An IMPERSONATION of a HUMAN BEING

In my book Common Sense (freely downloadable from the link in the right margin), I proposed that impersonation, as practised by the likes of Rory Bremner, was “more a knack than a skill” and pretty low in the showbiz pecking order, at least historically. It emerged at the weekend that Bremner has driven the business of mimicking public figures even lower in the estimation of thoughtful people.

On the eve of the local elections last year, Bremner evidently telephoned 10 Downing Street and, posing as Gordon Brown, attempted to contact a number of Cabinet ministers. That a more secure method of making contact through the hub of government is not in place is pretty astonishing but there seems to have been no intention on the entertainer’s part to test the system. Bremner was merely interested in creating a stunt for his Channel 4 programme. He got through to Peter Hain but, when he unwittingly revealed his ignorance, Hain smelt a rat, “so I put the phone down” Bremner told The Sunday Times. It conjures the image of a little boy ringing a stranger’s doorbell and running away.

Later he raised Margaret Beckett, then Secretary of State for the Environment. They had an extended conversation, much of it about other members of the government, Mrs Beckett believing throughout that she was conversing with the Chancellor. Bremner recorded both the calls but, reports The Observer, “Channel Four decided not to screen [sic] them as part of the Bremner, Bird & Fortune show because of Ofcom regulations banning the use of deception unless it is in the public interest”. Having released the tapes to journalists, Bremner now intends to put the material on the net.

The Observer judges that “the spoof provides a fascinating glimpse into how senior figures really feel about each other”. I couldn’t disagree more. Politicians are ordinary mortals who can’t be expected to adore all their colleagues. What it shows is how truly debased our ‘infotainment’ media have become. What is the difference between a journalist tapping into the phone calls of members of the royal family – for which the hapless hack who did so is in jail as I write – and an impersonator’s irresponsible deception? Does Bremner think he has been in some way clever and daring?

The hoax is a weasel’s method of amusing himself and getting himself a name. I suppose if anyone ever decked that egregious little twerp Noel Edmonds when he revealed that some C-list person had been ‘had’ – “gotcha!” – the thus humiliated Edmonds would have used his power to keep the tape of the decking from the public’s eyes. But at least Edmonds’ ‘victims’ were mere showbiz types. To draw a government minister into unguarded talk is to open up many risks: compromising policy, imperiling the minister’s standing and perhaps career, even endangering security. Is Bremner a serious grown-up or just a child blowing raspberries?

I do not defend politicians; they can look after themselves. But Bremner’s self-promoting wheezes are at the expense of the credibility of the very political process. Mrs Beckett is a diligent and decent minister, justly angered by Bremner’s cowardly and spiteful trick. John Prescott, whose public image has taken a battering in recent years, could have emerged much more damaged from such an innocently conducted chat and, because the media types wouldn’t care about that, Bremner would doubtless have led him into much deeper water, had the opportunity presented itself.

Politicians – no different from you and me – need to be able to talk off the record with people whom they believe to be their friends and confidants. I’m sure Bremner would be damned sore if he found he had been conned and recorded when he thought he was talking unobserved to his scriptwriter, his accountant, his drug dealer or his clap clinic. To (as it were) hack into the political process is rather more serious than eavesdropping on someone’s personal affairs. I sincerely hope that Mrs Beckett will take legal advice on the matter. If Bremner cannot be prosecuted for his juvenile jape, the law needs to be changed so that crass tricks like his may not be pulled in future without such representatives of the ever more frivolous media suffering dire consequences.