But ever since he became Labour's leader in 1994, Mr Blair and his acolytes have taken that habit to new extremes, applying it to policy ambitions and personaltraits alike.
Belief was part of Hester, taken for granted, a sturdy certainty that brought her confidence and allowed her to insist she must be taken as she was, allowed her to condemn as a dishonesty any concealment of personaltraits.
The data was collected via online questionnaires, so personal bias could be at play: in their responses, individuals could simply have reflected the personality traits that were valued the most in their area.