The dictator returns - through his spawn

News that Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi will, indeed, run for president of Libya next month, comes just days after Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s campaign to claim the Philippines’ presidency revved up a notch.

Mr Marcos Jr said he would make Sara Duterte, daughter of the freewheeling, foul-mouthed current president, his vice president. It would be a powerful pairing of political dynasties. The juniors might just win.

As for Mr Qaddafi, despite some of the criticism of him, there appears to be a surprising level of appreciation in Libya for his potential to be a unifying figure reminiscent of a lost age of stability under his father.

It’s interesting that dictators’ children are in the news in countries some 10,000 km away from each other. In both Libya and the Philippines, it seems that the taint of association with a dictator may not be a disqualifier. In some ways, it might almost be a branding triumph, as well as a harking back to a time of certainty.

Certainly, there is a bold-facedness about the …