Policy - Culture

Writing at the commentator.com Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris Quinney puts forward the case that the recent immolation by press and commentary of Aiden Burley MP is yet another example of the media gripping a story, and with wilfully blinkered vision tearing someone’s career, and life, apart without asking any of the difficult questions that should come with proposing a universal and immutable moral compass.

In such circumstance it seems the person concerned loses the ability to reason with the current of media criticism and merely offers a grovelling and often unconvincing apology, usually with the political party or company’s head of media looming in the background.

I have never been to a party that featured anyone in Nazi dress, but if I had, I probably would not have left. It would be quite a different matter if someone, in any dress, began to espouse openly murderous, anti British, American or anti-Semitic views. But dressing up in something or as something bizarre and taboo for the purpose of merriment does not necessarily imply synergy or sympathy with the subject.