Sunday, 30 September 2012

Megan, John and Lewis - A week in the headlines

Most news bulletins are dominated nowadays by political anger, conflict in the Middle East and our brave soldiers who continue to fight a battle in Afghanistan that gets grimmer with every passing week.

That changed this week as the stories were lead by the disappearance of 15-year-old schoolgirl Megan Stammers from Eastbourne.

She had been reported missing after eloping away from the country with one of her schoolteachers, Jeremy Forrest.

Sussex police worked very hard with counterparts across Europe to find the pair, while her devastated family members made heart-warming appeals for Megan to come home.

CCTV pictures were released of the couple boarding a ferry hand-in-hand and it ended in relief on Friday afternoon, when French police found them in Bordeaux.

Maths teacher Forrest has been arrested by police in France on suspicion of child abduction and made a brief court appearance in the country.  He is due back in court on Tuesday and is likely to be extradited to the UK shortly after that. 

If he is found guilty of not only that but having an indecent sexual relationship with a student then the law book is likely to be thrown at him and rightly so.

Yesterday, Megan boarded a plane to head home and will be reunited with her family soon. 

Although it will be difficult, I would hope the media allow her and the family to return to a normal life as they possibly can, fully away from the public spotlight.

Where’s the consistency?
Sport made the news on Thursday when the Football Association found former England skipper John Terry guilty of racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand.

Terry was charged by the FA earlier this summer, despite having been cleared by a court of law in July.

He has been handed a four game ban and a £220,000 fine.  A written statement is likely to be released this week and after that, Terry will have 14 days to appeal against the decision.

It is difficult to have much of a view on this case but what I will say is that the lack of consistency from the FA is startling.

Last season, Luis Suarez was banned for eight games after the Liverpool striker was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra in a match against Manchester United.

The FA then banned Joey Barton for 12 games in the summer, after his disgraceful behaviour on the final day of last season as a QPR player.  Barton elbowed Carlos Tevez, and then head butted both Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany.

So why does Barton get 12, Suarez get 8 and Terry get 4?  Where’s the consistency?  It can’t be right!  For once, I agree with Barton’s reaction about the FA being clueless.

Also, it took 11 months to sort out – as the Terry/Ferdinand incident happened on October 23 last year.  While it is difficult to talk about the legalities without knowing the process, surely this could have been dealt with quicker.

A chequered career
Lastly on Friday morning, the Formula One world was stunned as Lewis Hamilton announced his decision to leave behind the McLaren team that has nurtured him since he was a young child.

Hamilton will move to Mercedes GP on a three-year deal for 2013 to partner Nico Rosberg.  This means that seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has been booted out to make way for the Brit.

McLaren have reacted quickly and brought in the talented Mexican Sergio Perez as Jenson Button’s team-mate for next year.

Lewis Hamilton is taking a big gamble in moving to Mercedes
Hamilton has had a chequered career, which has brought him one world championship but that was back in 2008.  Since then, he has come close but not quite close enough.

Pitstop blunders, a lack of reliability and some costly accidents mean chances of winning the title in 2012 are now slim to nil.

Add in his feud with Felipe Massa last season, a management company that only is interested in money, his high maintenance relationship with X-Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger and ‘Twittergate’ when he published telemetry at Spa of secret McLaren data information and a move was on the cards.

While change is needed for all parties, McLaren have got one of the best young racers on the grid in Perez and as for Hamilton, I hope he enjoys midfield mediocrity because that is all Mercedes will provide him in the short-term.

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