Another calamitous week for the UK resulted in national outrage, screaming headlines on the front pages of the papers, resignations and a six-figure fine. Another week of doom and despair in the credit markets? Another city institution gone belly up? Another FSA swoop on fraud? No. The media’s short attention span kicked in and decided to focus on the story that really mattered – two highly paid presenters leaving a crude message on an ageing actor’s answerphone.
Almost 40,000 complaints were said to have been made about the prank. Who are these people? Why do they have so much time on their hands? And why do they not make their feelings felt on something that actually matters? Maybe they are the only 40,000 people in the country whose personal circumstances have insulated them from the real world.
It is vital that we retain a sense of perspective about what really matters. If we are going to get up in arms about something, should it not be that banks need to be forced to ease their facilities for small businesses, lest we exacerbate the depth of the recession? And should we not ask how to guarantee that we will learn from these mistakes, and how will we pay for it?
If someone had come back from a week’s holiday on a desert island, they would naturally assume that the credit crisis had been solved. Job done, well done the Government: what’s next?
Even Gordon Brown was moved to condone the actions of the two presenters as “unacceptable behaviour”, moments after coming out of a meeting French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. And Conservative leader, David Cameron, also waded in to lend his weight to the condemnation. It is a sign of the times when politicians are asked to comment about the actions of celebrities, and the Church is asked to comment on the global financial collapse. No wonder we are in trouble. n
