Requiem for a heavyweight

It’s a dirty business. When you’re on top, everyone wants something from you; when you’re not, well, as Billie Holiday says, ‘God bless the child that’s got his own.’ It is a business of sharp elbows, few loyalties, and one in which winning is all that matters. That’s how Rod Serling describes the boxing racket in his Requiem for a Heavyweight. He could just as well have been describing politics. Tony Blair might have been the Labour party’s meal ticket (as Margaret Thatcher was the Tories’) through three general elections, just as Serling’s boxer was the meal ticket for his managers and entourage. But when a boxer, even a champion, gets a bit punchy, when his winning streak seems to be coming to an end, dump him in favour of a more clunking fist. ‘If you want loyalty, get a dog’, President Lyndon B. Johnson is believed to have advised young politicians.