ROUGH EDGES

I was rather heartened by the news that retired Pope Benedict XVI, President Obama and LibDem leader Nick Clegg enjoy an occasional cigarette – beneath the veneer of perfection they have their little shortcomings after all. Well, smoking is the tiniest of vices, unless you are a health fanatic or Green – though precisely what Green policies are could not even be articulated by the Green Party leaderene Natalie Bennett in her “excruciating” interview two days ago.

We are none of us perfect and we all have our rough edges. It is part of life, an unavoidable factor in la condition humaine. Most of us strive to be good, kiss babies, listen to the wife and pat the dog, but Old Nick is not easily repelled and we are fatally prone to get out of line from time to time. The Book of Common Prayer makes us confess that we err and stray like lost sheep but goes much too far in characterising us as “miserable offenders”. We are actually blithely happy offenders savouring what Dr Johnson called “the gust of sinning”. 

We know we do wrong but our civilisation has long ago found ways of skating over this sad fact. Our media is often consumed by hypocritical bouts of morality and expects an unrealistic perfection from those in the public eye. We like to draw a discreet veil over our peccadillos, and discreet veils are necessary, but they are ripped asunder. We need to sweeten the pill with white lies, and white lies are civilised devices, but they are exposed. We commit follies, and our follies are endemic, but the world believes it has the right to know about them. I cannot believe our lives should be judged by the inconsistent standards of the Press.

Which brings us back to politics. Malcolm Rifkind has made a fool of himself and probably broken parliamentary codes by allegedly offering to help a bogus company gain access to the powerful in return for a fat fee. He was taken in by a media “sting”, has damaged his Party and will resign. I hope that will be the end of the matter and he will not be pursued any further. In these cases a certain generosity of spirit is called for to forgive a false step. I do not expect, nor want, my politicians to be without a few jagged edges, to be smooth and blameless and probably useless. I want them to be blood and flesh sinners, like everyone else. 

An old song tells us we should avoid anything if “It’s illegal, it’s immoral or it makes you fat”. I naturally go along with the illegal bit: immorality is a regrettable mistake but unless it is of Strauss-Kahntian magnitude, it is a private matter and, as the man said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. I am sure eating cream cakes makes you fat and is imprudent but how much innocent pleasure is dispensed by that delicious first bite!

It makes you fat (and happy)

SMD.
25.02.15.
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015