Paper Monitor
10:27 UK time, Friday, 11 March 2011
A series highlighting the riches of the daily press.
This is no ordinary Friday. It would appear a Lib Dem MP has pulled off the impossible and become a hero of the newspapers, as well as a pin-up boy for freedom of speech. After nearly a year of bad headlines, Nick Clegg can once again relish opening his morning paper.
Who is the unlikely media hero in question? John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley. Yesterday he disclosed in the Commons that Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), has obtained a "super-injunction" to stop the publication of information about him.
It is so far-reaching the media could not even report it had been obtained by a banker - that's until Mr Hemming mentioned it in Commons, where there is absolute privilege. It means he cannot face court proceedings for revealing the injunction's existence. He also called for a debate on whether "there was one law for the rich, such as Fred Goodwin, and one for the poor".
The Sun attacks with gusto, with the front-page headline: "" There's no love lost between the paper and the ex-RBS boss, who was in charge of the bank when it had to be bailed out with £20bn of taxpayers' money.
In the Times, columnist Frances Gibb says it looks like a "parliamentary two fingers" to Sir Fred, who also makes front-page news on the Daily Telegraph and is in every other paper. Not bad for someone who has spent a lot of money and gone to extreme lengths to keep his name out of the papers.
But what is surprising about Mr Hemming's stance is that he is no stranger to hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons himself. Just this week he and his wife Christine were in most of the nationals. She has pleaded not guilty to burglary and from the home of her husband's mistress. She is Emily Cox, a researcher with whom he fathered a child in 2005. He hit the headlines back then too.
Mrs Hemming's trial has been set for 21 June. It's one Sir Fred might take pleasure in following in the papers.
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