A photo that makes me tremble a little for the future of the Free World
Others still will have welcomed the opportunity to do a bit of glad handing and networking with other world [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] leaders. We should not be too censorious. Funerals and memorial services have long provided a forum for a little covert self advancement.
Whatever happens, though, such occasions shouldn’t become jamborees. Of course, honouring the dead need not be entirely solemn.
Larking about may scarcely cover the behaviour of President Barack Obama, Helle Thorning Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark, and our own David Cameron during the memorial service. There was much joshing and laughter, especially on the part of Mr Obama, who seemed to be attracted to [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] the blonde Miss Thorning Schmidt to the apparent displeasure of his wife, Michelle.
Some people are saying that there was nothing about this episode over which we should get het up.
The memorial service had already dragged for a couple of hours, and was going to drag on for another two. The ‘selfie’ cannot have occupied more than a few moments.
Moreover, it didn’t take place in Westminster Abbey or an ancient cathedral, but in a football stadium in Soweto. As might be expected of South Africa, there was dancing and a general air of carnival, and little sense of mourning. The crowd belted out some songs.
I’d say the entire occasion was misconceived in a number of ways. I expect the South African President, Jacob Zuma, may agree with this sentiment, having been constantly booed by the crowd. Whatever one thinks of Zuma, such antics are hardly appropriate at an event dedicated to celebrating a great leader.
So we shouldn’t judge Messrs Obama and Cameron and Miss Thorning Schmidt as we might if they had misbehaved in our own country. I don’t suppose President Obama would have fooled about with a ‘selfie’ at Lady Thatcher’s funeral last April that is, if he had bothered to turn up.
All the same, what happened in Soweto was a memorial service of sorts. When things seemed to be getting [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] out of hand, Archbishop Desmond Tutu who did behave respectfully demanded complete silence. He seemed like a figure from another, more dignified age.
The leaders of America, Britain and Denmark should have known better. Mr Obama, whose characteristically windy and vacuous speech has been overpraised, appears to have been chewing gum during part of the proceedings, as he did during his inauguration in January. Was this seemly?
At Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday, Mr Cameron [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] tried to make light of what had happened by saying that ‘of course, when a member of the Kinnock family asked for a photograph, I thought it was only polite to say "yes".’ He won a few easy laughs from MPs.
But it is not a laughing matter. The issue is the behaviour of our leaders in public when representing our country. Even accepting the changes in manners over the past quarter of a century, we don’t [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] expect them to fool around like bored teenagers at a bus stop.
The odd thing is that Mr Cameron is naturally a well mannered person. But he can forget himself. At the wedding of Rebekah and Charlie Brooks in the summer of 2024 she was still chief executive of News International he greeted PR fixer Matthew Freud by meeting hands with a ‘high five’. Is that how a leader of the Tory Party (he was not then Prime Minister) should act?
Archbishop Desmond Tutu demanded complete silence when things seemed to be getting out of hand. He seemed like a figure from another, more dignified age
To be fair, he wasn’t the only British politician who did not cover himself with glory at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. Nick Clegg seized hold of Bill Clinton’s right hand while holding his left arm with his other hand so that the former President could not make a quick escape.
A few feet away stood Ed Miliband glaring at Mr Clegg for having the impertinence to hog Mr Clinton in this way. I couldn’t help wondering what both Mr Miliband and Mr Clegg were doing there. They were hardly personal friends of Mr [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] Mandela. Shouldn’t the Deputy Prime Minister have been manning the fort at home?
Looking at many of them in Soweto, not least the ‘selfie’ trio, served for me as a kind of confirmation that we live in frivolous age with leaders to match.
I thought of how Nelson Mandela would have behaved on such an occasion.
Master of informality though he was in both dress and action, he was incapable of being undignified.
Even Ronald Reagan, that most genial and relaxed of presidents, would not have dreamt of larking about with a smartphone, had such a contraption existed.
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