Nicholas Barrett

It emerged this week that our prime minister had hired a personal photographer and 25 other ‘vanity staff’ and put them on the government payroll. While axing thousands of civil service jobs to reduce the deficit, David ‘we’re all in this together’ Cameron feels the need to have professional photos of himself looking good. I could talk about the hypocrisy of a man worth £30million billing us for his photo album but I think that’s really obvious. The question I really want to ask is; is our prime minister a narcissist?

While wanting to be stalked by a personal photographer does portray a high level of vanity and egotism we have to remember that Cameron is a product of public image. He worked in public relations for years and at a time when the conservative party was seen as old and out of touch he presented himself as a ‘progressive conservative’. He cared about climate change, he cycled, he like the smiths and did the dishes while telling ‘webcameron’ what he could do for the country. That’s why I expected things like this to arise.

We all like seeing ourselves looking good on facebook but its only narcissism that could prevent a man from learning a lesson. Back in 2006 he was exposed for cycling to work with a car following him, the car carried his briefcase and shoes and the incident cancelled out all the perceptions he was trying to impose by cycling to work in the first place. So you would think that he would have learnt that however good professional photos looked on his website any positive impact would turn sour if the taxpayers knew that it was at their expense.

The term ‘narcissism’ was coined by Freud after Narcissus a pathologically self-obsessed man who looked into a pool and fell in love with his own reflection. Freud pondered that we are all narcissists from the day we are born, it’s just that some of us suppress it better than others. David can’t explain why he needs a photographer, when asked about it by Ed Milliband he simply smirked and replied “is that the best you can do? He is obviously unable to admit that he even has a problem. So pity David Cameron (at least until he starts commissioning statues of himself) but just remember that next time you see an airbrushed photo of him pretending to care, you paid for it and he desperately wanted you to see it.