"Romping"

Above: There was a glorious front page to the News of the World yesterday. It involved illicit sexual “romping” by Nigel Griffiths, Labour Member of Parliament for South Edinburgh. The article encourages us to think “dirty dirty dirty Nigel” (to paraphrase Richard Curtis writing about John Major in his film The Girl In The Café).



Above: political sex scandals tend to be judged against the gold standard of David Mellor’s fall from power in 1992. David Mellor was an uber-hubristic Cabinet Minister who was dragged from office following press revelations about his sexual “romping” and subsequent attempted cover up. The public opprobrium heaped upon David Mellor related to his lying and his nauseating hypocrisy, but also (unfairly no doubt) referred to his overweight and unattractive appearance (he is gap-toothed and podgy-faced, with greasy lank hair).



Above: the David Mellor sex scandal has been lampooned on the award-winning comedy show Little Britain, thus signifying the scandal’s entry into popular consciousness and cultural reference. In the satire we see the lying cheating politician at the gate to his vast mock-Tudor residence, surrounded by his family, reading out a carefully-worded and unconvincing statement. Little Britain has a patchy record, but this particular satire approaches Brechtian levels of social commentary.

More: http://www.littlebritain.net/minor-characters/leonard.html?Itemid=54



Above: A variant was produced for Little Britain USA involving a lying cheating Congressman.



Above: as well as Labour “sleaze” and Tory “sleaze” there is also a Liberal-Democrat variety. Probably the best-known recent example is the Paddy Pantsdown incident (then Liberal-Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown was caught “romping” with his secretary, despite his projected image as a man of integrity). Arguably the Liberals provided the most shocking political sex scandal of all time with the Jeremy Thorpe case in the 1970s, but this was so long ago that few people remember it (although it would make a good subject for a Peter Morgan drama).

Why do these political sex scandals acquire such a huge importance? In part it is because they represent an opportunity for ordinary people to deliver a popular verdict on a political class that is seen as remote, self-perpetuating and beyond democratic control. It should worry politicians that whenever “the people” get an opportunity to deliver such a verdict they drag the hapless MP down into the mire and kick him to death (metaphorically).

MPs do not help themselves by evading public concerns over corruption. On the Today Programme this morning there was a Tory spokesperson saying MP’s employment of staff was “no longer an issue” when it absolutely IS an issue – the popular mood is incredibly hostile to MPs employing their spouses or other relations on the public payroll. This is yet another example of how the political elite, by ignoring popular concerns, is alienating voters and driving them to the extremist parties (both left and right).

Editor of the News of the World is Colin Myler. The newspaper has a circulation of just below three million, and a complex readership profile (it's not just C1, C2 DE men and women). Neville Thurlbeck is an alumnus of Lancaster University and has regularly produced sensational reports for the News of the World.