involved in politics.

It found a positive correlation between narcissism and political participation. “The general picture is that individuals who believe in themselves, and believe that they are better than others, engage in the political process more,” the authors concluded.

Narcissists ...