Political Doodle Sketch - British Current Affairs, Politics, & Economics

Monday, June 12, 2006

SPL : Dave Cameron's rapping sanction

Though it be a running joke, it is widely accepted that Cameron will have no concrete policies to present to the public until about a year from now, when the Conservatives' policy-review teams report back their findings. In order to fill the vacuum - after all, it is Cameron's deepest held philosophy that the headlines must be grabbed perpetually - Dave is coming out with increasingly erroneous and naive comments:

"I would say to Radio 1, do you realise that some of the stuff you play on Saturday nights encourages people to carry guns and knives? ... [I have] the courage to speak up when [I] see something that is wrong ... [I] will get a lot of bricks thrown at [me]."

He certainly will. In a liberal society, it is not the place of a politician to attempt to apply social policy and morality to art, least of all music. Cameron would do well to avoid the public morality of his conservative forebears and neoconservative contemporaries if he wishes to re-brand his party. JS Mill would happily provide an alternative maxim:

"The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest."

Mr Gove on Monday's Newsnight insisted that Cameron's comments were not a publicity stunt. But what else could they be? Mr Gove argued that the Tories were not proposing a ban on any music, or indeed any other kind of formal censorship. So why say anything? Politicians are elected to legislate; to act collectively where individual action is either insufficient or universally detrimental. The notion that these rap artists encourage gun and knife crime is ridiculous, in the same way as it is ridiculous to suppose that Dave's favourite bands encourage criminal behaviour. Music tastes are an individual choice, and Cameron, in attempting to impose a social sanction on this particular art, is committing an (albeit futile) act of implicit authoritarianism.

5 Comments:

At 6/13/2006 12:04:00 PM , Serf said...: An opinion is different from authoritarianism. Cameron is as free as the rest of us to opine on the state of society. If he tries to ban anything, I will agree with you but until then, I think you are making something of nothing.
At 6/13/2006 04:42:00 PM , SPL said...: Perhaps, but surely his opines now, as leader of the Opposition, may be seen as indicative of his legislative approach, should he become PM. If so, I don't like what I see.
At 6/13/2006 06:05:00 PM , skipper said...: I think it was a silly target to aim at and just assumed it was chosen, for political reasons, as the sort of thing rather reactionary parents would hear, nod their heads gravely and then say 'Yeees!'. It was probably deemed to be worth saying rather than not, but in reality the margin must be paper thin.
At 6/13/2006 06:12:00 PM , SPL said...: Indeed, though I have no idea why M. Gove went on "Newsnight" to try and defend the comments.
At 6/13/2006 10:41:00 PM , Political Teenager said...: Thats just the sort of thing that the daily mail love, but in reality he only managed to alienate youthful votes showing that politicians dont understand the younger generation. It is ridiculous to suggest that it increases knife crime.

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