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Jeremy Paxman
THE POLITICAL ANIMAL
An Anatomy
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Book review by Anthony Campbell. Copyright ? Anthony Campbell (2004).
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Jeremy Paxman is known to British television audiences as an acerbic
interviewer. He has crossed swords with a huge number of politicians
over the years and is well placed to write about the species, which he
does here with gusto. It has to be said that the picture which emerges
is not encouraging. As Paxman says, politics matter, but we are
increasingly disenchanted with it.
One of the principal changes that has occurred since 1945 has been the
increasing professionalization of politics. In former times politicians
had usually done other jobs before entering Parliament, but nowadays
most have never known any other career than politics and in consequence
have little first-hand experience of the "real" world. At the same time
there has been a progressive trivialization of politics, and declining
public respect for politics has, it seems, resulted in a corresponding
decline in the quality of would-be politicians. A few MPs appear to be
actually insane.
Given all this, it is perhaps surprising that people still want to enter
politics. It is an uncertain business at best, the pay is modest, and
politicians do not enjoy much public respect, so why do they do it?
Clearly there can be no single answer, but Paxman finds that most, when
young, have a conviction that they, personally, can do something about
the sorry state of the world. Later, there is also vanity and the desire
to be applauded. There may be other psychological reasons linked to
their early life experiences: a surprising number of Prime Ministers
have lost one or both parents in childhood, particularly the father.
Paxman suggests that this may engender an identification with the parent
who died and an attempt to take their place. This does seem to work, for
example, in the case of Winston Churchill, but Paxman rightly cautions
against amateur psychological explanations of this kind.
Getting into Parliament is not easy. There are selection committees to
impress and there is a lot of competition. And, when the ambitious new
MP finally arrives in the House, he or she quickly finds that the job is
not what it may have seemed. Paxman has a lot of fun with the arcane
rules and rituals of Parliamentary life, including the requirement that
if a sitting of the House finishes after midnight the policemen must
take off their helmets as the Speaker p*****, although no one can
remember why.
And the im****tance of Parliament itself is less than might be supposed.
Although, in theory, Parliament is responsible for all the legislation
that affects the lives of British citizens, in practice most regulations
are never debated in Parliament but are put in place by civil servants.
Unless they become ministers (only possible if their party is in
government, of course), MPs' prospects of making any real difference to
anything are almost nil, and even ministers have far fewer op****tunities
to achieve their aims than might be expected.
Reaching Cabinet rank doesn't seem to be the answer either. We used to
hear a lot about collective Cabinet responsibility, but the im****tance
of Cabinet has declined progressively throughout the twentieth century
and is now smaller than ever. More and more, power is concentrated in
the Prime Minister, but even the PM's ability to influence affairs is in
practice severely limited by factors outside his or her control. Hardly
surprising, then, that nearly all Prime Ministers leave office depressed
and exhausted.
It has to be said that this is on the whole a rather melancholy book -
not in its tone, which is light and lively, but in its implications.
(Incidentally, congratulations to the publishers for including on the
back cover an adverse comment from William Hague, who found it
"disappointing".) Though Paxman enlivens his account with a lot of
humour and abundant amusing anecdotes, one is left in something like
despair at the state of British democracy. The prospects are hardly
encouraging. This is not, of course, an exclusively British phenomenon;
voting at elections has declined in the USA and in most European
countries too, apart from Britain, but some aspects of the problem are
peculiar to Britain. In concluding his book, Paxman offers some
suggestions for the future. These centre on reform of the House of
Commons, and include reducing the number of MPs by a third and reducing
the amount of speechifying in favour of more scrutiny of government. But
whether any of this is likely to happen is another question.
In times of peace there is a temptation to regard politics as
entertainment, a view that is regularly encouraged by the Press. But we
ought to remind ourselves that it does matter. One piece of information
I gained from the book has particularly stayed in my mind. When a new
Prime Minister comes to power, one of his first tasks is to write a
sealed letter, in his own handwriting, to each of the four commanders of
Trident nuclear-armed submarines, instructing them what to do in case
Britain has been annihilated and no further orders can ever be issued.
An occasion for wise reflection, as the Buddha puts it.
11 July 2004
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%T The Political Animal
%S An Anatomy
%A Jeremy Paxman
%I Penguin Books
%C London
%D 2003
%P xi + 340 pp
%K politics
%O paperback
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