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A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man.
The recent MP’s expenses scandal went a long way in confirming the truth in this illusion.
Fortunately we are allowed moments in the House of Commons such as the “phone hacking” debate (06 July 2011) that display the better qualities of our elected representatives. Yet despite their genuine outrage and disgust together with the thoughtful consensus of approach to dealing with the problems brought within all the legal restrictions and constraints, I was constantly bombarded with the thought, “But we knew didn’t we?”
We knew like the Headmaster knows there are boys who smoke in the toilets. We knew like the wife knows her husband cheats on her. We knew with all the foreboding a mother suspects her daughter is abused. We knew when we bought the News of the World (or in why we didn’t buy it) the skill that was practiced by such artisans as Sir Neville Cardus , James Cameron - that was harnessed by editors of once distinguished newspapers to expose horrendous scandals such as the Thalidomide affair, that on the News of the World this was the domain, plaything and money earner of those boys (and girls) whose adventures behind the toilets would shock even their own readers.
After the debate, on BBC TV news, Geoffrey Robertson Q.C was in discussion with a couple of these “lads” from (to quote from the debate) “beyond the pale” on the NOTW. One of them said, “But we all hack into our friends’ mobiles. It’s just a laugh.” With the same smirk on his face as if he had said, “But we all masturbate to pictures of naked ladies”.
For at least the last 50 years the NOTW has pandered to the distorted thinkers of our world in the worst possible way. Every unfortunate - always sexual – error has been milked for the maximum titillation under the disguise of “the public interest” – our interest – yours and mine. Together with all the spin-offs, from magazine to TV shows: putting your Wiley in the “wrong” place has been demanded – and got - from us outsiders, all the finger pointing and derision experienced by these so-called journalists when the headmaster found them exposed in the urinals.
We knew – we joined in.
On the BBC’s Today programme (07 July 2011), John Humphries said as a serious comment, “Scandal only remain in the public interest as long as a new revelation keeps appearing”.
A terrible, terrible truth and the ultimate motivation for the journalistic excesses being revealed. A motivation for which we must all take responsibility. How we have forgotten that excesses on a par with these killed the mother of our future King. What did we do then?
What are we going to do now?
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