Charisma-driven politics

Discussing British politics, the Bagehot column in the current Economist (subscription, probably) hits the nail on the head:

[P]olicy is a decreasingly important factor in politics generally—certainly compared with the genuinely ideological clashes of the 1980s. Part of the explanation for that trend is that Labour and the Tories now agree about so much, even if they conceal their similarity by narcissistically inflating small differences. [Prime Minister] Brown's omnivorous pilfering of everyone else's best ideas is blurring the distinction more than ever (which hurts the Lib Dems, since this coalescence has made grumpy Labour and Tory voters readier to switch straight to the other big party). Part of it is the influence of digital media on how political opinions are formed. That has made having a charismatic and ideally photogenic leader vital....

It's no bad thing, in my view, that ideology's influence is lessening. I'd prefer though that policy were instead driven by outcomes rather than visual imagery.