So their President and our PM have not "met" yet?

There is an extraordinary discussion going on here. People are complaining, worrying, dissecting and expressing alarm. The President of the United States went home early from a meeting and, horror of horrors, he did not stay to meet our Prime Minister as planned. It was a scheduled, twenty minute meeting! It was important!

No, it wasn't. Meetings like that are rarely important. They are made out to be but the real work gets done behind the scenes by others. Work is still being done in that way. It is very unlikely anything would have been "negotiated" in twenty minutes. This is particularly so given the two men who would have been meeting.

The President likes to keep people guessing. He likes to keep them on edge. He will pretend he has not made up his mind even after he has. It is how he works. Possibly he believes people will be more ready to accept his decisions if he works that way. I do not know. I have not met the man. It is highly unlikely I ever will. He is hard to follow the way he thinks.

I have not met our Prime Minister either. It is also unlikely I will ever meet him but it is easier to read the way he thinks. He likes to believe he is a very important person, not just here but on the world stage. That is a view held by many people, even some of his closest and strongest supporters. 

The problem with this is that he is an important person in this country. He is important simply because of the position he holds. It is no more and no less than that. He likes to mention he was brought up by a single parent on a housing estate and that they were short of money. This may be true but money was found for him to be educated within the Catholic system. Were there connections there he does not wish to acknowledge? It seems likely because they would not fit with the narrative he likes to tell. That narrative is very important to him. 

As Prime Minister he does not seem to have the same force of personality as some of his predecessors - on both sides. I have met five previous Prime Ministers - three Labor and two Coalition. They all came across as leaders, as much stronger personalities. The present incumbent does not come across that way. I may be quite wrong about this of course but the view is shared by many other people.  It is felt by many that he goes overseas to meetings whenever he can because he is trying to be a big player on the world stage. As a country of around twenty-seven million people we simply are not seen as that important. Perhaps it is time for our PM to recognise that, stay at home more often and build a stronger country?