A ‘grand vision’ may have propelled the PM into office, but it’s the mundane details that really matter

The sausage row with Brussels is a perfect example of how grand political projects can run aground on the inconvenient complications of everyday life, says Andrew Woodcock

Brexit was nothing if not a ‘grand project’ (PA)

Aspirant politicians tend to enter the trade with grand dreams – to feed the world, end poverty, make their country prosperous – but in reality the job can end up being a lot more mundane. The past week has been an object lesson in that truth.

When a young Boris Johnson declared his ambition to be “world king”, last weekend’s G7 summit in Cornwall may well have been what he had in mind – presidents and prime ministers from around the world beating a path to his door, promises to vaccinate the world and solve climate change, David Attenborough beamed in by video link, the Queen cutting a cake with a sword!

Equally, while no one would wish the Covid pandemic on the world, every would-be PM must have imagined themselves taking the helm to steer the country through the stormy seas of national emergency.