Why is it that so many of our politicians seem to be so 'accident-prone' ?
The current furore over what was actually said by the Tory Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell, to a police oficer on duty at the gate to Downing Street is simply another in the long line of appalling gaffs committed by our Lords and Masters. Whatever Mitchell did ssay, he felt it necessary to issue a personal apology to the officer concerned and to make that apology public knowledge; this action on its own suggests that the man knows he's very much in the wrong.
It seems probable that Mitchell did swear at the officer and quite probably did refer to him as being a 'pleb', a contraction of the Latin word for the common folk but more often used these days to indicate that someone is a lowgrade idiot and not really fit to lick one's boots.
Although Mitchell has vehemently denied swearing or calling the officer a 'pleb', he clearly said something derogatory and offensive on being refused egress through the Downing Street main gate. Whatever happened, he was obviously angered by it and expressed his anger in words. This all leads me to the conclusion that the man is arrogant, rude and probably foul-mouthed; as such, he is probably a perfect Chief Whip for today's politics. However, where Mitchell has gone wrong is in letting his true personality out into the real world where people have much thinner skins than those who inhabit the corridors of power; the general public now know what he is really like and some, at least, find his behaviour unacceptable.
The remaining issue is whether or not he should now be forced out of a job he has been in for only a few days. In a perfect world, he would have recognized his blunder and resigned within hours; in today's political world, he will hang on for dear life and only go if the furore refuses to die down. My money is on the whole issue being drowned out by more important matters over the next few days and Mitchell will slink back into Parliament to vent his spleen on his party fellows.
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