Foreign secretary, previously known for saying too much, now is vague and unreactive
A therapist once introduced me to a strategy which I’ll paraphrase as “boring on purpose” – when someone’s speaking, and you find your mind wandering, the fault may not be yours. It could be that they’re being repetitive, vague, unreactive, wadding each sentence with generalities like cavity wall insulation, for a reason: to resist the intimacy of your full attention, to divert you from whatever it is they don’t want to discuss. If it’s a useful tactic in everyday life, that’s nothing on its deployment in front of a select committee.
Dominic Raab was previously known for his pugnacity, prone to saying more than he meant to, in irritation. That trait has been ironed out in whatever word-management course ministers are now obliged to attend, and the foreign affairs select committee, chaired by Tom Tugendhat, was treated to an altogether different man – quietly monotonous, defeatist without being penitent, trotting out the same rote phrases like a copy-and-paste job from the clipboard remnants of his bleached out personality.
