For the first time since he was elected as my MP, Jack Lopresti has made it into the newspapers. Not, sadly, for anything useful he has done as my representative – he’s only been in the Commons for six years, after all – but because he is having an extra-marital affair with another MP.
The Sun – what a shock! – leads on the story, such as it is, that “father of three” Jack Lopresti is enjoying Ugandan discussions with “fellow married MP Andrea Jenkyns”, the woman who, we are reminded, defeated Ed Balls in the General Election. I would much rather Rupert Murdoch’s tatty organ exposed something else about Lopresti, like his record on doing nothing to stop the closure of the airfield at Filton (rather the opposite, actually), or his consistent voting record in favour of the Bedroom Tax and cutting tax credits to his poorly paid constituents. He opposed equal marriage, opposes strengthening the military covenant, opposes lower rail fares, supports cuts to legal aid, opposes regulation of gambling companies and supports cutting public sector redundancy provision. But the Sun is only concerned about one aspect of Lopresti’s life: his sex life.
On the times I have met Lopresti, he has come across as not a potential secretary of state but as someone who entered a competition to become an MP and was more surprised than anyone to find himself with a job for life in Westminster. The issues on which I have corresponded with him were dealt with by generic written responses (by someone else) and when I went to see him about his government’s attacks on the public sector, I had the impression that if I’d been speaking Mandarin Chinese he wouldn’t have understood me less.
All the things that really matter about our elected representative are there in black and white and all the Sun cares about is the honourable gentleman’s penis. And I am not remotely interested in Jack’s penis or what he chooses to do with it. The Sun, produced by voyeurs for voyeurs, managed to obtain a photo of Jack and Andrea in a not-quite-intimate moment at Doncaster railway station. Who buys this stuff?
Jack’s penis, as well as his private life in general, is Jack’s business and so long as it does not get in the way of his day job of being a crap MP, then why should we worry about stuff that is none of our business? If Jack had run off with another bloke, that might be more interesting given his opposition to equal marriage, but so far as I am aware he hasn’t.
Move along. Nothing to see here.
