A Member of Parliament that very few of us had ever heard of, yesterday took it upon himself to abuse his position by using 'Parliamentary Privilege' to name the footballer at the centre of the recent inane twittering about his extra-marital activities.
The MP in question, a LibDem named John Hemming, apparently has some sort of reputation for being a bit of a maverick in such matters and took this opportunity to grab a piece of the limelight for himself. Although he was admonished by the Speaker, his actions seem to be immune from any legal process, even though he clearly broke the injunction issued by the courts.
I have no time for the idiot footballer, nor for the ludicrous laws that have allowed the issuing of so-called 'superjunctions', but I also have no time for the likes of Mr Hemming. Whatever his personal views on the matter, his naming of the footballer in a public place was a clear breach of privilege; it was entirely unnecessary and simply his way of attracting attention to himself. That the name of the subject was already known to thousands, or perhaps even millions, of people makes no difference; a court with appropriate jurisdiction had issued an order and, it should have been complied with until lifted. By acting as he did, Mr Hemming has brought discredit on both himself and Parliament.
The advent of services such as 'Twitter' clearly has the potential to make a mockery of any law that attempts to invoke a right to privacy, particulary when the rich or famous are involved. At the same time, it is a sad reflection on the nature of our society that so many of us seem to be so interested in the salacious, but largely irrelevant, activities of 'celebrities', most of whom have very little to offer the world.
It seems clear that there will have to be changes to the law but what these will be has yet to be revealed. Whilst it cannot be right that the likes of Fred Goodwin, and others in positions of trust and authority, can hide their misdemeanours under a cloak of legal anonymity, the footballer's actions are in a different league. He has no power or authority, other than that gifted to him by his adoring supporters - why should anyone really care whom, or what, he sleeps with ? It makes no difference to the world what he does or with whom, while Fred Goodwin's actions may well have impacted on his disastrous management of a major financial institution.
No one has come out of this sorry mess with any credit. The law has been shown to be ridiculous and unenforceable; the footballer has been shown to be anything but the loving family man he'd no doubt like his supporters to see him as; Mr Hemming has shown himself to be a self-serving egotist and Parliament appears to be impotent to do anthing about any of it. Worst of all, millions of ordinary people seem to be fascinated by the bedroom antics of a footballer, but then they're probably the same morons who sit glued to 'Eastenders', Coronation Street', 'Big Brother' and all the mindless 'reality' shows that bestride our television screens these days like the lilliputian colossuses that they are.
What a farce.
No comments:
Post a Comment