I woke this morning to hear that British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is in a spot of bother over an off-the-cuff comment that the jacket microphone he'd seemingly forgotten he was wearing managed to pick up and broadcast to all and sundry. After a brief chat with an elderly voter, he casually remarked to his aids that it had not gone well, and that the woman was a bigot.
What's truly awful about this is that Brown's actions are being portrayed as a blunder; as all the man did is speak honestly. The chat with voters did not go well, and the woman - complaining about all the Eastern Europeans in Britain was a bigot. I worry greatly that politics and dishonesty have always been so closely intertwined, but I'm even more worried that the media and the public are actively embracing this relationship. It does not bode at all well.
Variant satirists and their works - from the halcyon days of Yes Minister, through the enduring sketches of John Clarke & Brian Dawe, through to more recent fare like The Hollow Men and the British film, In the Loop - have long tried to strip politicians of their cosmetic veneer of spin, and expose the human intrigue behind the masks, where foibles and ideals grabble eternally. It seems that when there are outraged cries pillorying Brown for speaking his mind, that there are many in society who'd prefer the mask stay up.
Frankly, I can't understand it. I'd be overjoyed if I heard a politician who claimed to come from the Left (well, the centre-left) of politics calling a bigot the name they deserve. I'd like them to go further, to be honest, and say, "You know what, folks? We're not the redneck party. If you're in favour of building a dirty-great wall around our nation, and posting guards with guns to shoot anyone trying to get in, then vote for the arms dealer on the right of stage."
But that's just a different kind of spin, isn't it? Better yet would be; "You know what folks? I don't like bigots. I like people who are open. My opponent - he's a decent man, and I like him. On most things, we agree, and I'll support him when we do. But on a couple of fundamental issues - fundamental to us, and I hope, to you, too - we differ greatly. Please use those criteria to decide whom you want to run the show, because for everything else, the face might change, but the policy won't."
Now that would be something. Politics seems to have descended to a level where politicians are afraid to tell the truth. If Brown were to come out and apologise for the insult, but stand by his views, then I'd vote for him if I could. Instead, I'll have to hope that Australian politicians value honesty and integrity over a falsified ideal that pits identical options against one another, where the electoral choice is even more banal than picking a suitcase on Deal or No Deal. The analogy is apt; because in an age of empty spin, most of the cases are empty.
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