Columnists - Bill Kirkman;Repaying debts

BILL KIRKMAN


Having been a beneficiary of the State education system, Alan Bennett has given his complete archive to the Bodleian library. There’s a lesson here for politicians.

People of my generation in Britain are fortunate. We have benefited from the National Health Service (about which I wrote in my “Cambridge Letter” in July), and we were the first group who, if we qualified for entry to a university, had our fees paid and received a maintenance allowance. It is true that the number of universities in the 1950s, and therefore the number of student places, was much smaller than it is now. In that sense, university education was for a privileged minority. It did not, however, depend on coming from a wealthy family.

It is too easy to forget that we were privileged, and to take for granted what we gained, and the opportunities which our university education opened for us. This week we were provided with a good reminder, with the news that Alan Bennett, the well known and distinguished writer, has given his complete archive to the Bodleian Library at Oxford. (The crucial word is given.) He described the gift as a debt repaid, making the point that he had been educated free from the start, first at a State school and then at Exeter College, Oxford.

Level-headed

Alan Bennett’s decision confirms the impression that he has always given, of being someone who has not allowed fame, and fortune (he has been successful in financial as well as literary terms), to go to his head. That was certainly the impression which I had when I heard him talking about his writing at a book event a year or so ago.

It is ironic that in the same week that Alan Bennett’s gift was reported, there has also been much publicity for much less altruistic behaviour by two of the country’s leading politicians. One, Peter Mandelson, has just returned to the government, as a member of the House of Lords. The other, George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer — the Opposition finance spokesman. Both men have been the subject of controversy because they were both guests in Corfu on the yacht of the Russian billionaire aluminium tycoon, Oleg Deripaska.

Accusations, strongly denied, have been flying in all directions about the nature of their contacts.

The real issue, however, in my view is not whether either of them has done anything wrong. It is, rather, about their lack of sensitivity in accepting invitations of this kind at a time when thousands of the citizens whom, as politicians, they are supposed to serve are not in a position to afford holidays — and will certainly not be offered hospitality by Russian oligarchs.

At a time when the country, and indeed much of the world, is facing the worst financial crisis for many decades, we surely have a right to expect not only that our political leaders will take sensible policy decisions, but also that they will pay more than lip service in recognising how people’s lives are being affected by the crisis. To put it another way, we have a right to expect that they will show a sense of public responsibility.

Removed from realities

One of the big problems about many of our politicians is that they have become increasingly detached from the people they represent and are supposed to serve. Some of the reasons for this are understandable; for security reasons it is much more difficult than it used to be, for example, for senior members of the government to mingle unguarded with the public.

That, however, is not the only, or even the main, reason. Many people in important senior positions behave as if normal standards do not apply to them. We have seen examples of this during recent weeks as some of the bankers whose bad judgments have brought serious problems to their institutions nevertheless expect to receive bonuses. Some senior politicians, as we now see, are adopting the stance: “we feel deep sympathy with everyone at this difficult time — but we are not going to let that prevent us from sharing the lifestyle of our wealthy friends”.

Not all politicians, of course, are like this, any more than all bankers refuse to accept moral responsibility for their actions. When high profile figures like Lord Mandelson and George Osborne get themselves into this kind of controversial situation, it is not surprising that people become cynical about politicians in general.

They would do well to look at Alan Bennett, and see in his decision to make his gift to the Bodleian that it is possible to be rich and famous without becoming detached from the society which gave you your opportunities.

Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College Cambridge, U.K. Email him at: bill.kirkman@gmail.com