Under Blair, moral ambiguity became the order of the day
The horror of Norway and the tragedy of Amy Winehouse may have diverted our thoughts from the scandals of the past few weeks, but as I pack my bags for a summer in Greece, I wonder what sort of country I’m leaving behind. All the pillars of the Establishment – the press, the police, the politicians – have toppled like oversized dominos. Greece may be just about bankrupt. Morally, I’d say the UK isn’t far behind.
How has it happened? How have we reached this bottom-of-the-barrel mentality, where Sir Paul Stephenson, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, can boast that his “integrity is intact” despite having accepted £12,000 of free hospitality at a health spa? Where Rebekah Brooks can say she is “shocked and appalled”, but take weeks to resign? And how could anyone have actually lived with themselves, after hacking into the messages of a murdered schoolgirl?
It’s a world that even Hogarth would have found hard to portray. Adulterous celebrities chased by ruthless hacks working for over-powerful (though strangely ignorant) editors and proprietors who cosy up to hypocritical politicians who appoint corrupt or stupid police officers who dine at the Ivy with adulterous celebrities. And who is going to sort out this mess? We have precious little hope when the chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, enjoying his moment in the limelight, is Keith Vaz, who knows a thing or two about scandal, having obstructed an inquiry into his connections to the billionaire Hinduja brothers, and later claimed £75,500 for a flat 12 miles from his home.
It all started, of course, with Tony Blair. He wasn’t the first prime minister to kowtow to Murdoch, but in so many ways he set the trend for what is happening now. Bernie Ecclestone. The BAE bribery inquiry dropped for national security reasons. Dodgy flats in Bristol. Free holidays with millionaire pop stars. We don’t need to rehearse all these stories, because they’ve seeped into the national consciousness.
And next to Blair there was Alastair Campbell, a man as unsuited for public office in his own way as Andy Coulson was in his. Why shouldn’t Cameron follow Blair’s example and employ an ex-tabloid journalist with a foul mouth and a reputation for bullying? After all, it wasn’t going to lead to war.
Under John Major’s government, scandal was fairly simple, and quite separate from mainstream politics. Lord Archer and Jonathan Aitken both went to jail. Neil Hamilton was booted out. None did any great harm to the political process.
With Blair, however, it was the political process that was the first casualty. Moral ambiguity became the order of the day – and if our political leaders could get away with it, so could everyone else. The rich and the powerful were not only immune from the law. They were, via super-injunctions, protected by it. Public inquiries into perceived wrongdoing came to conclusions that seemed to bear little relation to the evidence.
Another knight, Sir Ian Blair, presided over the killing of an unarmed Brazilian plumber and the disinformation that followed. He never lied, but he did make statements that were “partially inaccurate” – and, since there is such a huge difference, refused to resign. Stephen Byers, before his post-government career as “a cab for hire”, approved the sale of a national newspaper to a purveyor of pornography. Peter Mandelson and David Blunkett were both fired, twice. And then there was Jacqui Smith…
The New Labour years created an atmosphere of shamelessness – and now we’re living with the results. Footballers are almost expected to cheat and take drugs; stars all sleep three-in-a-bed with prostitutes. Even the royal family, in the portly shape of Prince Andrew, can be photographed cavorting with known sex offenders.
It’s a gift for journalists. Feeding time at the zoo. They set up elaborate stings, trawl through dustbins, hack into mobile telephones. One step leads to another, and whoever took the step from pampered celebrity to murdered schoolgirl surely didn’t even distinguish between the two. When getting the story is all that matters, the story itself hardly matters at all.
But this is not about bad journalism. Whatever is rotten in Britain was rotten a long time ago. After Blair, we were no longer able to trust those who run the country. God help us if we can no longer trust those who hold them to account.
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