The ChangingMinds Blog!

ChangingMinds Blog! > Blog Archive > 04-Nov-05

Friday 04-Nov-05

Political blunders and the power of the press

There's a strange and dysfunctional pattern into which politicians often fall, where they seem to think they play outside or above the rules. And it's a game that the press love to join.

Here in the UK, Cabinet member David Blunkett (Work and Pensions Secretary),  has just been toppled over holding shares in a company that gained government contracts and taking payments, albeit for a short period. As usual, he left 'voluntarily' after weeks of claiming innocence and trivializing the transgression ("Having investments and holding shares in modern Britain is not a crime, declaring them is imperative"). It was less that a year ago he was ousted over claims that he fast-tracked a visa application for his lover's former nanny. Some people don't learn, it seems.

The press will, of course, claim another scalp. It is sad how the unelected have such power. It's a part of the pattern of the British press that the more famous you are, the more they love to cut you down and cast you out -- especially if you've done a come-back trick. With increasing howls for resignation and determined muck-raking, they delight in destroying the high and mighty. It seems like a hangover from our class-driven past. A case of feudal retribution, perhaps.

Shame, really. David Blunkett is an amazing person, having overcome blindness to become one of the most powerful and respected people in the country. Even after a previous shaming and ousting, Prime Minister Tony Blair valued his services so much he recalled him. Love him or hate him, you cannot help but admire the man.

In the US also, politicians are wriggling as the investigation into who knew what about the starting of the Iraq war rumbles on, getting dangerously close to the top.

In some countries that purport to be democratic, corruption is so rife that true democracy is really a long way off and journalists live in well-founded fear. Politicians can do pretty much what they like and freedom of the press is a figment of the imagination.

France seem to have a nice balance. Political leaders are not wrong-footed by sexual scandals and news of a politician having a mistress are met with a typical Gallic shrug. The people and the press there have a healthy sense of nationalism and are quite protective of their leaders in matters that do not directly affect 'La France' or 'Les Français'. Perhaps 'Vive la France' is the right principle, after all.

Your comment on this blog: