by Matt Lewis & Daniella Diaz
It’s difficult to explain why it matters that even one top British politician was caught using prostitutes, and why it’s news that it matters. I don’t even like to ask why the story mattered at all.
Politicians, staffers, and “advisors” have never been beyond the law. (The Anti-Human Trafficking Act was passed in 1996 when Bill Clinton was first president.) Politicians themselves have typically stood up for virtue, even in shameless ways. And the British establishment had long seemed up to snuff in serving the tiny minority who would do them harm.
Consider the behavior of any legal prostitute in any corner of the world, not least the United States, for that matter. I’ve seen salesmen promising to protect my family from another being they call a “drunk” or a “vagrant.” When a clerk with expensive creep glasses reads my item-phone number off of my magazine, they gaze at it with a kind of “Oh, I see,” while my wife and I walk away horrified. Perhaps you do something equivalent. What makes British politicians different is that the behavior that left one man going to jail is now the norm.
The thing is, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a sex party or a “disgusting” or “inappropriate” behavior. The actions are morally wrong. The institution is morally wrong. Britain needs to move past this. But if the British establishment is just preparing for sex parties now, why didn’t they stop any of this before?
Read more from FireDogLake: “Downing Street’s Christmas Party ‘Is Not About Hypocrisy – It’s About Criminality’” https://t.co/D6VZRLTNwh
— FireDogLake (@FDlake) July 21, 2017
Matt Lewis is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a former editorial page writer for the New York Daily News and Time magazine.
Daniella Diaz is a senior correspondent for the Washington Examiner. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, American Spectator, National Review, and The American Spectator Online.