The Independent on Sunday reports today that Mark Oaten has devised a three part strategy of rehabilitation. Click HERE. The strategy is:1. His wife to write an article for HELLO Magazine about the fallout of his affair with a male prostitute.
2. Oaten to follow this by writing an article himself outlining the circumstances which led him to visit male prostitutes. He is expected to blame pressure of work.
3. Oaten and his wife to do a joint interview.
This is a strategy David Mellor would be proud of. It is also completely barmy. It will bring further ridicule on him and his family and reawaken all the horrible stories which people sniggered about at the time of his resignation. If anyone reading this is a friend of Mark Oaten please do all you can to dissuade him from this plan. His best course of action is to do nothing but do a good job as a constituency MP and see what happens. The article in the IoS has all the hallmarks of the first attempt at rehabilitation. It ends with a quote from "a source close to Menzies Campbell", by which I assume they mean Norman Lamb, The quote says: "Mark is still held in high regard. Everybody realises he needs to spend some time on his personal circumstances, but he hasn't got a black mark against his name. A return is certainly a possibility." If this is flying a kite to see what the reaction is, the LibDems will do well to shoot the kite down immediately. The last thing their Party needs at the moment is hand-wringing articles and interviews from the Oatens. All they will do is serve to remind the British public about an episode which most LibDems want to forget. And understandably so.
Absolutely correct. Clearly he still believes his own publicity about him being a PR genius and thinks he can just manipulate the media to do his bidding. It also suggests that he places far more importance to his personal career than he does on either the party or his family.
ReplyDeleteThe real reason why Oaten should not return to frontbench politics is not the dirty underwear in his briefcase but the fact that he is vacuous and without principle. If the Lib Dem frontbench can't see that, particularly after his disgraceful attempt to make them all look like bastards immediately after the Kennedy resignation, then more fool them.
Looks like Mark hasn't had much of a career outside of politics and lobbying, so I suppose it is not surprising that he is making one more lunge at the brass ring - what else would he do with his life?
ReplyDeleteFrankly I don't think he has a prayer, and if the Winchester yellows want to hold that seat they had better hurry up and deselelect him.
Blaming the pressures of work for consorting with a rent boy sounds a particularly stupid strategy. All that says is that he has no place in politics. If you can't stand the heat...
ReplyDeleteI have some doubts about the productivity of this strategy (more or less what Iain said in his blog entry).
ReplyDeleteOaten and his wife don't need to tell us why they're back together, it's a private matters and there's no need to explain it. But if they feel the need to do it, do it.
I think the best way to somehow resurect his political career is working hard for his costituents.
Anyway, I'm intrigued by the article.
I'm curious about how he'll connect the "the strains and stresses of people whose working lives mean they do not spend a great deal of time with their family" to sleeping with a rent boy!
seems a bit premature to write Oaten off at least more than 3 years before the next GE
ReplyDelete"The real reason why Oaten should not return to frontbench politics is ... the fact that he is vacuous and without principle."
ReplyDeleteJust Oaten???!!!???
I thought the words "Liberal Democrat" were the giveaway myself when it comes to that description.
A supporter of a party whose leader is in the midst of throwing out a lot of the policies in the manifesto he himself wrote just a year ago, should perhaps be just a little wary of calling other people without principle.
ReplyDeleteI too fail to see what the "strains and stresses of working life" have to do with him paying a male prostitute for sex (with acts reported by the News of the World of all people as too revolting to describe!) If his wife can take him back after these revelations she must be a saint - but that is her business, and should remain private between them.
ReplyDeleteJust shows what ego and capacity for self-deception these politicos have to imagine a puff piece in Hello magazine with a few smiley photos is going to make all right again. It also shows what Oaten is really like (if we hadn't heard quite enough already) that he's prepared to drag his wife and children through the media again in order to pander to his ambitions.
Andrea
ReplyDeleteOaten didn't "sleep with a rent boy", he........well, we'd better not go there.
No, bring him back, put him on the frontbench!
ReplyDeleteIain, think of the material...
A lot of people are understandably angry with Oaten over what he did. I feel some sympathy though - he must have been deeply psychologically troubled in a way most of us cannot understand. But a return to the frontline is totally unrealistic. It is a shame because he is a capable chap, but the truth is it can't and won't happen.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, in newspaper code, "a source close to X said..." traditionally means "X himself said..." although this is by no means universal.
While part of me agrees with Guido - the entertainment value of Mark Oaten on the LD front bench would be worth having - I'm with Iain on this one.
ReplyDeleteWhatever he does from now on, he will always be marked down as the MP who participated in acts of degradation. His career is blighted and he can't clean it up (much like his briefcase).
MPs can survive failure, I'm not sure many can cope with being objects of ridicule.
If they do decide to let him return to a leading role, it illustrates just how bereft of talent the LD parliamentary party really is.
I understood from reading Private Eye that Mr Oaten is a coprophilliac (apologies to other readers here, and this is a grown up blog isn't it?). His rehabilitation must surely present a unique PR mountain to climb. I'm a little bit suspicous of the rapid speed that Mr Oaten's reconcilliation with his wife has occured, and doubt whether it's at all wise to go public before there has been a chance for the hurt to heal.
ReplyDeleteI take an interest because in the town where I live Mr Oaten was the first SDP councillor. When he reached the dizzy heights of leadership candidate, the local Lib Dems were more than happy to trumpet their connection. Understandably now his name is not often mentioned. I have thought for a long time that the Liberal Democrats in particular are unable to face bad news, despite all their worthy ideals of free speech etc. His rehabilitation will give us all a chance to see this phenomenon in action.
In passing, PR wizard that he might be, there are at least two errors of fact on the biography page of his constituency website. He may well have been one of the country's youngest councillors, but he served on Watford Borough Council, not "District" as he claims. I have no idea why he's forgotten the name of the body where he was once the leading light. The other is perhaps a little bit more understandable given recent endeavours. He didn't go to a comprehensive school in Watford, but to Queens School, in nearby Bushey. Apparently the dinner ladies had to protect him from bullies there...
Lobster Blogster - who said reading blogs wasn't educational - I didn't realise I had led such a sheltered life - never heard that word in my life and had to Google it!
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, a correspondent to the aforementioned organ suggested copraphilliac would be a love of coconuts :)
ReplyDelete