Gordon Brown PM Scotsman Feb 6th 2009
Here's something you won't find me doing very often - expressing sympathy for a Scottish Labour MP.
The not so suitably yclept Jim Devine MP for Livingstone, I believe has been badly let down by his party and colleagues. He has been scapegoated and become the focus of corruption amongst our MP's.
Gordon Brown's description of those who have stepped out of his control as 'these people' is quite telling, how quick the fall from grace is. To go from 'honourable member' to 'these people' in such a short space of time is infused with hypocrisy. How can yesterday's colleague or friend, become a non-person overnight? The light speed with which politicians distance themselves from any controversy which might tarnish their precious reputations and electability, is still beyond the ken of most physicists.
His alleged misdemeanour's in falsely claiming parliamentary expenses compare favourably with many of his fellow Labour MP's, some who have pocketed tens of thousands with judicious manipulation of the expenses system. To compound the misery for Devine and his family is the ludicrous suggestion in The Guardian, that Devine could spend up to seven years in jail.
What has miffed me most is the somewhat lurid reporting and pursuit of Devine, the doorstepping, long lens shots and flash-mob interviews that have been reminiscent of the impoverished MC Hammer's discomfort when he was offered a DJ gig at a Klan meeting. Today's photograph in the Hootsman is the perfect example of making Devine look like he's escaped from an institution. I include it below purely for illustrative purposes.
Having seen a few interviews with Jim Devine, including the excruciating one where a poorly dressed, overweight, shambling. sweating, dithering, probably hung over Devine took the STV cameras through his less than salubrious London flat, the thought struck me that he portrayed all the hallmarks of a man who has too comfortable a relationship with alcohol. I mention this not to judge, but to empathise.
Like most Scots I have experience of how alcoholism affects and ruins families and professional life. In the past, those with a drink dependency were tut tutted to the door and kicked out. Today employment legislation affords those afflicted by addiction protection and all manners of counselling, help and advice. I fear that Devine's employers, be that the Labour government, the house of Commons or the Labour Party have not recognised that he might have a problem and have failed him at his greatest time of need. He has in effect been cut loose and left to scrabble around trying to keep his arse out of the pokey and preserve what remains of his reputation.
I hope that somewhere in amongst our media's feigned moral outrage that some of them might pause for a while and reflect on their own relationship with alcohol and perhaps go a little easier on Mr Devine.
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