Who remembers when a political scandal still counted for something?
When they had a beginning, a middle and an end?
The star – usually male, bonus points if they happened to be a poster boy for ‘family values’ – would be caught in a compromising position. A brawl, a fling, a tabloid sting.
A day or two of black burning shame would follow.
And then our villain would do the decent thing and fall on his sword.
Done, dusted, justice done. Next please.
Even the resignation announcement had a comforting familiarity.
A sad-faced politician, clad in slacks and golf club sweater and flanked by a sad wife and sad kids, would read from a prepared statement at the garden gate.
Camera shutters whirred and clicked. Reporters’ shouted questions went unanswered. And then, lynch mob appeased, he’d stroll sadly back to his stockbroker belt mansion to make a start on writing his best-selling memoirs and juggling those lucrative after-dinner speaker bookings.
David Mellor, Cecil Parkinson, Jeffrey Archer. Your boys took a helluva beating.
Now though, the agony drags on and on interminably. And shame never seems to figure at all.
Partygate penalties but the party’s not over
I’m thinking, of course, (but not exclusively) of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
The occupants of Number 10 and Number 11 were both fined for attending a lockdown-busting birthday bash in this week’s installment of the tired old soap opera known as Partygate.
Boris Johnson is now the first sitting prime minister to be found to have broken the law.
And it’s getting hard to tell where one political scandal ends and another one starts.
But is he resigning? Is he hell.
Rishi Sunak is another whose star is somewhat tarnished.
His Partygate fine followed days of anger about his wife’s non-domicile status, which permitted her to avoid millions of pounds in UK taxes while his government presided over the biggest cost of living crisis in living memory.
No one’s tipping Dishy Rishi for PM any more.
I wonder if Sunak, who has been the target of a vicious briefing and leaking campaign by No.10 and whose chances of becoming leader are now pretty much nil, will at least now have the guts to resign and take the oaf down with him.
— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) April 12, 2022
And the optimist in me let out a little gasp when someone suggested he might resign in order to spend more time with his vast personal fortune, thus shaming Boris Johnson into following suit.
But no. That’s not how these things work any more.
No shame means no consequences. And it turns out that’s a real power move.
Political scandal on a smaller stage
It’s not just a Westminster phenomenon either.
The SNP has resisted calls to sack one of its candidates in the upcoming Dundee City Council election after she admitted shouting abuse at the Pope and describing 9/11 as an “inside job”.
Siobhan Tolland is standing in Lochee – an area once known as Little Tipperary because of its strong Irish and Catholic roots.
Party bosses have been urged to sack Siobhan Tolland as a candidate and NEC member.
But in a remarkable response, a party source instead questioned where a local MSP stands on historical child abuse in the Catholic church after he criticised her actions. https://t.co/4XE2uKK27F
— Derek Healey (@DerekHealey_) March 22, 2022
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has been blasted for defending the reselection of Angus Tory councillor Derek Wann, who was unmasked as an anti-SNP Twitter troll.
Another Angus candidate Serena Cowdy will stand for the SNP after she was named as the woman at the centre of a reported SNP love triangle involving Dundee and Western Isles MPs Stewart Hosie and Angus MacNeil.
Elsewhere, Margaret Ferrier was accused of breaking lockdown rules long before it was fashionable.
She’s due to stand trial in August after prosecutors alleged she “wilfully exposed people to the risk of infection, illness and death” by travelling from Glasgow to London. She’s still an independent MP though.
Alex Cole-Hamilton was appointed Scottish Liberal Democrat leader after the release of a video that showed him mouthing swearies at children’s minister Maree Todd during a Holyrood committee.
I could go on. But when the only example you can suggest of someone doing the right thing is Matt Hancock, you know you’re in the Upside Down.
Donald Trump – the politician who refused to resign
As with a great many things, I blame Donald Trump for neutering the political scandal.
Observers said the reality TV tycoon was finished when recordings of him discussing grabbing women by the pussy emerged during his 2016 election run.
It would have ended anyone else’s prospects. But he rode it out.
And it set the scene for four years in office featuring career-ender after career-ender, interspersed with a bit of light facism and a complete absence of shame.
Remind you of anyone Boris?
What a shame we’ve lost our sense of shame
Shame can be a horrible thing.
I could conjure occasions from my past that make me blush to my roots and want to crawl under the nearest rock and die.
I’m sure we all could.
But shame serves a purpose too.
Some say absence of shame is one of the marks of a psychopath. And, for most of us, its presence can be a powerful motivator.
Acknowledging shame allows us to correct wrongs.
To make amends to people we have hurt or embarrassed.
To say sorry. Learn from our mistakes. Grow into better people.
It’s a shame it seems to have lost all its currency in public life.
