03 September 2020
View from the Cotswolds
Who’s in Charge?: A Man of our Times
By Paul Branch
So who controls this great United Kingdom of ours? Boris clearly thinks he does, having been declared Prime Minister twice and winning a general election, not to mention declaring himself Minister for the Union. But therein lies the conundrum – others believe they have supreme overriding powers for some things in different parts of the kingdom, notably the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In areas of education and health for example, Gavin Williamson and Matt Hancock are mainly responsible for their respective ministries only in England, yet they sit as part of a governing cabinet making decisions across the UK.
This arrangement gives rise to obvious opportunities for points-scoring across our national boundaries which some have been eager to exploit. Gavin was quick to distance himself from the A-levels shambles and U-turn in Scotland, proclaiming nothing similar would happen to English schoolkids, and he was right – his was a slightly different mess, compounded by incomprehensible last-minute changes to infection guidance. Similarly Queen Nicola wanted to keep unclean English Covid infectors on their side of the frontier with Scotland after Matt’s shambolic handling of the lockdown easing process, forcing Boris himself to point out that of course there are no frontiers within the UK … which is correct, if you ignore the virtual trade barrier between NI and the rest of us, and the likelihood of it becoming a more physical barrier by the end of the year.
And then there are those who think with some justification that we are well and truly under the control of Dominic Cummings, appointed by Boris to guide us through the transition to a fairer, leveller and more technologically savvy nation thanks to his vast experience in all things modern and scientific, his intuitive grasp of detail as well as the bigger picture, his propensity for lateral thinking and admiration for nutters, and to his background as just another bloke who’s really one of us despite his seemingly privileged start in life. In their view Boris appears to have delegated all authority to the one destined to be all things to all men, our Rasputinesque saviour Dominic. It’s highly possible that Dom was effectively in charge during the Boris staycation in a remote highland cottage with a much younger lady, a very small child, an unfortunately pitched bell tent and six security men – a successful outing this, which served to cement the union with Scotland as the percentage of Scots now in favour of independence rose slightly to only 55%. And Dom has been there for us on all the other inconsequential occasions when Boris has been out of the office, in a fridge, in Mustique or on sick leave.
But there are other, even darker forces at work, behind the scenes and forever pulling our politicians’ strings to benefit their own ends – the media magnates, here and abroad, without whom our elected leaders could not have achieved high office. There have been several such gentlemen of the press who have exerted voluminous influence on our national affairs. The first such mogul that comes to mind from the yesteryear of the 1940s is Lord Beaverbrook, then publisher of the Express and Evening Standard: his success in managing his part of the press and the esteem in which he was held resulted in his appointment to the wartime cabinet in charge of aircraft production, a post in which he excelled and for which he has rightly been lauded for using his natural talents for the national good, unlike others.
In terms of the murkier aspects of the business we have been exposed to Robert Maxwell, proprietor of the Mirror and appropriator of its pension fund, and Conrad Black at the Telegraph. Latterly the Barclay twins, owners of several media outlets including today’s Telegraph group and the Spectator, have given us much to ponder with their family spats at the Ritz. You’ll notice that all these powerful people have been men … the only prominent lady news proprietor I can think of was Katharine Graham with the Washington Post which exposed the Watergate break-in scandal and then broke Richard Nixon, but she wasn’t in the same league as these latter male counterparts.
One media magnate did make it to the top job himself when Silvio Berlusconi went from owning print and broadcast companies, as well as AC Milan, to charming his way to being elected Italy’s premier. His monopoly of popular TV programming probably helped, along with the votes of millions of middle-aged and even elderly ladies who saw nothing wrong with his womanising, dodgy hair and populist approach (remind you of anyone?). Soon after the election my Italian uncle called me to ask with some embarrassment how we English viewed young Silvio. After some moments’ thought and not wishing to make matters worse for him, I replied that Berlusconi came across as something of a clown to put it mildly. He sighed but didn’t disagree, making the point that a country gets the leader it deserves, a sentiment I can now appreciate more fully.
I leave until last perhaps the mightiest of them all: Rupert Murdoch, the subject of a recent BBC three-part documentary which uneasily illuminated his rise, fall and resurrection. The series brought memories flooding back of events which, at the time, seemed almost respectable and palatable, if a trifle bizarre. One personal aspect of the mogul’s career did take the breath away though – if my sums are right, he’s on his fourth wife … reminiscent of Mrs Merton at her scintillating best: “So, Jerry Hall, what first attracted you to the billionaire Rupert Murdoch?” But you have to admire his stamina.
I managed to surprise myself for feeling sympathetic towards an elderly gentleman who has lost his family’s love and respect if not his razor-sharp business acumen. But there’s no doubt that Murdoch oozes talent in making things happen and growing businesses with his natural abilities as a wheeler-dealer on the grandest of scales and in international arenas, promoter of people and political philosophies, and influencer extraordinaire of public aspirations.
The absolutely knee-tremblingly most worrying aspect of the programme was the string of UK politicians who were clearly only too pleased to line up for Rupert’s favours, no doubt hoping for endorsement by The Sun and other Murdoch organs. In more recent times, it seems Tony Blair and David Cameron both had good reason to give Murdoch his due obeisance. In Cameron’s case the close relationship extended to several other high-profile personalities, former and current employees of News Corp at the height of the hacking scandal, some of whom have been guilty and/or accused of illegal and/or highly questionable behaviour worthy of investigation.
Another highlight of the programme was the obvious personal warmth and reverence felt by Donald Trump towards the man he introduced with a hug as “There’s only one Rupert” … no question he was grateful for the help from Fox News in his presidential election, with or without Russian interference. And that came hard on the heels of The Sun’s support for Brexit, for which Nigel Farage also expressed his gratitude for swinging the referendum with or without etc etc. 2016 was certainly Rupert’s comeback year with a vengeance — perhaps the only other notable against-all-the odds event that year where he had no influence on the outcome was Leicester City wining the Premier League, but who knows.
The only clue we received as to why Murdoch has striven so hard for global influence and power was the succinct comment that he is revered in Washington and London, but in Brussels he was not known. From which we were presumably meant to conclude that his support for Brexit was purely personal and meant as a clear two-fingered riposte to the European elite who had so callously snubbed him over the years.
Boris himself is not above a bit of forelock-tugging, having chosen Murdoch’s Times Radio as the new medium for his ramblings instead of those difficult blighters at the BBC. Giving a knighthood to that great British patriot Evgeny Lebedev, son of a Russian oligarch and current owner of the Evening Standard (Editor in Chief: George Osborne) was considered a bit unnecessary in some quarters, but it fits the pattern of preposterous posturing and cronyism, and is possibly only slightly less ridiculous than David Cameron’s barber being awarded an MBE for services to hairdressing.
What Rupert Murdoch might have achieved could have been so much better and of so much benefit for the greater good, had he grasped the opportunities to make different use of the talents presented to him on a plate. There are no plaudits for our own politicians either; all of this smacks of their need for personal attention and exposure in this populist age, and who knows, maybe even a path to continued fame and fortune after their mainstream political careers are over. But the good news in all this is that even if the news magnates really are effectively running the country, it means that Dominic Cummings isn’t.
