A cartoon shows a man and his wife at home. The wife has just returned from a shopping trip and is heavily laden with bags. The husband looks astonished as his wife explains;

The advertising made me do it!

Taking responsibility for one’s actions has been an important pillar of self respect for hundred’s of years. It is what we teach our children.

At it’s most extreme we hear the defence in war crime trials that;

I was only following orders.

Or in the air plane high jacking where the captain has a handgun pressed to his ear and is told;

If you do not do as I say, everyone will die and it will be you fault.

This game of ‘passing the buck’ is at best shallow and at worst highly manipulative, criminal and immoral.

So it is interesting that in today’s democracies, there appear instances of public figures abdicating responsibility in the same way, either to avoid blame or to gain advantage or both.

At present, so called Teresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is telling parliament that if they do not agree to her negotiated withdrawal agreement with the EU, Brexit will crash into a brick wall and it will not be her fault, but theirs.

More morally, she could have spent one year finding the views of the British people, another year finding out what the majority in parliament wanted and a month telling Europe what deal Britain will accept, based on her findings. Instead, two Brexit secretaries have resigned, civil servants have worked in the background up towards the Prime Ministers’ notional ‘red lines’. In the end TM negotiated what she thought was good for everyone without asking in detail, what they wanted. When it all fails miserably and the country is severely damaged, she will not be able to be voted out as she won her recent vote of ‘no confidence’. More importantly, the blame for the damage will be on those who did not do as she told them to do, and TM will abdicate any responsibility. Only logicians will see what she has been doing.

At the same time in history we have an American president, Donald Trump, who is holding a fully licensed, semi automatic assault rifle to the heads of each member of Congress.

If you don’t do what I want (give me five billion dollars to build a wall with Mexico) I will allow government funding to expire.

Correctly, Congress is standing firm. They do not like being blackmailed and certainly do not want to cover up a lie Trump made to the people.

I am going to build a wall with Mexico (cheer) and I am going to get the government of Mexico to pay for it.

Perhaps not many Americans have noticed his slight of hand or as he would say, lie? Perhaps not many mind manipulative politics to put it politely. Whatever it is, it is not democracy and more akin to Nazi and Soviet methods of persuasion.

This at a time when the infrastructure of the USA is crumbling; that is roads, bridges, railways, public buildings…the money could go where the American people will see it being spent. America First.

And you have to wonder which millennium Mr. Trump is living in to have faith in a project that the Ancient Chinese and Romans employed. Hadrian’s wall, (separating Roman Britain and the Picts in the north) was more a political barrier than a physical barrier because archaeologists find evidence of Picts living peacefully on both sides of the wall.

Ironically, both examples of today’s bully politics result from one perceived problem, immigration. Fitting the correct solution to the perceived problem in the UK and the USA, would have been more effective, moral, cheaper and democratic.

On both sides of the Atlantic we see politicians fumbling for solutions. TM’s will not work, DT’s will not work and they are being told so. But if you result to threats to obtain what you want, you have to clear some moral high ground for when it all goes wrong. Interestingly they both are using the ploy of switching responsibility onto the good guy for their bad plans of action.

I put the hamster in the microwave because you won’t take me to the zoo and you said you would, Mummy!

Have we voted for the leaders we deserve or have we elected three year olds into office?