A quarter of a century ago, after I'd got into a bit of strife, my lawyer, the late Mike Bungay, QC, gave me this advice: "You're a public figure, Brian, so if you want to stay out of trouble, just don't do anything else wrong." Len Brown is in something more than a bit of trouble, and I'd give him the same advice Mike gave to me.
Faced with this immediate crisis, however, the Auckland mayor's only option was to be straightforward, tell the truth and admit the error of his ways.
It seems to me that's more or less what he's done. But the "more or less" may be the sticking point.
In a crisis like this, involving personal morality, "more or less the truth" wasn't enough; it had to be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And it had to come from Brown himself and not piecemeal from people who wanted to bring him down or from his former mistress, who appears to have no idea that silence can be golden.
Brown began well on Campbell Live, though he spent too much time talking up his record as Mayor of Auckland. It was as if he'd forgotten that personal integrity is the sine qua non for the job.