Watching President Macron's first televised interview this Sunday, two things struck me.
Firstly, wow. This man is eloquent, considered, sensitive, confident, and inspires confidence in his ability as a leader and in France.
Here's a man that has instigated one of the most radical reforms of French labour law in decades; is establishing a road map for the future of the European Union; launched a French Tech Visa to inspire a startup nation; and challenged America and the world to "make our planet great again" after Trump announced that the US would pull out of the Paris climate agreement. Not to mention the infamous Trump handshake.
What else struck me? Where the hell is our Macron?
Over the past week, we've been discussing the failed coup of Theresa May by Grant Shapps, a former Conservative party chairman. While Shapps has come out of the affair labeled a "cowardly", "embittered" fantasist, once against this has brought to the fore the question: If not May, then who else?
Because, let's honestly look at the options...
Boris - The party member's favourite, the apparently insincere Brexiteer that lead the campaign to spite Cameron doesn't exactly instill confidence in his political integrity. And of course, there are his tasteless comments from Party Conference where he cheerily suggested Libya could become the next Dubai if it'd just "clear the dead bodies away", that rightly led to calls within the party for him to be sacked.
Rees-Mogg - The Etonian who brags about having never changed a nappy has become the latest politician to achieve a cult of personality on social media with the fervent Moggmentum campaign. But given his open objections to both abortion (even in the case of rape) and gay marriage, one would hope that he'd come up against the same criticism as Tim Farron endured during the previous election campaign.
Rudd - Arguably, Amber Rudd is currently the most successful at maintaining an image of "the best of a bad bunch". However, just 12 months ago Rudd was under fire for a Party Conference speech that was compared to Hitler's Mein Kampf and was forced to say "don't call me racist" after she advocated foreigners were stealing jobs from British workers.
Corbyn - The people's favourite who "didn't lose" the last election of course cannot be overlooked, for while one would hope the Tories will hold together a government longer than last time (for the sake of the country's stability and economy, there's certainly no love lost here), well... never say never. But despite his well-established fan base and finally managing to establish some concrete policies, he has an abysmal record at holding onto a shadow cabinet that doesn't exactly instill confidence. And I'm not ready to overlook his inability - and reluctance - to tackle anti-semitism within the party.
And that's where I come back to Macron.
When we look across the pond at the reform, the positivity and the potential that France is currently facing, it's hard not to get a bit jealous. When we watch the French leader confidently discussing how he plans to resolve the challenges that the country is facing, from terrorism and social welfare, to the sexual harassment of women on the streets of Paris, it's hard not to think "what if?"
The UK is facing one of the most challenging political climates of decades. Far from having the trust and confidence of the British people, the Conservative government lead by May is barely staggering through negotiations in Europe and spluttering through reform at home.
The UK needs to find its own answer to Macron. To reform, bring together and lead the country through these turbulent times.
Macron 2.0, if you're out there and ready to try your hand as the British PM. I'm ready and waiting.