Prerogative of the Harlot

 “Power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”

The words come from a speech by a Conservative Party leader and British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. His attack was on two press barons, powerful men, subject to no means to hold them to account.

The problem remains as acute today, with Media groups exercising massive influence, without being answerable for anything they say or write.

Indeed, in many ways it’s worse today, because some of the worst distortions of truth are put out on social media platforms which refuse to accept even the responsibility of publishers. Fake news from obscure individuals or malevolent websites gain currency from millions of others passing them on. Look at the scurrilous untruths circulating about Bill Gates or George Soros, for example.

Power without responsibility, as Baldwin said.

Ironically, it is also in government itself that such harlotry is being exercised, and by Baldwin’s own successors, the leaders of the British Conservative Party. Nesrine Malik has provided an excellent analysis of how the UK government, “led by a shallow prime minister, populated by careerists and directed by a grandiose and sophomoric special adviser” (Dominic Cummings), sets out to dodge responsibility by blaming scapegoats for its failures.

It blames its hopeless mishandling of the Covid pandemic on poor management of care homes, failure to observe proper standards by black and minority ethnic communities, misleading advice from scientists or, quite simply, the bad behaviour of individual members of the public.

We see the same behaviour in the US. Trump blames anyone but himself for things going wrong, and boy have they gone wrong. Covid deaths are now approaching fifty percent higher than the total losses from the Vietnam war, though that murderous conflict lasted nearly twenty years.

Listening to Trump, though, the responsibility is to be laid firmly at the doors of inept scientists, of Democratic State governors, or the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. Like Cummings and Johnson in Britain, he is blameless in all this, and is being let down by treacherous individuals who are out to get him.

Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Donald Trump
Chasing power, less keen on responsibility

It’s not a phenomenon limited to the right. In Britain, supporters of the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, seem intent on undermining the party to ensure that it does not achieve the success under new leadership that eluded it under his. He, it seems, was let down by foul play and treachery.

Corbynists are convinced that, unlike other defeated leaders of the past, from any party, Corbyn is to be assigned no share of the blame for the debacle to which he led Labour in December’s general election. Instead, they vent their venom on the splitters, traitors and general scum among members and party staff, Blairites and Red Tories all of them, who actively conspired to cheat Corbyn of victory.

It’s the same kind of conspiracy theory as informs claims of Covid being deliberately spread to inflict a dangerous vaccine on us all. These are merely allegations with no serious evidence for them, whose only effect is to divert attention from the real problem. Which is the incompetence of would-be leaders who failed to lead.

That’s the problem of the Cummings/Johnson gang. They love being in power. But they have no will to do the actual tedious work of government. Just as Trump has ducked every challenge that has come his way, preferring to attack others and retreat to a golf course. Or Corbyn who wanted the leadership but didn’t want to get off the fence on the key question of his time, Brexit, leaving his party rudderless when his hand should have been steering it.

Power without effort. And certainly without being held responsible. Boris Johnson did all in his power to eliminate from Parliament anyone who might call him to account, including senior Conservative MPs expelled from the Party to prevent them even being candidates. Just like Trump refuses responsibility. And Corbyn is anxious to foist it on someone else.

Exponents of the prerogative of the harlot down the ages. Surely we deserve better. The US has the opportunity to improve its position in November. In Britain, Labour at last has a leader worthy of the name. He has an uphill battle, given where Corbyn left Labour, to unseat the unprincipled men now in power, but if we pull together, we can help him do it.

Wouldn’t it be fine if we could say goodbye to all that harlotry, at last?