Name: Sock diplomacy.

Appearance: Colourful.

Inventor: Justin Trudeau, the 23rd prime minister of Canada.

Not him again. What’s wrong with Justin Trudeau?

Well, there are worse prime ministers out there, I suppose. Like who?

Let’s not get into that. The point is I don’t care for all the sycophants who treat Trudeau like Ryan Gosling just because – for a politician – he is relatively young, liberal and handsome. Hey, give us liberal sycophants a break! We needed someone to bridge the gap between Obama and Macron. And don’t you think it’s cute that a world leader wears fun socks?

In my experience, when people wear “fun socks”, that’s usually the funnest thing about them. Perhaps. Although Trudeau also has a tattoo of a globe encompassed by a raven on his left arm.

Whatever. I just want to know why we have to be obsessed with how he looks? It’s so, um … Well there’s something wrong with it. No there isn’t, because in the case of these socks, we are supposed to be obsessed. Trudeau often wears a special pair for particular occasions, so we can assume he wants the world to take an interest. According to the New York Times, this is sock diplomacy.

Is it now? For instance, he wore Star Wars socks (one C-3P0, one R2-D2) on 4 May, AKA Star Wars Day. He wore pink and blue socks with the Nato symbol for the Nato summit later that month. He has maple leaf socks, of course, that he’s worn several times. On Sunday he even joined the Toronto Gay Pride Parade while wearing rainbowish-striped socks with “Eid Mubarak” woven into them.

It must be tricky to find a garment that says “Islam” and “gay rights” at the same time. A Judy Garland hijab?

I’m sure that was his second choice. So have these socks brought peace and prosperity to the world? Too early to say. Trudeau has only been prime minister for two years. But his Nato socks did get admiring glances from Angela Merkel. And symbolic clothes have always been an important part of political messaging.

Such as? The red “power tie” beloved of US Republicans. Or Jeremy Corbyn’s geography-teacher chic.

Didn’t Tony Blair once wear naked lady cufflinks? Yes, I believe he did.

What did they mean? I prefer not to think about it.

Do say: “Just think how much you could say with printed tights!”

Don’t say: “Shall we try sandal diplomacy as well?”