The Political Animal: An Anatomy

The tone he adopts in this book does not surprise me, but it may have surprised some of his victims. It is analytic, the wit and perception is often acerbic, but in general it is far from unsympathetic to politicians. Paxman muses on what the job is, what it is perceived to be both by those who do it and by the general public, and what persuades people to go in for it. He sees the whole political circus as a combination of the inspiring and the demeaning, its actors a combination of the powerful and the completely futile, helpless, naive and manipulated. He does not spare individuals, and even American readers ought to be entertained by the part about the ludicrous Sir Gerald Nabarro, whom older British citizens will wince to recall and who would have been thought highly improbable if he had been a character in fiction. He has no strong political convictions of his own so far as I can see, and he is candid about any he ever did have. Like myself, he joined the Labour society at university not through any great belief in Labour but because he could not even stomach the alternative. He feels some obvious nostalgia for the days when there was a clear philosophical divide and not just a choice of managements, as when Clement Attlee's post-war government aspired to 'the socialist commonwealth of Britain', but he is not so simple-minded as to suppose that any such clear ideological choice is possible without disastrous results these days. How much, or rather how little, really depends on ideology as opposed to perceptions, outside influences, individual decisions and particularly individual mistakes, sheer luck and above all what Macmillan called 'events, dear boy, events' is something on which I find him particularly clear-headed and illuminating.

He writes in much the way he talks. That suits me in general, except to say that he is prone to giving too many instances. On air these come over very effectively as pungent asides, in print they tend to dilute the thrust of his argument which is somewhat discursive anyway. This is good-quality journalese, the work of a thoughtful, intelligent and battle-experienced professional, and I found it a very easy and agreeable read. As a writer he is no Muggeridge, but as a thinker he is less egocentric and much fairer-minded. He is witty and entertaining, but in fact the funniest thing is not in the text of the book at all, but the last two quotes from reviews on the back page, and I'm sure he picked those, or at least approved them, himself. He would not, I'm sure, expect me to award him 5 stars, and consequently I have not done so.


The rise and fall   March 10, 2004
J. Nash
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

Jeremy's book charts the rise and fall of a hypothetical polititian in an attempt to better discover what makes and motivates the species. The book is extremely well researched with a liberal sprinkling of anecdotes, facts and conjecture. The writing style is gloriously indirect and verbose in a very British way, something that might not appeal to all, but which for me added to the joy of reading.
The portrait of a polititian that emerges is a pretty damning one, but is neither unsympathetic or unkind. "Feet of Clay", one of the chapter titles, perhaps best illustrates what I mean. We discover that they are human too, in fact perhaps even a little more human than the rest of us in a strange way.
There are also some fantastic lines, such as "Golden candyfloss helmet" to decribe one MP's blonde, rain soaked wig.
Definitely a buy recommendation if you have an interest in British politics and at least a passing knowledge of a name or two from the scene, so as to better appreciate the anecotes.