A GOOD THRASHING

Max Mosley is a grubby individual whose attempt, in Strasbourg today, to strengthen the walls of privacy against incursions by the press should be thrown out. I expect it will be.

Some months ago, Mosley won £60k damages from the News of the World in recompense for that paper's revealing tales of sado-masochistic orgies with which Max, apparently, prefers to occupy his time rather than watching, 'Strictly Come Dancing'.

The point Mosely is making, or trying to make, at Strasbourg is that once the veil of privacy has been torn, it cannot be repaired and that financial compensation is a trivial thing by comparison to the damage done by embarassing revelations.

Of course, on that specific point, Mosley is quite right. Once one has seen the photos of a nude Carla Bruni on the net, looking at her clothed is never quite the same. Similarly, the knowledge that the avuncular Frank Bough liked, before retirement, to have bat put to balls during cricket's off season was not neutralized by his choice of inappropriate TV sweaters.

BUT, but ... The oft-cited issue here is whether press exposures are in the public interest.

Fine, but what does this mean? I am a member of the public and I am interested. It may be prurient interest but none the less for that.

"Oh no, no," many will say in response to this; "you're being trivial". 'In the public interest' properly means that we should know if people of power i.e. people in some way capable of affecting our lives, are up to no good, or at least no moral good. Cecil Parkinson and Sarah Keyes, John Major and Edwina Currie, perhaps. But then we have that role model for future generations Wayne Rooney or again, that near-perfect swinger, Tiger Woods. No one is saying we shouldn't have breached their privacy and yet it's hard to argue they have some sort of key role in the development of their respective nations.

Grubby people who involve themselves with other grubby people will, in the end, always been found out and, indeed, perhaps they want to be. Equally, women who choose to post nude photographs of themselves must accept they will become part of the public record - and many do accept that and, indeed, seem to revel in it. To quote Wilde, "the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

The only way to preserve one's privacy is either to do nothing or to do whatever one does not want made public, on one's own. I, for example collect stamps ... damn, I didn't mean to say that!