I struggle with jetlag whenever I have a long-haul flight. Short flights aren’t always kind to me either, presumably because I am not the spring chicken I used to be. It’s why I am always in awe when newspapers and television channels talk about our political leaders and how they have none of the problems that beset the rest of us.

More and more newspapers and television channels now feel the need to inform us of these developments, which makes sense because it proves that serious journalism is alive and well in what is obviously a vibrant, thriving democracy. This is how I found out that the Prime Minister returned from a recent holiday to the United States and plunged straight into the business of governance, stepping out to check on the progress of a building renovation. What shocked me wasn’t the unearthly evening hour at which he stepped out—a time when most of us unlucky enough to have real families would be gathered around a dinner table—but the commitment to proper construction that sent a bold message via every photographer summoned to document this event. It was a message that appearances matter above everything else, and I stood before my television set to applaud this masterstroke.