Mark Pack

Newt Gingrich, a right-winger whose bid to become US President looks to be crashing and burning after many of his senior staff walked out on his campaign, is not an obvious role model for British politicians, especially those not on the right.

But at heart quite a few all across the political spectrum would, I suspect, be rather pleased if he ends up doing well. That’s because the cause of the falling out is Gingrich’s insistence on doing two things that will strike a chord with many politicians and a fear into many election agents.

He has kept on taking lengthy holidays at the expense of spending time on the campaign trail. That itself caused friction with the now ex-staff, but even more friction came from his insistence that his campaign should be heavily based on him talking, speaking and writing at great length on weighty policy matters.

In other words, strike out much of the campaigning and replace it with holidays and policy wonkery.

If he succeeds, that’ll make him a very popular role model. But alas, before any politician gets their hopes up, so far preferring holidays and detailed policy over conventional campaigning ain’t working for him. Election agents can breathe easy for a while yet.