I wish the Oatens well and hope that Mark continues as MP for Winchester.Today's news make me wish Mr Oaten rather less well and to suggest that Winchester Liberal Democrats find themselves a new candidate.
The Guardian reports:
Maybe Oaten has formed the bizarre belief that this sort of exposure is the route to political rehabilitation. Maybe he has already given up on his political career and wants to reinvent himself as a celebrity - the Jade Goody of the Itchen Valley. Either way I cannot see his antics doing the Liberal Democrats much good.Sex scandal MP Mark Oaten is to return to the media spotlight after agreeing to take part in a daytime TV fitness programme.
The Liberal Democrat, who quit as his party's home affairs spokesman after allegations he had a six-month affair with a rent boy, is to star in a programme called The Body Politics for the BBC.
The six-week show starts on May 22 and Mr Oaten has been getting into shape with England and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard's personal trainer at Stamford Bridge.
And Mark Oaten should study the fate of the Harold Davidson, the Rector of Stiffkey, to see what can happen to people who seek to redeem themselves through increasingly bizarre stunts.
As I wrote last summer:
Like Mr Gladstone he did all he could to catch fallen women, but his motives were misunderstood and he was unfrocked. He became a showman and died after being savaged in Skegness by a lion called Freddie.
He seems to be making a mint out of his fall from grace, which I'm sure is a great comfort to those Lib Dems who lost their council seats in Winchester earlier this month.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is how he fits this programme in with his constituency work and saving his marriage.
It must be my eternal good nature, but I think his best chance is to become famous for something else.
ReplyDeleteGiven that exercise has general benefits for health, both physical and mental, I've no problems with a politician undertaking regular physical exercise with the aim of getting fit. It's certainly no more of a waste of time than regularly appearing on game shows, writing books, sitting on the boards of companies or any of the other numberable things that other MPs that aren't directly part of their jobs.
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