Steve Bell's Guardian cartoon of Alastair Campbell giving evidence to The Iraq Inquiry seems to have raised a few eyebrows, but is unlikely to lead to riots. Campbell denies "sexing up" evidence which contributed to Britain's decision to join the US action against Iraq in 2003. Bell's cartoon takes a difference view. Fortunately we live in a free country, or just about anyway.
However, serious commentators, such as theatre director Peter Hall, have long acknowledged the tendency of the British press to use sex as a distraction from politics. This was the theme of my first post on the subject of "Culture" back in June 2006.
The immediate subject was a play by Mark Lawson entitled "The Third Soldier Holds His Thighs", about the controversy surrounding the original staging of Howard Brenton's play "The Roman's in Britain", which portrays male rape.
Now it seems that Iris Robinson's views on homosexuality may well have contributed to her own manhandling by the media as referred to in my previous post. I suspect we shall hear more from her young man, in "Beau de Jour" style, very soon.
Fortunately, Northern Ireland's politicians seem to be taking a more sensible line on these particular troubles than one might have expected from the media coverage, giving a strong and positive signal that this is now a country which does not want to return to the kind of "Troubles" with which Brenton's play also implicitly deals.
No comments:
Post a Comment