Political Posturing

Abstract

Richard Nixon, who certainly knows imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery, can hardly have failed to realise during his recent visit that, judging by that criterion, this is the country where he is most admired. Not only are we enjoying an entire season of scandals quite sufficient to justify Equity’s most extreme demands for a closed shop, but the term ‘cover-up’, with its distinctive bouquet of Watergate ’74, is bandied wide across the land. The dramatic entertainment is only heightened by the fact that private cover-up jobs are as nothing compared to the comprehensive smothering process effected by our legal system and the fear it generates.

First published in New Society, 21–28 December 1978.