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Lembit Opik, a 'loon'?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...y-comment.html

Last night’s documentary See You in Court (BBC One)

Quote:

Lembit Opik was a Liberal Democrat MP in the last parliament but lost his seat in rural Wales where he enjoyed a majority of more than 7,000. Mr Opik believes he was removed by the voters because their view of him had been warped by the unfair coverage he received in the Press.

Actually, what this film demonstrated was how good their judgment was, the only mystery being why they put up with him for 13 years. Mr Opik takes the view that the result in his former Montgomeryshire constituency was the biggest surprise of election night last May.

Mr Opik considered that his well-publicised dalliances with various women, including a member of the Cheeky Girls pop band, did not mean newspapers were entitled to write disobliging articles about him. He even managed to find a solicitor who was willing – on a no-win, no-fee basis – to consider whether he could sue one newspaper for a particularly hard-hitting opinion piece in the aftermath of his defeat. Among other choice epithets, the article, in The Sunday Times, called him “a guitar-strumming Estonian loon”.

Since he was out of a job, Mr Opik felt he could not get a new one without rebuilding his reputation and justifying the respect of others. His lawyer’s task would have been less forlorn had her client not appeared on Have I Got News for You the day after the election; or taken part in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!; (from which he was the second participant to be evicted, presumably because of the way it was reported); or been photographed with his latest squeeze in Hello! magazine.

:joker:

I watched that last night and am astounded he had the brass neck to consider suing, considering he's one of the biggest media *****s around. If he's a laughing stock, he did that all by himself. What he was whingeing about is the audacity of the press printing stories about him which were actually true. Furthermore, it was interesting to learn that you have little hope of winning a law suit if someone prints their own opinion of you, if your actions have actually validated said opinion.

I'm not a fan of Sheryl Gascoigne but I think it's right that she won her cases against the three newspapers because they had, in fact, printed out and out lies about her. It's quite scary actually that unless you are wealthy enough to take them on, journalists can print what they like about you safe in the knowledge that they can get away with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by angus58 (Post 4174451)

After her appearance in IAC, I quite like Sheryl and she came across very well in last night's program - elegant, articulate and determined to get an apology for the scurrilous attacks from THREE unprincipled newspapers ..... :cool:

Lembit, OTOH, has put himself in ludicrous positions and deserves to called for the fool that he is ..... :joker:

He's at it again - Lembit Opik launches bid to be London mayor

... despite his party not selecting him

Quote:

The fame-hungry former MP, who lost his seat at the last election, will be knocking on doors tomorrow in a bid to boost his profile as part of a council by-election campaign in Southwark.

But many LibDems fear Mr Opik, 46, who enjoys a colourful private life and has had a string of liaisons with glamorous women, does not need any more publicity and will do the party more harm than good.

He is one of the many jokes in Politics, it's good that he's a Lib Dem without a seat though.