How Not To Do It

Zeal to remove a particular politician can prompt campaigners to ignore basic democratic principles.

- Steven Friedman

The problem with witch hunts is that you have to live with the consequences after you have got rid of the witch.

What that might mean in practice was spelled out in, of all things, a play about an English monarch. The play is ‘A Man for All Seasons’ by Robert Bolt. It is about Sir Thomas More, the British prime minister who was executed for opposing King Henry VIII’s plan to set up a church which would allow him to divorce his wife. More believed that the king was bending the rules to suit himself but, in his bid to prevent him, insisted on playing by the rules. This angered his zealous son-in-law Will Roper, who wanted him to do whatever it took to stop the king, who he sees as a representative of the Devil. More tells Will that he seems so determined to chase after the Devil that he would break down every law in the land to get at him. Will agrees that he would. To this, More replies: ‘And when the Devil turns on you to pursue you, where will you run to, there being no laws left to protect you?’

What does this snippet from our former coloniser tell us about our politics today?

Well, the king may have more to do with our current reality than we might imagine. He was renowned for his musical ability but also for his six wives. And the reason More (and Will) were opposing him is that he was trying to bend the rules to make them suit him. Many of us may make some obvious links between this long gone British ruler and one in our midst now.

We may also have far more of our share of Will Ropers here. In our case, these are people who are so eager to get at politicians who they believe are using the state for their own ends, that they seem determined to knock down many of the rules which protect us. If they succeed, we will have no protection when the next group of politicians who want to turn the government into their own instrument come along.