Private lives

You'd have to been living under a stone this past week to have missed the uproar, here in Britain, over John Terry, the England football captain's private life.  For those not in the know, John Terry is a married man with two young twins, who had an affair with a French lingerie model.  The news of this affair hit the tabloids and he was sacked from his post as England captain in response to media pressure.

I think that this was an appalling move by Fabio Cappello, the manager of the England squad.  Don't get me wrong, I think that John Terry has behaved despicably.  The problem I have is, the way you conduct your private life should not determine whether or not you keep your job.  It may seem like a celebrity matter and nothing to do with real life but these things have a nasty habit of filtering down into the mainstream.  Before you know it, ordinary people will find themselves loosing their jobs for private indiscretions. Contrary to public opinion, people with squeaky clean personal lives aren't necessarily the best at their jobs.  In today's sanctimonious climate, Winston Churchill would certainly have had to resign because of his heavy drinking. Yes, you could argue that Terry is a bad role model for young boys but my argument is that if the media hadn't pried into his private life, it would have remained exactly that - private.  What we have here is a situation of the media feeding on itself.  My grandma taught me that you should never gossip about someone's personal life and yet today, we have a massive industry built around gossiping about the private lives of people in the public eye.


John Terry was one of the best England captains of all time - far better than the sacred David Beckham.  He should be allowed to continue.