“When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action.”
Lois McMaster Bujold
The furore which has broken out over BBC deception leading up to the infamous Princess Diana interview is wholly understandable. It has had a devastating impact on the Royal family, and it will take every bit of Prince William’s maturity and resolve to ensure stability for the future.
Consequences are often hard to assess, whatever the action leading up to them. Often what appears relatively inconsequential, just a means to an end, can take centre stage - as it has here.
So, in this commentary we look at how consequences matter so much, especially for young people, and how the law takes full account of them when assessing what action to take.
Nearly twenty years ago, I attended a lunch at the Old Bailey, where judges gather from the various courts for a midday break and to meet invited visitors - of which I was one. A few days earlier, a man had been sentenced to five years in prison when he had fallen asleep at the wheel of his car, which then careered through a hedge, down an embankment and onto a main railway line.
A few moments later, a speeding train collided with the car and was derailed. The car driver survived the crash, but ten people died and many others suffered injuries.
If the sleeping driver had hit a tree, not impacting anyone else, it's unlikely that any action would have been taken beyond his insurance company. However, because the consequences were so appalling, the man was convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison for those five years.
When I asked one of the judges how it was, bearing in mind that there was absolutely no premeditation involved, that the severity of a sentence was so entirely based on the consequences, he explained patiently that this is what the community expects: the punishment must reflect the outcome, not just the ‘crime’.
It is, of course, a serious crime to falsify any document: but everyday millions of scams and phishing actions take place in order to defraud people of their identity and their money.
Who knows what was going on in Martin Bashir's mind when he set about producing false documents in order to persuade Princess Diana to be interviewed? He may not have given the consequences much thought, much like the driver who pressed on with his journey in spite of his drooping eyelids.
However, the consequence of Bashir's - and therefore the BBC's, because he was an employee - deception has been truly massive: becoming a major part of someone’s death and the scarring of young lives for decades to come - not to speak of its share in undermining the stability of the Royal family itself.
It is always a tragedy when childhood and adolescence is severely disrupted, whether by tragedy, neglect or separation. Of course, the mind continues to apply its coping mechanisms: but the degree to which it is able to look forward for a way out of the circumstances, as opposed to dwelling in the past - or indeed the present, is critical for achieving a fulfilling life in adulthood. Up to the mid-20s and beyond, there are opportunities to start afresh and develop a sense of purpose for the future: but it's not easy when life has been so scarred in the early years. The Modern Mindset episode ‘Queen of Resilience’ is one such tale of battling against the odds after leaving care.
Young people in care experience that deep sense of insecurity more than any other: but, at the same time, one of the last things they want is to be labelled and stigmatised by their situation. That's why The Share Foundation works hard to provide not just the resources but also the life skills to break out of despondency, and to offer hope and opportunity for the future. And, on a wider basis, that's the reason why it's so important to recover the Child Trust Fund for disadvantaged young people.
But where will this leave the BBC? It must take responsibility for its employees’ actions, and be treated in exactly the same way as a commercial broadcaster would.
Some years ago, the Murdoch media empire was severely punished following the phone hacking scandal: whose consequences, while serious, were not as profound as the BBC's deception in obtaining the Princess Diana interview.
It will, therefore, not be sufficient to leave it to the BBC to re-order its governance, and then close the book on this sorry affair. This must be dealt with in courts of law, and it must provide the Royal family, and especially Prince William, with the confidence to build a better future - for the sake of us all.
Gavin Oldham OBE
Share Radio