What a news day in Britian! Last night, the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alan Johnson, and this morning the Prime Minister's communications director, Andy Coulson, tendered their resignnations for unrelated reasons. And former PM, Tony Blair, spent much of the day being publicly questioned by members of the inquiry panel established to ascertain the legitimacy of Britain's role in the war to topple Iraq's dicator, Sadam Hussein, in 2003.
Although unconnected, there is a common thread running through these three events. Each raises interesting ethical questions, although they may be quite obscure to people from countries where corruption in public service is rife an endemic.
Alan Johnson surprised the nation when he announced his resignation for 'personal reasons' after just three months in the post. At first, most thought this was a euphemism for something sinister. But it turned out that he wife had been having an affair with one of his bodyguards from when he was the Home Secretary. You could be forgiven for wondering why he would feel the need to quit his job because of his wife's wrongdoings. But in British public service, there is a general notion that if a scandal threatens to detract from the job a person is doing, then the right thing to do is to step down. It's a far cry from Italian public service where the PM is embroiled in an underage sex controversy and refuses to budge.
Andy Coulson is the former editor of a popular Sunday newpaper called the News of the World. During his tenure, his Royal correspondent was found guilty of hacking into the phones of famous people. He went to jail. In spite of claiming he knew nothing about the criminal acts of one of his journalists and that this was a rogue act that the newspaper condemned, he felt the need to resign in the interests of protecting the reputation of his newspaper. Once again, the notion of resigning for something you didn't do may seem quite strange. But this is the British way. He was subsequently employed by the Prmie Minister to manage the government's external communications.
Unfortunately for Coulson, stories about phone hacking being endemic at his former newspaper and rumours that he knew about it, continued to abound. Although he protested his innocence, weeks of media gossip made him feel that it was time for him to go. He beleived that when the person responsible for managing the reputation of the government is having his own reputation questioned that this is too much of a distraction and compromises his job.
As for Tony Blair, who has been out of office for more than three years, he is still being gruelled by the so-called Chilcott enquiry, which is investigating the rights and wrongs of government decisions taken eight years previously. Blair continues to maintain that he believed that it was right to join forces with the United States and invade Iraq with the aim of unseating the country's dictator who was a threat to world stability. The debate is complex, and with hindsight, the war now looks questionable. But at the time, Sadam Hussein did appear to be a threat to the world. He had previously invade Kuwait which was subsequently liberated by American and British forces, during which conflict he unleashed missiles on Israel. And he had committed terrrible attrocities on ethnic minorities in his country.
It's right for politicians to be questioned. This is part and parcel of the democratic process. We have a right to know why certain decisions of real importance are made. And our leaders should be held to account. But I fear this enquiry is unearthing nothing new. I certainly don't beleive that Blair is guilty of anything other than following his own convictions. Now that's rare for most politicians.
Grandpa Jonathan
Prague, Czech Republic
