I was sitting in a lecture today, a fairly tedious governance lecture about home affairs and economic policy. And so, as you do, I pulled out my phone, had a wee scan of Facebook, a peek at Twitter, before going to the BBC News app, where I was confronted by two disgustingly similar headlines.
The first, a police report explaining that detectives were chasing up over 120 leads to women who were harassed as teenagers by the late, but evidently not so great, Jimmy Savile. The second, breaking news that tv presenter and comedian Justin Lee Collins had been charged with harassing his wife, giving her death threats, assaulting her.
I'm disgusted.
These men are meant to be role models, and behaving like that, towards women who are meant to be in their care? Lock them up, throw away the key.
But that's not what will happen. JLC is to be given a light fine and community service, for allegedly abusing a recovering alcoholic partner who he should have been caring for. Had he been Joe Nobody he would have been sent away, but a light slap on the wrist and a raised eyebrow was deemed enough for the, for want of a stronger word, 'celebrity'.
In the case of Savile, well, he's dead. So immediately that makes it difficult to prosecute him. But even before he retired, many of his celebrity friends had reservations about him, and his attachment to teenage girls who appeared on his hit tv show Jim'll Fix It. One of his best friends, a journalist , was even afraid to "dob him in" for fear of who Savile's connections were. I mean Jimmy was friends with Charles and Diana for goodness sake!! He couldn't have been better connected and with the money he had, his lawyers would laugh any allegations out of the courtroom.
So these men, while scum of the earth, get off relatively scot-free. Sounds about right for the governments of today. But you want to know my solution? It's a masterstroke on my part, and wouldn't be any more hassle than usual.
I'm thinking an I'm A Scumbag, Get Me Out Of Here!! for the lowlives of the media. Send all the scum into the Australian jungle, a couple of boa constrictors and a gun. See how long they last and what sticky end they choose. Throw in a Newcastle presenting duo, and there's your new itv primetime show.
Or you could just address our PM directly on the matter, via his new twitter account. Moments after he tweeted for the first time he got a reply calling him a "cock-womble".
Nail on the head. Our country is a mess.
