My take on the Maria Miller resignation

After weeks of misinformation and a disastrous management of the situation, the Culture Secretary Maria Miller resigned from cabinet this morning. And she was right to step down, because she became a distraction and a bad news pinup poster.

So what have we learnt from this whole mess?

The first lesson we learnt is that public opinion, even when built on wrong information, can be very, very destructive. What happened to Mrs Miller is a perfect example. Because, even after being cleared of any wrong doing by the “appropriate approved parliamentary authorities” and ordered to do two things – pay back about £6000 and apologise – which she did. Some people [members of the public, fellow MPs and the media] felt – ONE she didn’t pay enough – and TWO her apology wasn’t sufficiently “long” and didn’t sound adequately sincere!!

Both bizarre claims to say the least, but this is the world we live in today. Public figures are public puppets it seems. Maria Miller did not go because she did wrong. She went because she did not show the satisfactory amount of remorse expected from her by the public and approved by the media.

Secondly, we learnt that political office is a dangerous and a very lonely place to be in. If you intend to inhabit it, my advice is, always watch your back. Make and nurture friends on the way up because you will need them on the way down, then cross your fingers and hope if you fall they’ll be there to catch you.

Third, as someone once said, resign before you become the only story.

In all of this what I find hilarious is media types on radio, TV and the press feeling indignant about claims that Miller was pushed out by a media witch-hunt!

Well, form were I’m standing the media did not kill or attempted to kill the story. It kept it alive and pushed it into every news bulletin and daily printed headline. It’s not as if there is a news vacuum and Miller filled it, but her stubbornness made them look good. What about Hillsborough victims’ families in court, or the UK becoming the fastest growing economy in the G7 or the outbreak and spread of Ebola from Central to West Africa…., all important news that could have benefited from more coverage but didn’t!

Then we have public opinion. Tell me something, who shapes that? Who puts out the information for the public to chew on? Who literally dictates what is “perceived right or wrong” via continues commentary, debate and news headline? Could it be the media?

I do not know Maria Miller personally nor have I never met her in my life, but I feel the lines between what’s wrong and what is perceived to be wrong are too blurred these days. And that is dangerous, dangerous because it brings out the worst in us as human beings and because it is unjust. That injustice is bad for politics and the country.

At the end of the day, whether Maria Miller was pushed or went on her own accord, she resigned wrongly, and unfairly, because all she did wrong was rub some people the wrong way and appear proud when she should have looked humble.

Sadly, the Maria Miller case says more about us than her.