In defence of Liam Fox

The feeding frenzy over Liam Fox tells us a great deal more about what is wrong with the Conservative Party than it does about Dr. Fox. The Defence Secretary has been an ass. He admits that he allowed “distinctions to be blurred” between his “professional responsibilities and [his] personal loyalties to a friend”. But if someone has known you and counselled you and worked for you over the years it is all but impossible to maintain such distinctions when you are in power. You just have to cut them off, brutally. Fox’s biggest weakness, and one which was well known before this, is that he is too kind. You might say he is too human. It made him a good doctor. But in the higher echelons of politics or business it is a fault. Against that, Fox is brave and highly principled. He is also unswervingly personally honest — a point which incidentally, albeit tacitly, is assumed by his harshest public critics.