-Caveat Lector- Euphorian spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you should see it.
To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk Top 10 rules for survival Cherie Blair might have avoided the pain of last night's public statement if she had learned from past scandals Jonathan Freedland Tuesday December 10 2002 The Guardian We don't yet know if Cherie Blair's bravura performance last night has saved her future seat on the high court, but her entry into another kind of elite pantheon is already guaranteed. The last 10 days have earned the PM's wife a place in the ever-fattening textbook of political scandal. She is destined to join Peter Mandelson, Norman Lamont, Richard Nixon and, of course, Hillary Clinton in the bumper volume that records the disgrace, deserved and undeserved, that fate routinely heaps on public figures - and which is bursting with advice for future victims yet unknown. It's a rich text, though a painfully repetitious one: the characters and storylines may change, but the same themes come through again and again. The only pity is that Mrs Blair didn't read the book before now. If she had, it might have spared her some agony. Here's a distilled version of its 10 key lessons. 1. It's never the crime, it's always the cover-up. This is the oldest lesson in the book, yet the world's prominent people never seem to learn it. Richard Nixon gave the masterclass 30 years ago: Watergate might have remained a "third-rate burglary," had the Nixon White House admitted it from the start. Instead the subsequent lies, deceptions and obstructions of justice produced the biggest scandal in US history. Bill Clinton made the same error when he lied (under oath) about Monica: if he had 'fessed up, it would have been embarrassing, but it would never have ended in impeachment. Likewise if Cherie had said 10 days ago, as soon as the Mail on Sunday got wind of Peter Foster and those Bristol flats, what she said last night, this story would have been dead on arrival: I'm not superwoman, I needed help, Carole Caplin came to the rescue and, yes, I made a mistake in believing her boyfriend was a reformed character. Fleet Street would have reached for the collective sick bag, but Cherie would have won. 2. Get all the facts out in one go. If Mrs Blair had disclosed everything in one shot, her pursuers would have had nowhere to go. Without a hunt for new, undisclosed facts a story soon dies. The folly of the alternative approach has been on display for 10 straight days. In the absence of full disclosure, Cherie was submitted to the drip-drip-drip of daily revelation. All that does is prolong the agony. What's worse, the scandalee looks like he or she has something to hide, only admitting the truth when it's dragged out. Witness Cherie's admission yesterday that she looked up the name of Foster's trial judge: would she have said that if the Daily Mail were not about to publish it? By telling all, early on, the scandal victim keeps the initiative. The instructive parallel here is the Whitewater affair which dogged the Clintons' first term. It could all have been prevented if the relevant papers had been released in a bloc, right at the start: Bill wanted to do that, Hillary said no. Cherie had the same instinct. 3. Context and timing is all. Scandals only blossom if the political climate is right. Judged on substance alone, the most serious scandal of the Blair period remains the Formula One affair, in which Labour took Bernie Eccelstone's cash and did a screaming u-turn to exempt the sport from the ban on tobacco advertising. Yet no heads rolled over that episode. That's because it broke in the autumn of 1997, when New Labour was still basking in a honeymoon glow. Voters had a positive view of Tony Blair which served as a protective shield: the revelations barely left a dent. Now it's different. There is a mood of rising disaffection, unfocused perhaps, with this government which makes people willing to hear such negative talk. Impatience at public service reform, worry about a war on Iraq and anger over university top-up fees and firefighters' pay are all swirling around - making Labour vulnerable, particularly with its own supporters. This episode channels at least two elements of that fury. First, the Blairs are exposed as people with enough cash to buy two classy student flats, even as they consider charging parents big money to give their kids a university education. Second they have £500k to spend, even as they refuse the firefighters £30k a year. Labour defenders insist Cheriegate is a media invention, but the evidence, whether from public meetings or phone-in shows, suggests the episode has stirred some genuine anger. That may dissipate now that Cherie has appealed above the heads of the Daily Mail, directly to working mothers like her. 4. Hypocrisy is always a killer. The serial sex scandals of the Tory years hurt John Major because his "back to basics" campaign seemed to promise a different kind of morality. There is no comparable gap between rhetoric and reality here, but financial scandals always hurt Labour because of the vague sense that leaders of the party of equality should not be out for personal financial gain - and should not mix with hustlers. That damaged Harold Wilson in the 1970s and it has hurt the Blairs now. 5. Know thine enemy. It's not quite good enough for Cherie to claim she was doing what any normal person would do, trading favours with friends. She has had five years to get used to the super-scrutiny inflicted on the PM's family and to realise that they face an enemy that will ruthlessly expose any lapse. For Hillary, that was "the vast rightwing conspiracy" out to get her husband. For the Blairs the foe has been a vast right-wing press determined to chase out this government. With an enemy as fierce as that out there, Cherie should have reached for her 50-foot bargepole the moment Foster appeared. 6. Don't shaft your friends. In January 2001 Peter Mandelson was forced from office because he had allowed the Downing Street press office inadvertently to "mislead" the press on his behalf. The implication was clear: the team will fight for you like tigers, but you've got to play straight. If your own side feels deceived they can't defend you - and, worse, they won't want to. By failing to tell all to the Downing Street press team Cherie lost a crucial ally. 7. Scandals are not legal, they're political. It doesn't help to have a defence which is technically accurate - "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" - if it does not deal with the political problem of perceived bad behaviour. The court of public opinion demands truthfulness in spirit as well as letter. Cherie's initial instinct, like the Clintons before her, was to offer a lawyer's defence. Yesterday she acted more like a politician - offering not a legal defence, but an emotional one. 8. Guilt by association may not be fair, but it's real. The hard truth is that people are judged by the company they keep. It wasn't Norman Lamont's fault that Miss Whiplash rented his basement, but some of her moral status rubbed off on him. Now Cherie is learning that even an email connection with a conman is a connection too far. 9. When all else fails, make a personal statement. Maybe we're all suckers, but there's nothing quite so effective as a personal appeal. Forget official statements and press officers, get up there and speak. Nixon did it in his "Checkers" TV address in the 1950s and Cherie did it just as brilliantly yesterday. 10. Once you've survived a scandal, make yourself a promise: never again. · [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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