Fun and games are over. This is why we can’t have nice things and I hope you’re sorry, because look at poor Jason. That appears to be the present tone over in Britain. A certain hysterical degree of carrying-on was achieved and now it’s all ended in tears. Which means that those carrying on, meaning the British press, must be blamed for the calamity, namely the apparent suicide of Jason Arday (“apparent” because the coroner hasn’t ruled). Thus, proposals for curbing press freedom are being talked up in Britain with an air of aggrieved, even tragic virtue.
The Arday furor’s treated as roughhousing in a nursery school. It’s a matter of good behavior, in the sense of being well-behaved, and bad behavior, in the sense of being aggressive and loud and troublesome. Jason Arday was a polite, smiling person who spoke of uplifting things. The British press, by and large, is a thug. Its thoughts aren’t uplifting and its smile tends to be scary. This summer the thug, or brat, went on one of its tears, and now Jason Arday’s dead. Enough is enough, time for the behavior to be dealt with.
But bring in principles aside from comportment and the picture changes. Truth, in the form of personal honesty and academic integrity, that’s one. Concern for the health of vital institutions, such as the system of higher education—there’s another. Jason Arday lied, Cambridge made a mockery of itself, and the truth came out. And now the truth’s being put aside. Mourners want to have a good shriek and seek vengeance dressed up as legislation. In short another bender is launched. Good luck, Britain.
Travels with Nathalie. Does anybody care if Trump’s doing it with Nathalie Harp? Care in the sense of being astonished, I guess, given his age and health. But outraged? He has some followers who don’t like promiscuity, but they’ve forgotten much worse doings than this. His other fans will figure the old man’s getting more of what’s good for him. Everyone who hates Trump, which at this point means almost everyone who isn’t actually one of his fans, will figure the affair’s no big deal next to the Iran war, the tariffs, the head cracking and detentions, and his billions of dollars in corrupt income. A lot of presidents might have kept a good-looking employee on hand for a bit of sugar. On the Trump scale the situation barely registers.
Instead of a regular old scandal, we have what I consider a damning bit of color. This is the Trump White House: a cracked individual gets to follow our chief executive around because she has long legs and blonde hair and a mania for celebrating his regrettable existence. Aides tell stories of her stowing away in the trunk of an SUV and sleeping for months in a locker room, anything to stay near her hero. They want her out of his orbit the way bodyguards want to keep nuts away from the star. But she’s in; she made it. Now she’s being paid to be an up-close stalker because the star’s a bit crazy himself. Insane adoration’s just about the right temperature for him and she supplies it. The best thing you can say about all this is that probably she won’t shoot anybody.
—Follow C.T. May on Twitter: @CTMay3