Why Silence is not Golden for The Tremeloes after being blighted by untrue allegations
Sun columnist says duo join the ever-lengthening list of people in the public eye who have suffered from false claims
FORTY-eight years ago Martin Luther King was assassinated.
The Ford Anglia was replaced by the Escort, the first of BBC’s Dad’s Army series was aired and North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive against the Americans.
Something else was said to have happened that year.
After a concert in Chester, a 15-year-old girl was allegedly indecently assaulted by two members of Sixties pop band The Tremeloes.
She didn’t say a word about this assault for four decades and then went to the police.
And for the best part of 30 months Leonard “Chip” Hawkes and his fellow band member Richard Westwood, have had the charges hanging over them.
Then, suddenly, the CPS stands up in Reading Crown Court and says it had no evidence to offer and the judge throws out the charges.
What a disgrace.
The stress, the public spotlight and without a scintilla of evidence.
Apparently a diary was discovered which called into question the girl’s story.
So The Tremeloes, whose big hit was Silence is Golden, join an ever-lengthening list of people in the public eye whose lives have been blighted by untrue allegations.
They should sue the girl for casting a shadow over their lives, or possibly the cops for failing to do their job properly.
In cases like this silence is not golden.
— I WAS told that on Facebook there are people saying to their followers that if they voted Leave they would be grateful if they unfriend themselves.
I know of a case where a good friendship of 15 years has collapsed over the referendum result.
So it’s the Remainers who turn out to be the nasty party.
Who’d have thought it?
Hijab is 'too big' for Beeb
WHO said this: “Staff should not wear anything which hints or directly points to a political or religious leaning.”
The answer: Helen Boaden, then director of BBC News and now boss of all BBC radio output, who was speaking during a row a decade ago over Fiona Bruce wearing a small cross while reading the nightly bulletin.
As the row developed, Peter Horrocks, the head of TV news, wrote a blog saying the BBC Governors had been debating what is appropriate for presenters to wear “especially at a time of heightened religious tension”.
Appropriate?
Where have I heard that before?
Oh yes, it came from me when I asked the simple question in last Monday’s column: Is it appropriate for hijab-wearing Fatima Manji to front the C4 news coverage of the Nice lorry massacre?
Heightened religious tension?
With Nice, the Bataclan, even the possible kidnap of an RAF serviceman by men of “Middle Eastern” appearance, there’s plenty of that about.
The BBC Governors considered banning presenters from wearing any form of religious attire, as they felt it might call into question their impartiality, but in the end decided they would allow symbols as long as they weren’t “too big”.
The hijab certainly fails the “too big” test.
I am the liberal in this argument as progressive female Muslims look upon the headscarf as a sign of submission.
Don’t take my word for it.
I know a Turkish Muslim who worries for her once-secular homeland and emails to say: “Wearing a headscarf is not a requirement – it is a symbol of deference, compliance and obsequiousness.”
My next step.
I will be looking at making a formal complaint to Ofcom under the section of the broadcasting code which deals with impartiality.
Since the question of religious motivation was central to the coverage of the Nice attack, I would ask whether it is appropriate for a newsreader to wear religious attire that could undermine the viewers’ perception of impartiality.
A Muslim woman does have a choice.
Baroness Warsi sometimes wears one, sometimes not.
For television dealing in such sensitive issues, surely it makes sense that reporters, when dealing with Muslim terrorist outrages, don’t wear the headscarf.
I will make my decision on Friday and may ask Sun readers who share my concerns to email Ofcom as well.
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Plenty of groom for improvement
I WONDER what it’s like to be Adam Ledner?
Certainly he’s the thickest bloke in Bristol (where I imagine there’s plenty of competition) and probably the thickest bloke in the entire nation.
Mr Ledner, a burly 33-year-old, came to my attention because I have always liked Don’t Tell the Bride and it has just moved from the late and unlamented BBC3 to Sky One.
Under the rather clever format, producers hand £14,000 to a groom who then has to arrange everything for the big day – the dress, the ceremony, the reception, etc.
By and large the men emerge as simple souls.
Mr Ledner was of a different class.
Beyond dim.
You could have fired a Polaris between his ears and not hit anything.
At 22, his Welsh bride Bianca was pregnant (they met on Tinder, naturally) so he bought her a short wedding dress accentuating the seven-month bump and leaving her in tears.
He paid £12.99 for the bridesmaids’ dresses.
He arranged for the ceremony to be on a plane, meaning her father couldn’t walk Bianca up the aisle as there wasn’t room.
His crowning glory was the reception, where he had a load of builders’ sand delivered to an empty commercial building as he wanted to create a Thai beach scene.
A complete disaster.
Instead of enjoying the entertaining aspects of the show, I found myself shouting at his stupidity.
How many Ledners are out there?
Do we need to invite more Europeans in rather than fewer to water down the Ledner effect?
It is 72 years since the 1944 Education Act, which gave academic opportunity for all.
Mr Ledner tells me it hasn’t worked.
If that marriage lasts two years I will make a reasonable donation to charity.
Sun's out, pun's out
CLEANING services van in Lowestoft, Suffolk – Mary Moppins.
Vegetarian restaurant in Plymouth – Veggie Perrins.
Computer repair shop in Corfu, Greece – Tech-It Easy.
Farm shop in Steventon, Oxon – Q Gardens.
Locksmith’s van in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk – Pick & Fix.
Organic fruit and veg shop in Bath, Somerset – Beyond the Kale.
Gardener in Ipswich – Mr Mowtivator.
Chippie in Plymouth – Thank Cod It’s Fryday.
Fish and chip shop in Lechlade, Gloucs – Monica’s Plaice.
Laundry van in Torpoint, Cornwall – We’d like to get you between our sheets.
- The sun’s out so get your punnies out.
Please email them to [email protected].
George Mayday
IF I were George Osborne I would be working out a rather cunning way to polish the stairs for the new Prime Minister.
It now emerges that when she gave him the bullet, in their brief conversation she gave him her “elder sister” advice that if he ever wanted to be PM he should get to know his party better.
After five years as Shadow and six years as Chancellor, I would have taken that advice very badly, especially coming from Theresa May, who would have the smallest following of any member of the Cabinet.
Mark my words, when the going gets tough for Mrs M, Osborne will get his revenge.
Look forward to it.
A THANK you from Philip Hammond.
Not the Chancellor of the Exchequer (mind you, every penny counts) but column reader Philip Hammond, who received his renewal from Age Concern for £450 and went on aspokesmansaid.com where Hastings Direct offered a better policy for £150.
I have my concerns about Age Concern. Keep clear of them.
Another column reader, Ann-Marie Regan, was asked for £531.63 to renew her car insurance and she went to the RAC for £315.31, a saving – thanks to – of £216.32.
Keep making those savings and send me the results to [email protected].