THE WEEK THAT WAS
Graucho Marx once quipped: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others” while Alfred Adler, a student of Sigmund Freud, summed up much of the human condition with “It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them”.
The ongoing debacle of MPs’ expenses proves the point that principle, probity and power don’t always make for happy bedfellows, and, thanks to Sir Thomas Legg’s inquiry, we now know that MPs were literally taking taxpayers to the cleaners (and the gardeners).
Politics requires a degree of horse trading and mental gymnastics. Even Europe’s absolute monarchs had to keep their various interest groups happy; those who didn’t often found their heads wobbling around the bottom of a wicker basket.
Practical politics tends to lie in that murky area between principle and pragmatism. But where does one draw the line? This week Hilary Clinton taught our dreary Assembly a thing or two about poise, presence and public speaking. Was there any uneasiness in her mind though about the colourful past of some in the audience? She had wanted the Lockerbie bomber to die in prison, terminally ill or not, but was such implacable steeliness brought to bear during her support for the NI peace process?
Elsewhere the principle of freedom of speech was being tested. On Tuesday the Assembly debated the DCAL Minister’s stringent views on attending Catholic worship. Most people will place his views on the spectrum between odd and offensive, but is the response to legislate so that only persons of ‘acceptable’ religious views can hold office?
The BBC has caused outrage by providing the BNP with a seat on Question Time and Dutch right winger Geert Wilders will cause outrage with his views on Islam when he speaks in Westminster (although the appearance of the less than repentant Brighton bomber in Westminster seemed to cause less ‘outrage’). Speech is already restricted by legislation on incitement – do these cases really demand further action?
‘Lefties’ haven’t done much ‘living up’ to the principles of free speech and equality this week. No doubt the ‘Right’ will soon find opportunity to demonstrate similar shallowness.
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