The week just kept getting worse for David Cameron. Photo / AP
When it comes to dealing with revelations from the Panama Papers, David Cameron shows:
In life, you get only one chance to make a first impression. In politics, you get only one chance to make a full and frank disclosure. In and of themselves, the facts do not set you free - it is the handling that matters more than anything else.
The case
of British Prime Minister David Cameron and his father's company Blairmore, with its offshore holdings, has been a textbook example of how not to do it. In the course of five days and four statements Cameron's position has gone from the stonewalling ("[it's] a private matter") to an admission that he had held shares in Blairmore but sold them shortly before becoming Prime Minister.
It has been the most humiliating process. At each stage Cameron has offered answers that, far from closing down the issue, just open a further line of questioning. Take Thursday's statement: "There are no offshore funds/trusts which the PM, Mrs Cameron or their children will benefit from in future." You don't need a PhD in hermeneutics to realise that the key word in that sentence is "future".
Politicians in the middle of a firestorm that combines the personal and the political need a cool head and if they, understandably, don't have one, they need one to be provided by their most senior and trusted advisers. This has clearly not happened here.
