Of sex, money and politics
Suppose you could choose: which would you prefer? Money scandals, or sex scandals?
You can have both, of course, and if you put money and sex together, you can create an exceedingly potent brew.
Which brings me to Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister of Italy and shortly to be the host of a G8 summit. He is a man determined to make the most of his moment in the global media spotlight, but who finds himself currently embroiled in lurid tales of, yes, you guessed, sex and money.
There are snatched pictures of parties in his private villa, attended by half-dressed young women and an apparently totally undressed former Czech Prime Minister. There are allegations that someone paid young women to attend his parties. And, most damaging, there is a specific allegation that he spent a night with one of those women, who is now happy to tell all.
She apparently has video recordings made in his bedroom, which she has described in some detail. Mr Berlusconi himself denies any impropriety, says he has never had to pay for sex, and alleges that the young woman at the centre of the allegations has been paid to create trouble for him.
In Britain, we've been obsessed with MPs' duck houses, moat cleaners and house flipping. (Oh yes, and now, there are the curtailed family holidays, gifts of Krug champagne and celebration dinners claimed by top BBC executives.) In Italy, the talk is of a 72-year-old Prime Minister, whose wife is divorcing him, and who's at the centre of a steamy story that makes him sound like an Italian version of Hugh "Playboy" Hefner.
I lived in Italy for a time, and I like to think of it as my second home (not literally, I don't actually have a second home). I reported on Silvio Berlusconi's first election victory in 1994, and again on his most recent victory last year. I admire a great deal about the country, yet I confess I am puzzled both by him and by Italian voters' reaction to him.
He is hugely rich, controls a vast media empire, has seen off countless attempts to prosecute him for corruption, and is the most successful politician Italy has known in modern times. He is brash, unapologetic, and treats women as if he had never heard of the word "equality". So why is he apparently still so popular?
A friend who has lived in Italy for much longer than she cares to remember wrote recently: "Most Italians wouldn't recognise an ethical principle if they tripped over it." Another commentator, Edmondo Berselli, talks of the country's "moral amnesia".
But suppose, just for the sake of argument, that Mr Berlusconi did have sex with a prostitute. Would that automatically make him unfit for office? Would it make a difference if he didn't pay? Or if she wasn't a prostitute?
Would his moral culpability be greater or less than that of a politician who avoided taxes or fraudulently inflated his expenses claims? Or of a head of state who had consensual extra-marital sex in his place of work? Or of a Prime Minister (British) who earlier in his career had a four-year extra-marital affair with another MP who went on to become a government minister?
The Italian equivalent of the chattering classes are horrified by Mr Berlusconi, but he still seems to do well enough at election times. Many Italian voters seem to take a similar attitude to the one I found when I asked American voters what they thought of President Clinton at the height of the Monica Lewinsky saga. "He's a man, ain't he?"
But Mr Berlusconi does need to keep an eye on what his political allies are saying. The Catholic church does not like this kind of thing being widely written about in public, and there are signs that some of his coalition allies are also beginning to feel queasy.
The Prime Minister has never hidden his love of money, or of attractive young women. What he is now discovering is that in politics, when you put them together, you risk an explosion.
I shall be in Mexico next week, to report from a country hit by a triple whammy of economic crisis, spiralling drug-war violence and swine flu. Listen out for my reports on Thursday and Friday.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~54~RS~)
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My view has always been that, providing the indiscretion does not have security implications (Profumo), you don't lie to the legislators if it does come out (Clinton) and it does not lead to the misuse of public funds (no example comes to mind), the sex lives of the powerful are no more anyone else's business than yours or mine.
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In Clinton's case, he was clearly not doing his job. That is a big problem.
That bombings on Iraq took place as apparent distractions, is also a big problem.
That the resulting media 'explosion' can engulf a Commander-in-Chief is also a big problem.
So I believe it is of enormous importance to the public.
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The Italians can't tell the difference between an election and an erection, and so imagine they are the same thing.
I am half-Italian myself, and know that all Italians are essentially misogynistic (except for their mothers, of course, which explains why they are all catholics).
Yep, St Peter certainly arrived at the right place to find sinners. The problem is (unlike the Brits) the Italians have not a scintilla of guilt to build on - they all enjoyyyy sinning so much.
Salute
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Is there any wonder that the Italians seem not to object to their leader's sexual doings. I suspect they are thinking that the "old man" is to be admired for a) attracting much younger women, and b) having the stamina!
That aside, surely the main measure of the man should be that he is doing his job properly and running his country as best he can. He's not exactly hiding anything, either.
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I'm no fan of Berlusconi, but with him, 'What You See Is What You Get'.
He makes no pretence at political correctness and 'He does what it says on the tin'.
What people cannot stand or stomach is the hypocrisy of British politicians telling us the NHS is wonderful, while using private health care.
Or telling us that we should be proud of our state education improving, when they send their children through private education.
Or pretend to be whiter than white while troughing to the max with their expenses.
Or even coming up with vapid soundbites like 'Tough on crime..' or 'Ethical Foreign Policy..' or 'equality' then spending 10 + years in power doing the exact opposite.
We don't have Berlusconi, but in Boris we have the nearest thing - someone who is just the same on camera as off, and who doesn't just say one thing and do another.
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