Re: Desk Jockey Re: The pimps!
I'm a bit on the fence on this one, but I find myself in disagreement with parts of your post as follows:
"I don't see any public interest defence in this case at all....." Well, this is a junior minister which means he has (or, hopefully, now had) the potential to become a full minister or even future PM, so the Mirruh is doing the country a favour by exposing him for the clueless twit he is now before he gets into a position of greater responsibility. TBH, I would expect any MP to have developed enough common sense/deviousness/self-preservative instinct to see through such an obvious scam long before they got to a junior minister position - could you imagine the possible damage to the country if this twit had got to the position of making really important decisions up against really experienced and immoral politicians like those (allegedly) in the EU? No, far better he is exposed (fnarr) for the fool he is now.
".... The newspaper just went out to cause serious embarrassment to an MP...." Firstly, I understand it was a freelancer that sold the story to the Mirruh. Whilst the freelancer could be accused of using a shotgun approach, by the time it was presented to the Mirruh he had hit a definitive target. Secondly, the junior minister in question is a public figure and has a responsiibility to act in accordance with the expectations of the voters. By that I'm not passing moral judgement on the 'immorality' of his 'indiscretion' but the fact he was willing to engage in such behaviour suggests a weakness of character and an inclination to dishonesty. That plus the fact he was stupid enough to get caught.
"... implied 'sexual' favours using that image? If so, surely they makes the journo a pimp? Worse still, a pimp promising sexual favours without the consent of the person being pimped! Isn't that a criminal offence?...." Only if the proposition asked for something such as cash or favours in return for sexual favours, which does not seem the case. You could also say the journo in question at least stopped at just selling the sexting evidence to the Mirruh, whereas some journos may have been inclined to bank the evidence for future blackmail purposes should the junior minister have later progressed to a more senior position. You may also want to consider that the British Secret Service (allegedly) randomly test their employees, members of the armed forces, senior civil servants and senior MPs with such entrapments, so to class such an action as illegal might land HMG in trouble.