Send it like Beckham
I RECENTLY spent a miserable evening in a grotty seminar room with two dozen resentful drivers.
We were doing a Speed Awareness Course as an alternative to a fine and three licence points. Or in my case, as well as – because I’d been caught twice in four days, by the same camera, doing 34 and 38 in a 30mph zone.
When the second letter arrived I yelled “the bloody camera’s faulty” and angrily vowed to challenge it.
But I was actually furious with myself for being a prat and breaking the law. So I sucked it up and did the course, led by an officious little man who made patronising remarks about lady drivers.
I took responsibility. I accepted the penalty. Unlike multi-millionaire soccer star David Beckham who was caught speeding twice in TWO days.
He wriggled out of a fine, thanks to celebrity lawyer Nick “Mr Loophole” Freeman, who gets clients off on technicalities.
Beckham was clocked in a £200,000 Bentley doing 59mph on a 40mph stretch of the A40 near Paddington in January.
Mr Freeman told magistrates on Thursday that Beckham admitted speeding.
He said he’d also been caught by a speed camera in the same car a day earlier, but did not reveal the outcome.
However, police paperwork for the second incident reached Beckham a day too late. So, by law, he could not be convicted.
After the case Beckham, 43, said he was “relieved and very happy”.
But the smug, self-satisfied look on his face said a lot more than that. It said: “Up yours – I’m king of the road.” And it drove angry parents to slam the perfect dad of four and wannabe “Sir David” as a bad role model. Claire Armstrong of Safe Speed Campaign said: “This says if you have enough money you can lead a different life to everyone else.”
And Joshua Harris from Brake said: “It is hugely disappointing to see a role model like David Beckham shirking his responsibility and getting off on a technicality. He should count himself very lucky no incident occurred and tragedy was avoided.” I couldn’t agree more. Because I watched all the naffed-off drivers on my course finally wising up to its importance – after we all failed to calculate safe stopping distances.
We realised how easily we could have killed somebody through our speeding. And, by the end, we were glad we’d taken responsibility and learned from our mistakes.
But David Beckham took the easy way out. And shirking responsibility could prove a massive mistake for the sporting “icon’s” brand.
WELL, the Duchess of Sussex played a blinder on her first solo official engagement, didn’t she?
Meghan went to London’s Royal Academy to open an exhibition of Oceanic art. And, without the aid of her husband, the former actress managed to walk, talk, wave, smile, accept flowers, ask intelligent questions and do the traditional Maori nose greeting [the hongi] without head-butting anyone.
Amazing! But there was more.
Because Meghan
managed to “stun the nation” by stepping out of her chauffeur-driven car then CLOSING THE DOOR HERSELF! People couldn’t handle this amazing break with royal protocol and social media went mad. Her “humble” gesture was “inspiring” and proof that the mixedrace, feminist icon is transforming the royal family. Oh, FFS. Can everybody please get a grip? I’m just sorry for the poor protection officer whose Mum missed his big moment on the telly.