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In a truly liberal society, Mark Oaten’s career would not be over

By Mark Littlewood
September 16th, 2009 at 2:33 pm | 9 Comments | Posted in UK Politics

mark-oatenSome Liberal Democrats are  aghast– but not necessarily surprised – that Mark Oaten is in the newspapers again. This time with a lengthy article in The Independent providing excerpts from his new book, the rather bluntly-titled Screwed Up!

I was the Head of Media for the party during the protracted downfall of Charles Kennedy and the subsequent leadership race. On the Saturday that the news about Mark Oaten broke, I was just about to head the south coast to watch Saints lose at home again, when I received a call from Chris Rennard asking if I could be available and that there was a “problem” with Mark Oaten.

Rumours had been flying round Westminster for some days that – following his abortive leadership campaign – Mark might join the Tories. I’d never granted much credibility to these whispers, but it was the first thing that came to mind when I took Chris’s call. When I was told exactly what had happened, it took me a good few minutes to come to terms with the fact that this wasn’t some sort of elaborate Jeremy Beadle-style wind-up.

But looking back on those early days of 2006, when our media profile was enormously high and almost entirely negative, I have reached the conclusion that Mark’s reckless behaviour would not have been punished so harshly in a truly liberal society.

The main charges against Mark Oaten are poor judgment and hypocrisy about his personal life. The latter of these accusations hinges on him having invited the TV cameras into his house at the launch of his leadership bid to capture images of familial bliss around the kitchen table. This, some argue, generates a dishonest image of a man who had hired the services of a male prostitute on a number of occasions. But the fact that the Oaten marriage has survived is good evidence of a robust, committed relationship – or was his implicit claim (by allowing the BBC to film him eating breakfast with Belinda and their two daughters) that his family life was perfect?

The “poor judgment” charge is harder to refute and Mark Oaten himself would plead guilty to that one. But it’s poor judgment within the confines of the absurd Westminster game. MPs know that they risk career termination if they engage in “sleazy” or ” immoral” behaviour.  Our politicians are expected to act like saints. The telling of an inappropriate joke can be enough to reverse the rise of an MP heading up the career ladder. Going out with a weather girl or a popstar – and talking about it in glossy magazines – has been a key factor  in sidelining Lembit Opik.

I don’t want a return to the era of deference. MPs are our servants. We are entitled to subject them to scrutiny. We need to hold them to account.

But we can’t have it both ways. If we want to stop the ghastly production line of tedious, loyalist, speak-your-pager automatons that litter the green benches (particularly on the Labour side), we need to be more forgiving of politicians that behave outside society’s statistical  norms.

Mark Oaten acted like an idiot. But the punishment he has suffered is totally disproportionate to the “crime”.

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