Wednesday 27 November 2013

Defending the Fall Girl.

The British public continues to be served its shock horror fix in the form of the Nigella Lawson drug-taking allegations.

Shocking Revelations! screams one tabloid headline. Tell me, whose business is this but Nigella Lawson’s and those close to her? Who else has any right to be shocked? The readers of tabloid newspapers?

‘Ah, but,’ says a lawyer, ‘she’s an habitual criminal. That makes it the business of the law.’

OK, I suppose it does if you want to be pedantic, but let’s speculate a bit. Nigella Lawson is the daughter of a prominent Tory cabinet minister from the Thatcher era. She was also married to an extremely rich man. It isn’t unreasonable to assume, therefore, that she moves in exalted circles. So I wonder where she got this alleged cocaine from, if indeed she did, and I wonder how many more people moving in exalted circles might have got theirs from the same place – maybe including a few politicians, tabloid journalists and obscenely overpaid lawyers? Maybe.

No, I have no proof, but you don’t need proof to entertain reasonable suspicions, or catch the reeking odour of hypocrisy hanging in the air of exalted circles.

No comments: