Examentrainers

NEW STATESMAN

How politicians killed privacy

		Are there now no limits to intrusion into the
		private lives of public figures? That Margaret
		Cook2) should wish, whether as therapy or
		revenge, to dish the dirt on the Foreign
5		Secretary is entirely understandable, as even her
		former husband seems to accept.Whether a leading
		publishing house, as well as our highest circulation
		Sunday broadsheet, should print such intimate
		memoirs is quite another matter. Once, politicians
10		could rely on a decent lapse of time before their worst
		indiscretions were made public, so that they could lick
		any wounds away from the media glare. In retirement,
		even in opposition, the victim can retreat to some
		secret hideaway for a few days, until the fuss dies
15		down. In office, he must face cameras, Commons and
		colleagues, knowing that the audience will have at least
		part of its mind on his sexual performance and
		drinking habits. Most of the inside political gossip of
		the interwar years (fairly innocuous, by present
20		standards) remained unrevealed until the 1960s, when
		diaries such as those by Harold Nicolson and “Chips”
		Channon were published. Now, a minister is hardly
		inside a chauffeur-driven car before the inevitable
		biography is published. Politics has become				spokesman did not issue an ultimatum - choose
25		showbusiness - just as royalty and sport did - and it is				between your wife and your mistress - that was exactly
		hard to see why anyone involved should, for reasons				the choice that, according to precedent, Mr Cook
		other than loyalty and honour, decline to perform.				faced.
		Charlie Whelan, for example, could earn far more for		65		Third, politicians presume to prescribe other
		publishing intimate memoirs of Treasury ministers than				people’s behaviour more and more.This is a point of
30		he could ever hope to get as Gordon Brown’s spin-				particular importance to the left because, to some
		doctor. Disgrace may itself prove to be a good career				degree, it is a consequence of a larger public sector. If
		move, turning a politician into an overnight media star,				the state pours billions of pounds into education, it
		as David Mellor and the Hamiltons found.		70		may reasonably insist that parents do their bit towards
		In three important senses, democratic politicians				ensuring that tax-payers’ money is spent efficiently -
35		have only themselves to blame. First, they have turned				by getting their children to bed early, for example, or
		politics into questions of lifestyle and personality.				by not taking family holidays in term-time. If a health
		Candidates frequently use pictures of their spouses and				service is financed from the public purse, politicians
		children in their election literature, trying to project		75		may advise that we shall all get better value if we
		themselves as happy family men and women; they can				smoke less, drink less and exercise more.This indeed is
40		hardly then complain if the press then reports that				one of the foundations of new Labour philosophy,
		voters have been sold a false prospectus. It is all very				which contends that rights must be accompanied by
		well for Tony Blair to demand that we focus on the				responsibilities, and which is most clearly illustrated in
		issues and policies, rather than on personalities. But		80		this week’s announcement of a pilot scheme under
		when it came to the Bernie Ecclestone affair, and the				which all benefit claimants, including the disabled, must
45		suspicions about why Formula One motor-racing had				attend “single gateway” interviews.A bit of finger-
		been exempted from a tobacco advertising ban, it was				wagging and hectoring is inseparable from a state that
		the Prime Minister who, in effect, invited us to ignore				provides more than minimum services. But the more
		the evidence and instead to trust his integrity. Image		85		politicians indulge themselves in this respect, the more
		indeed has become central to modern politics not just				they lay themselves open to scrutiny of their own lives.
50		in the packaging of policies, but also in the				It would be absurd to defend Margaret Cook’s
		presentation of politicians, who are advised to lower				revelations on such grounds - if anything, the Foreign
		their voices, change their hairstyles, adopt a more				Secretary is less censorious of other people’s behaviour
		caring tone, and so on.The public may well think it is		90		than most politicians.The point, however, is that the
		entitled to a glimpse of the person behind the image.				boundary between private and public is more blurred
55		Second, since Cecil Parkinson resigned in the Sara				than those who call for privacy laws usually
		Keays affair, the major parties have implicitly accepted				acknowledge, and that politicians are largely
		press interest in private lives. It was, after all, a				responsible for the blurring.
		telephone call from Downing Street, warning
		of press revelations, that accelerated the collapse of the		95		January 15, 1999
60		Cook marriage. Even if Mr Blair’s press

noot 2 - Margaret Cook wrote a book about the breakdown of her marriage to Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.