As he was officially unveiled on his first day at work as home secretary, Sajid Javid struck one familiar chord. Or rather, struck one familiar pose – the rather curious, legs-too-far-apart “power stance”.
It has become a habit from leading Conservative politicians, dating back to 2015. George Osborne was the early adopter, photographed here after delivering his speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester that year.
The spread soon spread. Future prime minister Theresa May took her turn following her speech at the same conference.
And then Michael Gove was spotted by Telegraph writer Michael Deacon, appearing backstage interviewed by the BBC, in the very same pose.
A few months later, then prime minister David Cameron was also doing it – on live TV – for his doomed TV debate attempts to get the country to vote remain in the 2016 referendum.
Oh wait, oh no, I've just come home & am catching up on the evening's news - why? Why this stance again? pic.twitter.com/Xvszuys1Jt
— Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) June 2, 2016
But where does it come from?
Back in 2015 the Guardian asked Dr Connson Locke, a leadership and organisational behaviour lecturer at LSE. After she stopped laughing at Osborne’s picture, she told Homa Khaleeli: “All I can think is that he got the advice that you should take up space to demonstrate confidence and he’s taken that to a weird extreme … It doesn’t mean standing with your feet so out of place that you look unnatural.”
One possible source is Amy Cuddy. She did a very popular TEDTalk in 2012 that suggested that people adopting “high-power poses” for a couple of minutes a day lead to a measurable difference in how confidently they felt and acted.
One of the poses she claimed had this effect is a Lynda Carter Wonder Woman-style pose, very similar to the one that the Tories keep making.
Others suggested the influence might be from a beloved TV programme closer to home.
ROAR....Unaccustomed as I am... Sajid Javid has been taking public speaking lessons from Blackadder's Prince George pic.twitter.com/JhnS0oiZyp
— John Smith (@SmithGlasgow) April 30, 2018
With the political demise of Cameron and Osborne in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, and May’s determination to put the remain-backing Conservative years behind the party, we thought the Tory power stance had disappeared.
Until today.
Could Javid’s resurrection of the pose be a coded message to backbench remainers?
Meanwhile, with the news breaking late on Sunday night that Amber Rudd had resigned following the Windrush revelations, Labour MP David Lammy had a very different power stance in mind on his way to work on Monday morning.
A vocal critic of both the prime minister and the ousted home secretary, Lammy used Twitter to suggest he’d entered the Houses of Parliament today with more than a little swagger.
Walking into Parliament this morning pic.twitter.com/P5pDVxPRXx
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) April 30, 2018
