Dodgy Business

The whole Max Mosley furore over the past few months brings back something Murray Walker said a long time ago. When asked what it was like to be a recognised public face, the veteran TV commentator replied: "You can't do anything you wouldn't be happy to read about in the paper, because if you do, as sure as eggs are eggs, you will!"

At the time there was a bit of a rumpus because Murray had allegedly said that he had driven at 80mph on a motorway when the conditions were appropriate. I think his point was that it was not speed per se that was dangerous, it was inattentive, bad driving.

The do-gooders were rapidly condemning him - a popular man with a public persona and thereby in a position of influence - for not espousing strict adherence to 70mph. Murray, simply by talking common sense, had opened a little can of worms, sparking radio discussions, and on and on.

Murray Walker © LAT

To get Murray's point about inattentive driving, you only need to drive on a German autobahn, where, on certain sections, there is no limit. If you are doing 70mph and somebody in a big S-class Merc is doing 150mph, they catch you pretty darned quick. The consequence is that anybody pulling out into the fast lane uses their mirrors. A lot. Someone resolutely doing 72mph and refusing to move will be punted into Austria.

To my mind a similar system would work better everywhere, prompt better driving and assist traffic flow. But you'd always get an idiot, and I admit, if it was my family they'd run into, I'd probably find myself struggling to recommend unrestricted motorways or even higher limits. But a bit of common sense rather than more and more regulation would benefit everyone.

I was thinking this before I even started to cope with one of the realities of constant travelling - a huge back-log of post to be opened in the odd few hours you manage to snatch at home. Normally it's the same old stuff - your credit card is melting, 0% on a balance transfer for six months, electricity, gas, bills, more bills, etc. But then one with 'Merseyside Police - notice of intended prosecution' got my attention.

My Mini had committed the heinous crime of going 72mph on the M57 in a restricted 50mph zone at 05:34 in the morning. What was it to be - execution, public flogging? No, course not, just a few more stealth pounds into Gordon's coffers.

Needless to say, I didn't remember it. Which is because it was my wife, heading for an airport with the kids to join me for a holiday. So now I've got to fill in the form grassing her up before I drive the same route to catch Michael O'Leary's bus to Budapest. Ho hum.

No doubt that'll be another £60 gone west, which at least is 1000 times better than the situation the News of the World editor is left to contemplate.

The £60,000 damages surprised me - I thought Max would get more. The follow-up story in the News of the World was structured in such a way that you knew the paper was pretty damned desperate to prove their Nazi angle but you also knew that it was going to be a tough one to make stick.

Max Mosley © XPB

And when Justice Eady granted Mosley the means to pursue exemplary damages, I thought something with seven figures could be on the cards. The libel case will be interesting.

Nowhere have Murray Walker's words on public figures taking care in the manner they conduct their lives been better illustrated than in the Mosley case. Whatever you think about Max's activities, the newspaper revelations have undeniably affected his ability to do the flesh-pressing part of his job. As someone said at the time, you can't really be shaking hands with the King of Spain if your backside is across four pages of the News of the World...

Then there's the argument about how big a public figure Mosley is and whether or not his stature justified the exposure, as it were. It's true enough that many people had never even heard of Mosley when the News of the World broke its exclusive, but there's no denying Mosley's position of influence in the sporting and even business worlds. Many times I've actually thought that the Max/Bernie axis is wasted in motor racing and that they'd actually run the country far better than some of the numpties invested with that responsibility.

For me, though, the real story is still to emerge. Whodunnit? I can't believe, given the timing, that the whole thing was a coincidence, sparked by a recently drafted dominatrix smelling the opportunity to make a quick 25 grand. The fee, in itself, is unbelievable. Just as Mr Blair should have gone for an extra couple of noughts on the end of Bernie's donation in '97, so should have 'Girl E'...