Cherie Blair doesn't get it

I was blogging a couple of days ago about the former prime minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie's ill-judged autobiography that had all the hallmarks of cashing in on her position as a prime minister's wife, and by association a public figure - and a democratic socialist, what ever that means, to boot.

A senior judge has called for Cherie's resignation as a judge over her £1 million memoirs as he considers that her conduct demeans the legal profession. Strong stuff from a judge. According to the Daily Mail:

"Cherie Blair should resign as a part-time judge over the "complete lack of decency" in her £1million memoirs, a top legal figure demanded yesterday.

Former senior judge Gerald Butler QC accused Mrs Blair of demeaning the legal profession.

He said: "If she wants to tread this path of making money by outrageous comments that is up to her.

"But I don't think this is a job for a judge. It shows a complete lack of any kind of decency."

Senior criminal barrister John Cooper, while not commenting directly on the wife of the former Premier, said: "One of the most important factors in being a judge is being able to exercise judgment and part of that is being trusted with confidential material.

"One has to be very careful, in my view, in what one exposes to the public gaze. I know of no High Court judge who has written their memoirs before they have retired."

I have no problem of Cherie, or anybody else, pursuing her economic self interest. What I have a problem with is the fact that she is exploiting her position as a public figure, and she is causing distress to others by her comments in the book, especially to the widow and family of David Kelly, the government weapons scientist who committed a suicide during the run-up to Iraq war.

Cherie, as a caring democratic socialist, replied to the judge's comments in a radio interview:

"To tell the story about being in Number 10 and not to mention David Kelly I think would be actually really impossible," she told Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

Asked if she would resign as a recorder, she insisted: "I certainly won't. The law is very much an important part of my life. I have enjoyed the law and I intend to continue to practise."

She is the former prime minister's wife, not the prime minister. What on earth has government affairs got to do with her?

If her husband would have not been a skillful politician, she would not have had the opportunity cashing in by dishing out the dirt. But the main question that begs the answer is what kind of people do we have in politics and why do people enter political life - altruism, I very much doubt it.