I think this story takes the biscuit for compartmentalisation.
Those of you outside the UK may not have heard of David Blunkett. He's our Home Secretary (Secretary of State?) - one of the three most powerful offices in our government. He's blind - takes a guide dog into the House of Commons. He's strikingly right-wing for a socialist politician, and outspoken about The Family as an institution. And he's currently embroiled in an infidelity scandal that is quite horrific for the children concerned.
This is the story. He's divorced. She's American, the editor of a right-wing periodical called The Spectator,and married to the publisher of British Vogue. She had an affair with this husband while still married to her last. She embarked on an affair with David Blunkett within a few months of her marriage. She had prevailed on her older husband to have a vasectomy reversal, as she was anxious for children. She had a baby boy - now three - who DNA tests show is actually David Blunkett's child. She's pregnant again. Our Home Secretary is taking legal action to determine the paternity of the unborn baby, but it seems very likely that it will turn out to be his, too. So she's shopped him to the press for misusing his power to get things done for her.
The poor cuckolded husband, meanwhile, is struggling to protect his family - who he says he loves and wants, whatever the paternity of the kids.
Get this. As Education Secretary, in 2000, Blunkett issued guidelines to schools which said 'Within the context of talking about relationships, children should be taught about the nature of marriage and its importance for family life and for the upbringing of children.'
What, even if the family in question comprises two children fathered by an OM?
I despair. Politicians are rallying round with support for him. Tony Blair is being pious about 'private life being private'. The papers are full of the juicy scandal. But what about that three year-old kid? What is his life like right now? What can he look forward to? The only person who seems to care about his security and happiness is the man who is not genetically linked to him, the man who has just had his heart broken.
The whole sordid story shows the sleazy mess that affairs really are - however rich and elevated the participants, however intellectual, however sophisticated. It's a nasty story of sneaking, lying, greed and utter selfishness.
But what's the betting that Blunkett will survive the scandal, and end up Prime Minister?
It makes me want to weep.
(the real) TA
