"Regrettably, our quaintly self-contained political sphere is one best understood through experience--" this is not a man who is fond of politics (or politicians), but given he's evidently also some manner of authority on the subject one can safely assume that he came by his distaste honestly and does not, in fact, let it get in the way of his ability to grasp its intricacies and finer points, "--but I can direct you to locally relevant political theory."

When he says 'relevant' he also means 'of any value'. There is plenty of Baedal political theory he's read that he would not, personally, describe as relevant to anyone beyond its presumably furiously masturbating authors.

Having turned away on discovering Mycroft's interests, as he speaks he's sifting through the filing cabinet behind his desk until-- yes, this folder, neatly organized. The language it's labelled in will be wholly unrecognizable to the other man (Elenic and English are virtually indistinguishable spoken aloud, but the written word of the former is not what you might call aesthetically pleasing), but Martel's own familiarity and several of the writings visible on his desk give it away as his own handwriting. He leans forward, his weight resting on one hand as he casts about with the other for a clean sheet of paper, another pen-- translating a list as he continues, "The overlap between cohort statistics and political theory here begins with the same problem of our dreadfully murky history. We are presented with an interesting pattern in arrivals and generational waves, but statistical data is-- limited, without satisfying detail."

There's only so far one can go with it...but Martel doesn't seem to be suggesting that it's not worth pursuing, for all that. He did, after all.