Editorial: Minister needs to come clean

Opinion

The character of a man is sometimes indicated less by what he does than what he faces up to. The decision of the police not to prosecute a Cabinet minister, David Benson-Pope, for actions as a schoolteacher 23 years ago will be a considerable relief to him. But the findings of the police investigation do him little credit.

They are satisfied there is a prima facie case that he did commit the assaults former pupils allege, and which he has denied to Parliament. But they decided the case did not warrant prosecution because the events happened so long ago.

Whatever may be thought of that reason, the decision disposes of the criminal question. For Mr Benson-Pope, though, it still leaves the small problem of Parliament. The House does not take lightly the rule that members must not mislead it. When confronted in the House with the accusation that he had tied a pupil's hands together and jammed a tennis ball in his mouth for talking in class, Mr Benson-Pope answered, "I find such allegations ridiculous and I refute them." Asked whether he had smacked a pupil with the back of his hand sufficient to make the boy's nose bleed, he replied, "This is a disgraceful allegation and I refute it completely". He added that such behaviour was "clearly illegal".

When the result of the police investigation was raised in Parliament this week Mr Benson-Pope could have taken the opportunity to clarify that explanation, made in May when perhaps he did not foresee how far the subject would run. But instead he was absent from the chamber, leaving colleagues to answer for him, while he escorted comedian John Cleese around Parliament Buildings. The English humorist might have found it more fruitful to be in the chamber at the time.

Mr Benson-Pope has dug himself into a deeper hole with his outright denials of the alleged incidents. As his main parliamentary prosecutor, Rodney Hide, said, "Mr Benson-Pope's big problem is that he told Parliament it didn't happen at all. That is not what the police are saying."

In May, when he gave the House his response, we said here, "The strength of his denials has painted him into a corner. If the [police] inquiry finds against him, it must surely block not only his return to Cabinet but set in train a course that will lead to his departure from Parliament."

Many, including other former pupils of Mr Benson-Pope, are prepared to make light of bizarre behaviour in classrooms of that time, though even 23 years ago violence of the kind alleged was, as Mr Benson-Pope said, illegal. The police report has made it much harder to accept his outright denial that it happened.

From the PM down there has been a reluctance in this Government to simply say: 'Yes it happened. It was foolish of me. I regret it." Misrepresentation of a painting, a speeding motorcade, excessive school discipline, are not high crimes. They are lapses of judgment. How good it would be if elected people had the courage to be honest.