Host(s): Doris Crockford Program: Late Night News with Doris Crockford
Interview with Hortense Clay and Van Lewis from the Society for the Promotion of Muggleborn Welfare
Doris Crockford: Doris Crockford here with Hortense Clay and Van Lewis, leaders of the Society for the Promotion of Muggleborn Welfare, who held a protest at the Ministry yesterday morning against the muggleborn registration law passed by the Wizengamot last week. How are you tonight?
Hortense Clay: Fantastic!
Van Lewis: Indeed. And yourself, Doris?
DC: I’m good, thank you. Ms. Clay, you’ve been heading the SPMW for two years now and held numerous demonstrations along the way. What was different about this one?
HC: Well. Generally we've been demonstrating to provide information. It's been a... um. An...
VL: An effort to change societal misconceptions.
HC: Yes, exactly. You've got the purists up in their ivory towers, talking about how muggleborns are stealing magic for shi--I mean, goodness' sake. But the government’s been ignoring purism. Until now.
VL: And no one ever heard so much as a peep of support for purism in Wilde's entire tenure, but his last official act in office, other than appointing Lestrange, is to sign over support for a bill about muggleborn registration? I think it says a lot about the sort of influences You Know Who's Death Eaters are having.
HC: Right, and that was the point. Sort of a big, "Hey, what the heck" in the Ministry's direction.
DC: Yet this call for attention to the Ministry for Magic didn’t have much echo. Neither Otis Wilde nor Rodolphus Lestrange issued any statement about the legislation. Are you surprised by their silence? Did you expect an official reaction?
HC: No, I can't say that we did.
VL: I think if Wilde was going to issue one, he would've done it after the Wizengamot passed the vote, rather than waiting a week after the fact. And Lestrange doesn't have a reason to, other than to specify what sort of government he's planning on running.
HC: Oh don't even get me started on that baloney. A diplomat in office? And a thirty year old one at that? That's quite a jump from the former Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Especially one whose political stance is as clear as fog.
VL: He's got the political diatribe down to an art form, I'll give him that.
DC: So you disapprove of the choice of Rodolphus Lestrange for new Minister for Magic?
HC: Yes. I don't think he's either qualified or straightforward enough to be trustworthy. Not to mention that the Lestranges consider themselves wizarding royalty anyway, same as his wife; she's a Black, isn't she?
VL: Yeah, they're all supporters of purist tradition. Anti-muggleborn, anti-muggle...
HC: It's beyond money too, I think. It's all propagated. Kids in those sorts of families must be brainwashed from birth.
DC: You aren’t willing to give him the benefit of the doubt?
HC: I don't really have a choice. Either you know, the sun is going to shine out of his arse, or he's going to faff it all up. I'm leaning towards him choosing the needs of the few over the needs of the many.
VL: It's a mistake a lot of politicians make.
DC: You chose to organise your protest in the atrium of the Ministry, immediately following the press conference announcing the choice for the new Minister for Magic. Why didn't you take the opportunity to protest Rodolphus Lestrange's nomination?
VL: It was all hush hush and at stupid o'clock in the morning. I think that they were, honestly, trying to avoid anything of the sort. Besides that, I don't think we know enough about Lestrange to say whether or not he actually does buy into bloodist hysteria.
HC: Exactly. And besides that, Wilde's still got control and after Bagnold's murder, nobody else stepped up to take over. You've got people like... Like Barty Crouch Sr., for example, who took over the DMLE after Bagnold started actively pursuing the top spot. I mean, there are a ton of people in that department qualified to take over for Crouch. I've never particularly liked the man's overzealous attitude towards the whole "good versus evil" thing, especially after he gave the go ahead for the DMLE to use unforgivables. But I would still rather see him as Minister than some novice diplomat, whose experience in field work is limited to taking tea in France.
DC: Before we get on the topic of other potential candidates, I’d like to clarify something. Mr. Lewis, you just said that you don’t know enough to say whether he is a purist, yet you described him – and his family – as “supporters of purist tradition, anti-muggleborn, anti-muggle” earlier in the interview.
VL: The families are known to practice purist society traditions. Rodolphus Lestrange could be going around hugging muggles for all we know. I know enough about the Lestrange family to speculate, but that's about it.
DC: Thank you. So Ms. Clay, you clearly would have preferred to see Bartemius Crouch Sr. as new Minister for Magic, despite your misgivings about his ham-fisted approach in the DMLE. This combined with your harsh description of Mr. Lestrange’s experience as diplomat, limited – and I quote – “to taking tea in France,” am I right to understand that you disagree with the decision to break from tradition and choose a Minister from Magic coming from outside of the DMLE?
HC: I think that some of the best leaders in our government's history started in and worked their way up through the DMLE. I'm not saying that other people in other positions don't have the ability, but I think that no matter what department you're part of, more that twelve years of experience should be required to be Minister for Magic.
DC: So it is more a question of age and experience than anything else?
HC: I think there are too many factors missing in Rodolphus Lestrange's career to narrow it down to one particular thing, but yes, I do think that experience is pretty important.
DC: After two years at the head of the SPMW, you are gaining experience yourself, Ms. Clay. What are your plans for the future of the Society?
HC: I hope that it is able to impact our world in a positive way. We will continue to lobby for the equality of muggleborn and halfblood witches and wizards by any means necessary. Perhaps we will be lucky enough to see a change in our government that will make it unnecessary.
DC: Let’s wish you good luck with that. It’s unfortunately all the time that we had tonight. Thank you both, Ms. Clay, Mr. Lewis, for sharing some of your time with us and all of our listeners.
HC: Thank you for the opportunity to be on the programme, Doris.
VL: Yes, thank you. It's greatly appreciated.
DC: This is Doris Crockford for the WWN. Have a good evening!