Lewis Hamilton – the man who can do nothing right

THERE are popular personalities and then there is Lewis Hamilton. There wasn’t exactly an outpouring of affection when he won the Formula One championship this year. Is it because he lives abroad or because he is regarded as a preening millionaire who doesn’t pay tax on his private plane? For whatever reason the public just doesn’t take to him.

The man who can do nothing right posted a jokey Instagram video of his young nephew in a pink and purple dress which was apparently a Christmas present. Lewis says: “Boys don’t wear princess dresses.” Yes well, he certainly has a tin ear for modern sensibilities for he committed two crimes for the easily offended to seize upon and wax pious over. One was to embarrass a child on social media and the other was to make what is now considered an outrageous statement: namely that blokes don’t wear frocks. Big mistake in the current climate. Big, big mistake.

Predictably there have already been calls for Hamilton to be stripped of his MBE. And he has issued several grovelling apologies on Twitter as is now the custom, repented of his sins and promised to be good.

If I were to recommend a new year resolution to all celebrities it would be this: for heaven’s sake stop apologising when you’re “called out” (that awful playground phrase) for some perceived misdemeanour. Ignore the flak and it will go away. Better still, get off social media (which you only look at to see how many people love you) and if you want to say something politically incorrect say it to your mates, down the pub, like everyone used to.