Our Wanker this Week is not Helen Clark, who used to be Labour MP for Peterborough until she was ousted by the Tories in 2005 - whereupon she promptly joined the Conservative Party, presumably on the principle that if you can't beat 'em, you should join 'em.
Not Helen Clark ex-MP
The reason she isn't our Wanker of the Week is that, as reported in the Peterborough local press, she is planning to take legal action against YouTube for posting a video of her behaving badly in a hotel because she was drunk. Sorry, scrub that, it should have read "a video of her behaving in a perfectly normal fashion because she was not drunk. Oh dear no. Perish the thought. Not a bit of it. Not even a tiny bit drunk. Sober as a judge."
No, nothing like her
Presumably after a night out with friends in Peterborough - and let's face it, you have to possess a certain amount of moral fibre even to contemplate a night out in Peterborough - Ms Clark was not drunk, was not refused service in the hotel because she was not drunk, and was not filmed on a mobile camera not shouting, not swearing and not behaving in an irrational and hysterical manner.
Nor is this
The newspaper has this to say: Material posted on the Internet is subject to exactly the same legal rules as material printed in a newspaper or magazine, or broadcast on television or radio. That means online statements or footage which have the potential to cause damage to a person's reputation are covered by the laws of defamation, as they are anywhere else. To protect themselves against legal action for libel, website hosts have a responsibility to ensure their sites do not contain any defamatory material. Any defamatory material which does find its way online could result in whoever posted it, as well as the host of the website, being prosecuted.
No, not this one either
What the newspaper does not explain is whether telling the truth, or showing the truth in the form of photographs or video, is defamatory. This is the reason, therefore, that Helen Clark ex-MP is not our Wanker of the Week. She isn't. Truly she isn't. Would I lie?
Wrong again!
The video in question cannot be seen here and even if it could, you are advised not to watch it because it might be
At last, here she is!
See? Not drunk at all.
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
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