A very British politician

I am not one for enjoying other people’s suffering, it’s not part of my character. However, I am one for enjoying the demise of the powerful, particularly when they themselves don’t seem to regard the feelings of others as particularly important. Obviously these two character traits sometimes come into conflict with each other and eventually one wins.

So, onto John Prescott then. You remember him, he’s the politician who thumps egg throwers in self defence. He’s the politician who sticks two fingers up at the press and does so on camera while walking into number 10. He’s the politician who baits and goads demonstrators while on Labour Party business. He’s the politician who asks the people if they want the regionalisation of their country and then ignores the answer because he thinks it’s the wrong one. He’s the politician who responds to criticism about that point by saying that he asked the people if they wanted elected regional assemblies and because they said no they will get un-elected ones. He’s the politician who wants to tax your garden patio.

And now it turns out that he’s the politician who has used arguments about moral values and sleaze as part of his platform but doesn’t himself believe in those arguments or values. Certainly not enough to prevent him becoming what he was apparently once morally against.

This is a British politician. Quiet, measured, eloquent, restrained, truthful? None of those things. Hurtful, vexatious, prejudiced, rude, adulterer. We’re getting warmer.

When the news finally breaks of his other misdemeanour, and if he survives that as a minister, then we should take solace in the fact that history will judge him as twat whose main achievement after years in power was to fuck just about everything that he came into contact with.