Media stars as politicians

There was an interesting piece in the most recent New Statesman, regarding the rise of the star journalist as politician – referring, of course, to the loathsome Robert Kilroy-Silk. (You may be able to access it free the first time you load up the site.) Nick Cohen reports that the roles of politician and TV presenter “require similar cheek and similar ignorance”. I was reminded of this today listening to Jon Gaunt interview the MP for Soham on
BBC London radio. Soham is a small town in England where two young girls were murdered a couple of years ago, and the man responsible turned out to be the school caretaker, Ian Huntley.

The MP was asked about the issue of whether the local police chief should resign, which he wouldn’t be drawn on as he suspected it might be “sub judice”, that is, undergoing judicial proceedings and thus it can’t be discussed in the media. Gaunty also insisted that the headmaster of Huntley’s school, who had failed to check out his references (he had a string of accusations of sexual misconduct against him, although no convictions), should resign as well. The MP disagreed, and said he was a
good headmaster and that he had himself sent his children to the same school. But Gaunty was having none of it, and later there was some comment about wishy-washy representatives which he either made or agreed with, I can’t remember which. But the cheek really does stick in the mind – here is a London radio presenter telling the MP for Soham what they should do in Soham?

In any case, I don’t see what good his resigning would do. It’s quite possible that the headmaster would get another job somewhere else, even if lower paid, or that the school in Soham would end up with an inferior head teacher. Perhaps they should take a vote on the issue in Soham as to whether they are still confident to place their children in that headmaster’s care. God forbid that some loudmouth presenter set the agenda.