[Speaker]: government is a conspiracy of distraction because you've got events and crisis and Scandals and the most difficult thing is to keep focused when you've got so many things that are diverting you from that core task

[Speaker]: what often happens with leaders and I sometimes what we do with our leaders is we say to them okay we're going to do an analysis of here are your priorities here's how much time you spend on them and up literally with people spending 4% of their time on their priorities and you say well no wonder you're not succeeding

[Speaker]: so when you look back at your time as prime minister or I'm not necessarily picking on your time just any head of state and um uh Western Government or any government how much of the time they spend is fundamentally wasted it's not fundamentally moving the ball forward you know it's like meeting people ambassadors uh press whatever how much of the time is just that a lot I mean I don't greater than 80% 90% no that would be too high I think but but a lot and a lot more today because people are expected

[Speaker]: so I have this this thing that I I I I often say to to to lead us and I think this is the single biggest problem with Western politics today you know sometimes when I when I used to my kids were younger and I used to speak with them and I would say to them you know work Work hard Play Hard right if you work hard play hard equals possibility of success play hard work hard it's certain failure right because you'll play so hard you never end up working hard right the equivalent in politics is policy first politics second in other words work out what the right answer is and then work out how you shape the politics around that but actually what happens in a lot of systems today is it's politics first and policy second

[Speaker]: so people end up with a political position they've they've they've chosen for political reasons and then they try and shape a policy around that politics and it never works because the most important thing and this is why I say to you about policy makers and intellectual business is you've got to get the right answer and there is a right answer by the way it's and often you know the reason why it's so difficult to govern today is there's so much political noise it's hard to get out of that zone of noise and sit in in a room with some people who really know what they're talking about and go into the detail of what is the solution to a problem and you know sometimes when I talk to leaders about this and I I I find that they they they just say to me I I don't have the time to do that and I say if you don't have the time to do that you are going to fail because in the end you won't have the right answer answer right

[Speaker]: and you've got to believe over time that the best policy is the best politics over time yeah how so structurally how would you change the it's not just the time you had to spend for example talking to the Press but also the kinds of topics that draws attention to which are what statement your cabinet minister made on the BBC and some latest Scandal is that fundamentally like the 30 minutes of the pmqs is not the big deal it's the two days you spend an anxiety in preparation that you talking about in the book is that fundamentally the attention distraction is the bigger issue than the actual time you spend on these events

[Speaker]: yeah I I I think I think it is to a degree I mean I think the other thing is you you you you undergo a lot of attack today in politics and you know you at a certain level what happens I mean it could happen to celebrities but but they tend to have a at least some sort of fan base that are constantly supporting them but with with politics today you can often be in a situation where you know you're you're almost dehumanized right you're you're subject to attacks on your integrity your character you know what your your intentions you know it's possible if you're not careful that you're just sitting there thinking this is really unfair and you get distracted from focusing on the business

[Speaker]: and that's why I will say to people one part of being a political leader or any leader I think thing is to be able to have a certain sort of what I call it kind of Zen a bit of a zenik attitude to all the criticism and the you know disputatiousness that will go on around you because it's just going to happen and in today with social media it happens to an even greater degree and you know one of the things I often say to leaders is you you cannot pay attention to this stuff I mean okay get someone to summarize it for you in half a page and you read it it for you but honestly you start going in you go down that rabbit hole you'll never reemerge