Mr Blair’s celebrity status was once an asset to New Labour. Now it is a danger
Miss Charlotte Church at last has a boyfriend of whom her mother approves. But perhaps I should answer the average High Court judge’s question: ‘Who is Miss Charlotte Church?’ She is a Welsh singer, aged 19. Her new boyfriend is the Welsh rugby star Mr Gavin Henson. The Daily Mail explained that until now her ‘boyfriends have been the men her mother Maria loved to hate. Stephen Johnson and Kyle Johnson, both “bad boys” from tough council estates, spent as much as they could of the teenage millionairess’s money before selling kissand-tell stories about their love life.’ I regret that I am unable to answer the judge’s next question: ‘Who are Mr Stephen Johnson and Mr Kyle Johnson?’ I do not even know whether they are related. Popular culture in general, and in particular the role of Johnsons within it, is a vast subject. The important point is what Mrs Church thinks of these Johnsons in comparison with the rugby player. The Mail quoted the mother as saying of this new liaison: ‘I’m delighted for them — they are a lovely couple together. I’ve always said to Charlotte she should only go out with a celebrity and Gavin is on the same level as her. He would never do a kiss-and-tell.’ Mrs Church’s view of a suitable match for her daughter is proof that, no matter how egalitarian the age, the aristocratic principle will always survive. For most of us, celebrities are our age’s aristocracy. We can hardly put a face to a single duke. The only duchess of whom we have any knowledge is the dowager one of Devonshire, but that is because she is a celebrity. We have, however, heard of popular singers and star rugby players. The only reason that some of us have not heard of those two unsuitable Johnsons is that their celebrity is not of a scale. Mrs Church is the first mother of a celebrity to understand that in the celebrity age only another celebrity is a suitable match for her daughter. As much as any 19th-century matriarch, she understands that marriages should be between social equals.
From now on, the terms under which parents of celebrities question their daughters’ suitors will resemble those of the Victorian and Edwardian ages, with only a difference of emphasis. ‘Young man, I assume that in seeking my child’s hand you have the means to keep her in the gossip columns at the level to which she is accustomed.’ But there is one important difference between this new aristocracy and the old. The old aristocrats remained aristocrats no matter how unpopular they became, no matter how hard the times on which they fell. Today’s can easily fall from being celebrities and be replaced by others, since the number of would-be celebrities is limitless. Mr Blair became Prime Minister by mastering the modern celebrity’s arts. All successful politicians rise by mastering whatever is the forum of the day. Once it was Parliament. But by 1881, and the rise of the public meeting attended by large audiences of the recently enfranchised, Lord Salisbury lamented to his eldest son, ‘Power is more and more leaving Parliament and going to the platform, and in the next generation platform speaking will be an essential accomplishment to anyone who wishes to give effect to his own political opinions.... It is — to my mind — a peculiarly difficult and unattractive form of public speaking.’ He blamed Gladstone for making so many speeches out of Parliament, beginning with his Midlothian campaign.
Later, Baldwin, Roosevelt, Churchill and eventually all successful politicians realised the potential of radio. It is now a commonplace to say that today’s forum is television. But it has become more specific than that. Today’s forum for successful politicians is the television chat show — the arena in which celebrities are made and broken. Mr Blair was the first politician to become Prime Minister by shining there. Mr Blair is the Gladstone of the studio sofa.
Success on the sofa depends on affability, and avoidance of opinions that arouse division. Such a politician cannot be asso ciated with causes and policies since causes and policies create division as well as support. The politician’s personality becomes the only issue. In 1997, Mr Blair’s was hugely acceptable. Plenty of voters were also angry with Tory rule.
But now there is no longer Tory rule to be angry about. Mr Blair’s personality, however, remains. What once reassured voters — his lack of belief in anything divisive — now irritates. Though I never voted for his party, and I opposed his war and would like Mr Howard to become prime minister, I cannot share the extraordinarily disproportionate anger — from Right, Left and centre — against Mr Blair. He has turned Labour into a party of government which accepts the economic order. History will see this as a huge service. That is why the Left hates him. It does not explain why others do. But that hatred is a fact of life. Even if he wins the election easily, it will still be there. It is explained only by celebocracy — the rule of celebrity. Since to win Downing Street he agreed with nearly everything said to him, he has disappointed voters who thought he agreed with them and not with the others. He has thus acquired the reputation of not believing in much at all. What enabled him to conquer the sofa is now a danger to his party.
This general election, more than any general election in the past, has become a referendum on the Prime Minister’s character. The only previous case of a prime minister’s character, rather than policies, being the main issue is perhaps that of Lloyd George. But a general election did not remove him. The Tories in his coalition did. We do not know whether the voters would have. Harold Wilson’s character seems to have been a cause of his defeat in 1970, but probably less so than inflation. His character did not prevent his return in 1974. If Mr Blair does badly, it will be hard to think of any issue as the reason.
That is the danger of being a celebrity and nothing much else. Such celebrities are rather than do. Once enough of the public dislikes what they are, they are gone. Of the three celebrities here discussed — Miss Church, Mr Henson and Mr Blair — the rugby player boyfriend seems most assured of remaining a celebrity. He can kick. He does. But there are doubts about Miss Church’s singing and Mr Blair’s being.
Previous page
