Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Brown's Condolences
As Nige says, the condolence letter unpleasantness makes one feel sorry for Gordo. Keep this up and he'll win the election on a pity vote. It does prove my own point about the ability of the media to make any war other than the most explicitly defensive almost impossible to conduct. This has been an issue ever since Vietnam, of course. During the Falklands, we dealt with it by imposing ruthless media control. This would now be impossible. This raises the question: what is possible? Brown hasn't got an answer - and neither did Blair - which is why he so flagrantly evades the issue at every opportunity and why we seem to be burdened with a succession of very low quality defence secretaries. Spinning violent death is beyond the spinners.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
The real point of comparison isn't the Falklands but the relative indifference in the UK to the first day of the Somme in 1916, with over 20,000 of our young dead or missing, as Alistair Cooke used to point out, from his own memories as a seven-year-old. But it's not just the media making it impossible to wage war. It's that we have yet to see a mushroom cloud over one of our major cities. That I think will change the balance. We do well to remember that folk-villains like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have to think every day about that eventuality. As they do they will get things wrong, like the spelling of a name in a letter, maybe even worse things. But the media will have short memories for such matters at that moment, those of them that are permitted to survive. What the Internet will do, famously (and possibly erroneously) said to have been designed to withstand such an attack, God only knows.
ReplyDeleteSo we live in an extraordinarily asymmetric time. Enjoy. (And that by the way is not a cynical finish. Think upon such things as are true and lovely and of good report, as the apostle said. It seems the only valid thing to do.)
About to make the same point as Richard about wars of the past. The line from the Falkland War about counting them all out and all back in again has taken on a new meaning in recent conflicts. The media’s love for a ‘tally’ and graphs means that we are aware of every casualty. I can never decide if this is a good or bad thing. Does it keep the politicians honest or does it affect strategy and the deployment of our troops? Does the need for ‘safe’ wars make wars even more dangerous and prolonged?
ReplyDeleteThere’s an even deeper problem here, though, and I don’t think I’ve often heard it expressed. Indeed, I feel lousy trying to express it myself. But, doesn’t joining the army carry with it certain expectations, one of which is the real possibility of dying in the line of duty? Amid the talk of glory and duty there is also sacrifice. Troops seem to accept it more readily than the media.
Finally, anybody losing a member of close family will want attention but I can’t help but feel that this poor woman is coping with her loss by accepting attention in a very public and unfortunate way. The media should know better but when do the media ever know better?
An industry that falls to the ground wailing every time it's freedom is threatened certainly goes out of it's way to give it's enemies succor, none come out of this very well. Brown, even though there is a case for some sympathy, we see, once again the chaos over which he reigns and is shown to be more guilt ridden than is good for the country. As for the Sun, you fight tooth and nail maintaining press freedom for this? shame.
ReplyDeletesorry for him? no, not really. sorry for Mrs. Janes.
ReplyDeleteOne sympathises with GB. But surely, looking at the writing and the spelling, wouldn't it have been better to have the letters typed, checked and then signed by the PM? Maybe a little less personal looking, but that writing can cause confusion. And there are lots of secretaries at No. 10.
ReplyDeleteJasper Carrot was right all those years ago when he suggested that the Sun should be rebranded as a comic.
ReplyDelete