It is a principle all too rarely observed in modern life, especially in the hurly-burly of politics. We certainly see little evidence of it in the current British general election campaign.
The principle is, of course, that of personal accountability. Churchill recognized, without being forced to do so, that he had played a key role in planning a strategic debacle and an epic human tragedy.
Arguably, he and others within the high command, as well as generals in the field, had been guilty of trying to fight a war that no longer existed. Along with others, he was guilty of errors of judgement which cost men their lives.
Advertisement
Contrast this with the politics of our own time. In many liberal western democracies, which claim to be among the most enlightened and civilized nations on earth, politics is all too often the art of evasion, spin and finger-pointing.
In the current election campaign, evasion is expressed best in the closely choreographed appearances by party leaders. Heads of major parties are almost never filmed surrounded by anything other than adoring crowds, made up of carefully screened supporters.
At campaign stops, small huddles of admirers and staffers are made to look like tightly-clustered masses, through crowd corralling and tight camera angles. Transparency is almost nowhere to be found. Leaders seem afraid of being forced to connect with real voters.
Of course, many politicos through the ages have resorted to insincerity and fakery to pull in the voters. Yet the modern version seems particularly cynical given the near ubiquitous coverage of politicos by modern media and a growing public impatience with opportunism.
In 2008, The Times published a graph tracking the incidence of certain words within its pages since 1985. A red line marking words like ‘terror’, ‘terrorism’ and ‘jihad’ showed a sharp incline, with a predictable peak in 2011.
Of more interest to me was a line reflecting the use of the word ‘sorry’, especially as spoken by public figures. It showed a steady increase over that time. It seems that British readers, looking into the jaws of a monster recession, had begun to demand greater accountability from their public leaders.
Advertisement
I wonder what that graph would look like today.
Yes, some politicos have admitted to errors made – usually by earlier incarnations of their parties. Labour, for example, admitted shortly before its campaign began, that it could have done more to tackle the deficit when it was last in government. But this was an admission extracted only after prolonged pressure and plunging polls.
The Liberal Democrat leader admitted that he had let down young people, by backing away from his 2010 promise to oppose university fee rises.
Discuss in our Forums
See what other readers are saying about this article!
Click here to read & post comments.
24 posts so far.