When the going gets tough, the tough get going was an adage long before the arrival of the Billy Ocean pop song of the same name in the 1980’s.
Regrettably, it alludes to the reality that when times are difficult, we need strong leadership to see us through.
What it doesn’t suggest, is that the flip side to this two-edged sword is that in times of peace or stability, it is very easy for poor and weak leaders to do anything they want to try and make themselves look tough.
Until the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Which is underway as I write) the UK and most of the world had experienced and enjoyed over seventy-five years of continued peace.
Sadly, whilst challenging times – and by this, I mean genuinely challenging times, such as a World War – have the capacity to bring out the best in leadership. Whereas for us all, a period of peacetime – when circumstances and the accepted narrative suggest that our every need is taken care of – lead to complacency for anyone and everyone who is not being touched by problems that to everyone else remain unseen.
Birds of a feather flock together, and a system filled with the poorest leaders only attracts more of the same with diminishing quality that makes everything get progressively worse.
Adam Tugwell 