zaterdag 23 juli 2011

Should Cameron resign?

When I see David Cameron nowadays on tv and read the articles in the newspapers, I am truly amazed. In every other country the prime minister would have the decency to step down even when there is no ultimate proof of guilt. The facts are already quite convincing that a lot of things were not right. There is a stench of dishonesty, sneakiness and corruption above his government.

                                           David Cameron and George Osborne

The list of arrests is still growing.
It all shows very direct links between politics, police and News Corp/ News of the World.
Instead of thorough investigations I fear that the man who threw a foam pie in Rupert Murdochs face will be in the middle of attention.

In my opinion all the dirty facts regarding the former News of the World should be highlighted.
It's quite shocking that such high ranking policemen like Paul Stephenson and John Yates are very much involved. That Rebekah Brooks was a close friend of the Camerons (and of former prime ministers) is significant. What kind of stories did she get that way? What power over politicians did she have?
Andy Coulson being spokesman and advisor of David Cameron is for sure the limit.

                                          Andy Coulson

The foundation of my opinion  for David Cameron to resign can be found in history.
My first thought in this is the resignation of Willy Brandt in 1974. In 1972 he had won the elections in West-Germany in a convincing victory.  But when his personal assistant Günther Guillaume was disclosed as a spy for Eastern Germany he stepped down immediately. He was responsible for hiring this man and so he took his responsibility.

                                                     Willy Brandt

Next case is the Dutch prime minister Wim Kok. He stepped down in 2002 after investigations proved that  the Dutch army was partially to be blamed for the massmurder of 7,000 muslims in Srebrenica by the Serbs in 1995. Not only the prime minister went, but the whole government. I'm sure none of the ministers were there when it happened in 1995, but they accepted  responsibility and stepped down. The Dutch thought this was nothing more than doing the right thing.

                                                               Wim Kok

There is more, maybe surprising, but I see some similarities in the Profumo case and the News of the World scandal. Minister John Profumo had sexual relations with callgirl Christine Keeler. At the same time she had a relationship with a member of the staff of the Russian embassy. Never was proven that he actually shared confidential state business with her, but he stepped down.
The possibility of telling her secret information broke his career.

                                                            John Profumo

David Cameron had more than one person to tell stories to. It made him and his colleagues into vulnerable politicians, some might have been blackmailed already.
So in the case of David Cameron too we can state that there was a possibility of giving secret information to people who should not get it.



We'll see what will happen. I do fear that Johnny Marbles who threw the pie at Rupert Murdoch will be punished and the main characters in the drama will walk away freely.
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1 opmerking:

  1. All these resignations happened before the prolifiration of spin in government and organisations in general. Nowadays no one appears willing to accept reponsibility for their actions or the consequences. They reframe, rephrase and repeat until maybe even the people themselves who are at fault don't believe that they are to blame. Unfortunately it is becoming ingrained in culture from the very top to the very bottom. Society as we once knew it is faultering. I fear the words such as 'Honour' and 'Integrity' will fall from use or be distorted from the current meanings in language.

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