Thanks, Nandor

Politics is a toxic process for draining the life juices
from human beings and reducing whole souls to
stick figures. With luck and self-care you may be
able to survive the experience with some shreds of
integrity still clinging to your hide. On the basis
alone of his very fine valedictory speech, you’d have
to say that Nandor Tanczos achieved a lot more than
that: after nine years as an MP he walked out of
Parliament still recognizably human. Possibly no
other politician has ever done it so magnificently
as he did, smashing his watch on the desk in front
of him, saying that when he looked at the state of
this country he didn’t need a watch to know what
time it was. Well done, that man. I never agreed with
him about drug use but he enriched Parliament by
his presence, proving, again, the blessings of MMP,
which has given us a far healthier diversity of people
in the House and—possibly, just possibly—made
politics a tad less toxic in the process.