Lib Dems attack intrusion of privacy
The media must back off and stop scrutinising politicians’ every move or risk deterring or even destroying some of the most talented people in politics, Simon Hughes has argued.
The Liberal Democrat president said people must make clear the “boundaries between public and private”, particularly where the individual involved was unable to cope.
His comments come after a few months in which the private lives of Lib Dem MPs have dominated the headlines more than any policies they propose.
Mr Hughes was forced to admit during the party’s leadership campaign in March that he was bisexual, despite previous denials that he was gay.
Early on in the race, Mark Oaten quit as home affairs spokesman after a newspaper revealed the married father of two had been having an affair with a male prostitute.
And the campaign only came about after Charles Kennedy finally admitted he had a drinking problem – which was long suspected – and resigned as Lib Dem leader.
In a speech to the party conference in Brighton this morning, Mr Hughes said he had come out of the last few months “a little wiser as well as stronger”.
And he urged delegates: “This party, the Liberal Democrats, will go on working with determination to build a society in which we stereotype people less and respect individuality more.
“We as a country must make clear, and be proud of, the boundaries between public and private, something much more needed for people less able to cope or more likely to be put off from public life and public service than people like me.
“We have to make sure that we do not put people off from standing or being in public service because it suddenly means your family or your friends will be subjected to intense scrutiny.
“To do that would be to lose thousands and thousands of talented people.”
Mr Hughes announced that he had not been put off politics – despite losing two leadership bids – and would be standing for another two years as party president.
However, his concerns were echoed last night during a fringe meeting on how political parties should respond to new media, where Baroness Shirley Williams warned that 24-hour scrutiny of politicians was making them “bland”.
“We already have a generation of government ministers who are desperate to say nothing that could possibly offence – it’s draining politics,” she said.
Home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg noted that he had stopped researching how people were responding to his policies on the internet because of the “bile” and “vitriolic and shrill viciousness” of many bloggers.
Lembit Opik, the Lib Dems’ Northern Ireland and Welsh spokesman added: “I get really despondent about it. If I’m sitting in a pub having a drink, I don’t want to be worrying about what I say.
“There is an unregulated self-discipline in society now that means if you have a public life then you don’t have a private one.”
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