So last night I finished christening my new TV with the HD premiere of 300. I think it's an awesome film, blending spectacular visuals with explosive action scenes, as well as the best soundbites since Anchorman. But, it occurred to me half-way through watching Leonidas battle the uber-Immortal (and yes, the character is actually called that), that he wouldn't be a very good peacetime leader. At the slightest provocation, he leads his men into certain oblivion, and kicks a guy into a bottomless pit. Sure, he's the greatest warrior-king in Greece, and he can give a good Henry V speech, but he'd be useless when it came to dealing with climate change or electoral reform. To any taunt from a protestor, he'd just shout "This is Sparta!" and slaughter everyone in sight.
You can hardly imagine him at the upcoming Copenhagen Summit on climate change, sitting amongst Gordon, Nicholas and Barrack in his loincloth and armour. "Carbon neutral!? This is madness?!". His reaction to the EU would surely be along the lines of "Give them nothing but take from them everything!".
Maybe our leaders need to be a bit more like King Leo - I for one would love to see Gordon Brown duke it out with Dimitry Medvedev or Kim Jong Il. I mean, he's got nothing to lose, right?
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