Good Friday Agreement is a sign of what true leaders can achieve, in contrast to today's vacuous populists – Scotsman comment

As Joe Biden arrived in Northern Ireland to mark the Good Friday Agreement’s 25th anniversary – and underline “the US commitment to preserving peace and encouraging prosperity” – there will be many people who are glad that the leader of the free world is taking such a keen interest.

U2's lead singer Bono holds up the arms of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, left, and SDLP leader John Hume at a concert to promote the Good Friday Agreement (Picture: Gerry Penny/AFP via Getty Images)

For the renewed focus on the politicians who were instrumental in ending the Troubles has highlighted just how much we all need competent, caring and serious leaders. People like Mo Mowlam, the then Northern Ireland Secretary, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour just months before the peace talks began but played a vital role despite undergoing painful treatment.

Ulster Unionist David Trimble and John Hume, of the SDLP, who were jointly awarded the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, paid a heavy political price, with Sinn Fein and the DUP becoming Northern Ireland’s main political parties, but they were prepared to make personal sacrifices for the greater good.

Northern Ireland was blessed to have politicians of such calibre, whose actions will likely have helped save thousands of lives. But nostalgia for such statesmanship is a sign of our times, with more recent politicians seemingly attempting to lead from the rear.

David Cameron’s fondness for letting the people decide in referendums led to Brexit. Boris Johnson swithered over his position but decided to back it in what many suspect was a cold calculation about his own political advantage as he sensed the prevailing mood.

Meanwhile, it is hard to imagine Donald Trump’s arrival in Northern Ireland, had he won the 2020 election, being a cause for any kind of optimism, while the thought of Trump in the White House when Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine is genuinely terrifying.

Most populists have one main priority: the acquisition of power. To achieve it, they will lie and cheat, say what people want to hear, whip up hatred, and wrap themselves in flags to hide their naked ambition and vacuous rhetoric.

A real leader should take advice but ultimately needs to make their own decisions. They will not always get it right, but if they put the interests of the people they lead first, they at least have a chance of creating a legacy as lasting and important as the Good Friday Agreement.