The Player of Games

Unsurprisingly, the Blunkett allegations have been a series of small explosions that have created some ugly craters. We have moved on from a simple affair to a web of privilege abuse centred on former lover Kimberly Quinn. Now Blunkett himself has ordered an independent enquiry into the allegations.

But we must separate the crimes from the errors of judgement, or we will fall victim to the useless point scoring practised by our tabloids constantly and our broadsheets frequently. A list of the allegations and analysis thereon is here – notice how the bigger allegations are "difficult to prove" or "far-fetched" and the smaller allegations are exactly the same tawdry little tidbits that every MP dabbles in from time to time.

Many MPs get nervous at a time like this and it is for that exact reason…pulling on the corruption thread is likely to cause the entire political structure to unravel like a cheap jumper caught on a barb-wire fence. In politics, there is no such thing as paranoia. When the first shot is fired, many ministers hit the deck and refuse to do anything but mumble about the right to privacy. Today, Blunkett. Tomorrow, them?

So, an independent enquiry…why not? Surely there must be a few good men out there who owe Blunkett a favour...perhaps a law lord or two. Besides, whether or not he is guilty of the worst of his allegations, he will not be resigning over this. The smart money is on an apology over the minor crimes, an apology demanded over the unproven major crimes, followed by a crack of the whip and onwards with the identity card juggernaut. He has the power. And in the unlikely chance he does step down, then his foul sphere of control was an illusion all along and we never had anything to fear in the first place. But this will not happen. Control and the illusion of control are two sides of the same coin. As soon as you begin to bow down and accept a fallacy, then it is no longer a fallacy but our reality. The new logic. Boom!

A strange flaw exists in the already low characters of those who seek to deny the freedom of others and control their actions. They are always guilty, and frequently of the same crimes they want to stamp out in others. When power becomes a leech on the brain, the victim stops seeing fellow travellers as friends and enemies. Instead he begins to regard them as pieces on a chess board. Now their actions are all part of the same game, and whether they win or lose, what the hell…it's only a game, right? Sacrificing lowlier pieces, closing ranks, breaking ranks to head to the other side, only to grab the crown for him or herself and then tearing across the board until nobody else remains standing… The contempt for our reality is a grizzly thing to witness and nobody should have to live in a country governed by that kind of person.

Ah, but Blunkett is innocent until proven guilty…our newspapers may make some dark assumptions but the law does not. Our justice system is based on principals like these.

Well…sometimes.