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Today’s frothy media story (at least for the anoraks inside the Westminster bubble) is the arrest of Steve Hilton, the Conservative Party’s Director of Strategy. Now leaving aside that this took place in 2008 and resulted in an £80 fine, it seems to me that this is an example of how truly unpleasant politics and politicians can get.
This bloke is a backroom boy – albeit an important one – and someone has seen fit to save up little stories about him so as to do him down. That person – whoever he or she is – is a bully. Let me repeat that – politicians who use ancient history respun to do down another person are bullies. And the hacks who feed on these people’s stories are no better.
Sadly too many other politicians, pundits, bloggers and feeders from the Westminster gutter seem to think that politics should be conducted on the basis of smear, innuendo, sly accusation, misrepresentation of past events and, on occasion, straightforward ranty bullying.
Our political culture now celebrates bullying as an admirable quality in politicians rather than seeing it as a disqualifying character flaw. And those same unpleasant backstabbing bullies are often the first to sign up to cod campaigns against the same bullying they indulge in every day. It makes me sick.
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