Treating celebs like human beings

With stunning topicality, the prime minister has rejected my petition, seeking a little more respect to be shown to royals by press photographers. He - or one of his people - says it was intended to be humorous. Well I am gutted. Couldn't he at least have said that it was humorous? At least that would give me some sense of achievement. And what is wrong with injecting a little humour to make a serious point? Do all petitions need to be po faced?

Anyway, this was the text:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to: 'permit members of the Royal Family to thump press photographers whenever they have the opportunity.'

With the supporting statement:

Without seeking to defend hereditary privilege in general, it is intolerable that after the paparazzi, the newspapers and their readers contributed to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the same industry can still hound surviving members of the family.

If royalty is to mean anything, it must be allowed to command the most elementary respect and dignity.

So we hear that "Kate and Wills" are splitting up. Boy has a girlfriend, boy stops having a girlfriend, big deal. At least after the Charles and Di fiasco, nobody could seriously try to tell him he has to marry her.

I saw The Queen on DVD the other week, and although it potrayed the royals as a bunch of emotional cripples, they still looked better than anybody else in the film - the PM and the press. Lots of people are excessively reserved, I probably am myself, and it is a human right to be so. Hounding celebrities to their death is not a human right. Let's get some perspective.

Moral panic on Madonna

Adoption is a noble act. Giving a family to a child with none is just about the best thing that can be given. It is a great commitment and sacrifice. Rewarding, yes, but a noble act beyond what most of us will ever achieve.

It is not something I have done and I will not criticise anybody who does. It would be mean spirited to say to any adopter - you could have done it differently; you should have adopted somebody else; I impute shallow motives to you.

Madonna attracts this kind of attention because of her celebrity, and a little notoriety. We like our celebrities to be shallow. What a disappointment when they are not.

Lifting a child out of extreme poverty into extreme wealth is a good thing to do. Why does it make us uncomfortable? If we fail to praise the good when we see it, due to some inarticulable discomfort, it is our own motives we should be examining.

Due process? Give me a break! Get some perspective! There are miscarriages of justice, people's lives ruined by lack of due process. One life is being unruined. Is that your priority?

The child will lose contact with his culture? Perhaps. I take the view that people own cultures, cultures do not own people. When he develops interests in his origins he will be able to explore them. But he is not the property of his origins, he is a baby who needs a family.

If you or I were adopting a child and were subject to this media circus and moralistic indignation, we would be outraged. Adoption is a personal family matter, where celebrities should be shown the same respect as anyone else. Butt out, people.

Tag: Madonna