The Ecclestone Saga...

...rumbles on.

As is usually the case whenever somebody says something even remotely controversial - no, scratch that, whenever somebody says something the bleaters don't like - the perpetrator often feels the need to respond to the browbeating by indulging in some sort of apology.

More often than not these follow-ups change nothing; for those who agreed in the first place it is little more than an elaboration, and for the detractors it is the perfect opportunity to suggest that an already deep hole is being dug further still. And so it is with Bernie Ecclestone in the Times today.

In a piece with the unmistakably unambiguous title I was a fool to talk about admiring Hitler, Ecclestone embarks on a mixture of explanation and apology - which sounds perfectly reasonable and measured to most of us but constitutes yet another wave of the red rag to those hell bent on plotting his destruction. It is quite clear what Ecclestone means when he writes that "it is what I said - but it was not what I meant to say" - but this means nothing to those whose very mission it is to twist things out of context, put their own spin on things and deliver the dogs dinner result of their journalistic endeavours to the masses.

The "Hitler" angle of course detracts from all of the very reasonable points that Ecclestone puts forward - namely, that politicians are so obsessed with compromise and making an impression that they continually miss the point of what they are there to do - serve the people. The trouble is that hard, principled politics always has its victims; political compromise on the other hand prides itself on its trying to please everyone. What the mainstream politicians fail to see however is their playing to the gallery actually helps nobody. Well, perhaps nobody but themselves. Ecclestone writes,

"They [politicians] are like doctors faced with patients suffering from a serious disease. Instead of telling them what is really wrong, they give them a course of tablets and send them away. I don’t blame the politicians; it’s the system we’ve created."

It's the same the whole world over. We'd let someone die a slow and miserable death rather than upset them. We'd hide the truth in case it might cause offence. We'd refuse to be straight with someone and put them in their place because they might run away blubbing to their mummy or some good-for-nothing journalist with nothing better to do.

This warped social mindset has done much to shape how we live our daily lives: we cannot say anything just in case it upsets somebody else, there is little or no sense of personal responsibility, criminals are treated with kid gloves, someone or something else is always to blame, and politicians are more concerned with dead pop stars than what they have been elected to do. Politics has become less about adhering to a principle than playing silly buggers in trying to look good in front of everyone who yaps in their general direction. It reminds me of one of Aesop's lesser-known fables:

In the old days, when men were allowed to have many wives, a middle-aged Man had one wife that was old and one that was young; each loved him very much, and desired to see him like herself. Now the Man's hair was turning grey, which the young Wife did not like, as it made him look too old for her husband. So every night she used to comb his hair and pick out the white ones. But the elder Wife saw her husband growing grey with great pleasure, for she did not like to be mistaken for his mother. So every morning she used to arrange his hair and pick out as many of the black ones as she could. The consequence was the Man soon found himself entirely bald.

Moral: Yield to all and you will soon have nothing to yield.

We can say something similar about the various positions adopted by the mainstream politicians in Britain today: we have to look good for the gays. We have to look good for the Muslims. We have to look good for the Jews. We have to look good for the British people. Result: you look good in front of nobody.

Of course, this is why there is little difference between the Labour and Conservative parties - bar the few so-called mavericks and loose cannons that still can be found dying of old age on the back benches. Actual policies are never discussed, and politics has become a silly game that can rightly be called Our spin-doctors and hairstylists are better than yours, We are more gay-friendly than you, or something equally inane.

Since when have we seen a politician take on a challenge and stick to his or her guns? And when things have gone to pot - as they occasionally do - have we seen anyone stand up and offer an apology that hasn't smacked of blatant insincerity?

I am sure that we would all rather see politicians that are bold and principled in their approach to the objectives, but humble and honest in the face of criticism and adversity. Maybe Bernie Ecclestone is right. Perhaps Max Mosley would make a good Prime Minister.