Suzanne Harrington: Giving lessons in the art of resignation could be Leo's next job

Suzanne Harrington: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gave a 'resignation masterclass' when he announced he is to step down as Taoiseach and as leader of the Fine Gael party
The internet is full of articles such as '10 Signs You Should Let Go', '11 Ways to Walk Away', or '12 Reasons to Move On'. Looks like Leo Varadkar has been staying up late, reading them all — the result has been a resignation masterclass. No hinting, no lingering... just a short sharp quit, accompanied by a sentence so refreshing it rivals rolling around naked in fresh snow: “I am not the best person for the job anymore.”
Rarer than skateboarding pandas is a politician resigning because they no longer think they are up to it — and saying so out loud, rather than the usual stuff trotted out about wanting to spend more time with their family / golf clubs / hedge fund. Leo Varadkar might never have been the best person for the job, depending on where you sit politically, but that’s not the point. The point is that he chose to step down before he had to, or was made to. And he said why.
Hopefully, our youngest, brownest, and gayest Taoiseach to date will not have quit for Nicola Sturgeon reasons — hers was a dignified and unexpected resignation, quickly followed by a police investigation into alleged dastardliness. Let us hope instead that Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp was Leo’s resignation role model; when Klopp told the world he was quitting one of the most exciting and well-paid jobs imaginable at the end of the football season, he was honest about why. He said he’s drained. He’s run out of energy. He’s 56, and needs some sofa time.
If only others in far more urgent need of resigning would take note. Of the 332 million US citizens, the two people picked from this vast population to contest the next presidency in November will be a forgetful 82-year-old white man or a dangerously unstable 78-year-old white man: neither has any intention of stepping aside, but are choosing to slug it out like two drunks in a care home.
In Russia, another dangerous lunatic has just secured another fixed term in power by having rivals killed, like some mad medieval king; while in Israel, a despicable individual — so keen to stay in power he has created famine in Palestine as a political strategy — refuses to budge. And in Britain, Leo Varadkar’s unelected counterpart clings to power like a drowning oligarch, as his own desperate party stabs him both back and front.
Perhaps the most overdue resignation of all, however, comes from an unelected hereditary institution so on its arse that it’s been reduced to sending out fake photos of one of its female members in a desperate bid to look functional. Yes, KateGate. Any other family, there’d be a police investigation into a disappeared woman. It’s not so much a resignation needed from the British royals as a formal dissolution... an acknowledgment that their time is up.
Perhaps this could be Leo Varadkar’s next role — coaching power-mad individuals and outdated institutions still clinging on, in the art of stepping aside, and giving new people a go. The art of resignation.