8:00am Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Ed Perkins
A WEEK ago, the singer Peter Andre broke down in tears when questioned on TV about his children and Katie Price. And most people found it touching.
His display came soon after tennis player Andy Murray shed a tear after he lost the final of the Australian Open. As a nation, the British, once famed for stiff upper lips, has moved towards accepting public emotion.
This weekend, former political spinner Alastair Campbell became emotional on live TV, losing composure when questioned by Andrew Marr about whether the intelligence before the invasion of Iraq had proven beyond doubt that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
And many people felt little sympathy for him. Why? Because not only has Britain changed in its attitude to emotion, it has also become more cynical.
And Mr Campbell helped forge that change.
But I had some sympathy for him. He is a man who suffered a breakdown in 1986 and subsequently had the courage to talk about it, helping destigmatise a taboo subject by being candid about his experience and bouts of depression. It would be a sad day if we cared not a jot for the dignity of a fellow human in an emotional moment.
But what has not changed is that Marr’s question about whether evidence for weapons of mass destruction was established beyond reasonable doubt has not gone away.
There were other reasons for going to war but if we were in any way misled, it affects our view of the conflict in which so many died.
We want that answer. For crying out loud.
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