Politician’s Popularity Rises Despite Scandal

A British politician admitted to adultery, yet instead of being hounded from his job he saw his popularity rating soar.

Outrage was directed rather at “muckraking” newspapers and helped fuel a campaign for curbs on the press.

The case of Paddy Ashdown, leader of the minority Liberal Democrats, seemed to have most of the ingredients of a British scandal when he admitted to having an extramarital affair five years ago with a secretary.

Yet a National Opinion Poll on Sunday for The Independent showed a record 47% of those questioned thought Ashdown would be a good prime minister. This was up 13 points since mid-January. Ashdown’s Liberal Democrats also edged higher.

The poll showed 62% of the sample felt that newspapers should not chronicle politicians’ private lives. Clare Short, an opposition Labor Party legislator, said Britain must now enact “a decent privacy law to get the tabloid press out of the gutter.”