We need to guard against childish gloating when we read about the arrest of Patricia Hewitt’s son for possessing cocaine, says Rod Liddle. But first, a quick recap of her record
There is something rotten with this country when people can take such base, spiteful pleasure from the arrest of a young lad simply because his mum was a former government minister and architect of New Labour. The sins of the father should not be visited upon the child; the sins of the child should not be used as a whip with which to beat the parents simply because, unaccountably, some people don’t like them. I find it terribly saddening that the case has even been reported: our press needs to learn a little restraint and a little morality. This revelling in human misery has become an all-too-ugly character trait of the British newspaper business. So let us leave the unhappy parents alone in the hope that, free from the demented basilisk glare of media coverage, they might repair the wounds occasioned by this young man’s arrest and cleave together as a family. They need time, they need peace, they need solitude.
But first, though, let’s recap. Nicholas Hewitt Birtles, aged 21, was arrested for being in possession of a Class A drug, cocaine, in Camden Square, north London, very close to his parents’ home. He was charged, bailed and is due back in court on 30 September. He was arrested along with another chap of similar age because the two men were seen to be acting suspiciously by the police, who, upon apprehending them, discovered a quantity of white powder which transpired to be cocaine. The maximum tariff for possession of cocaine is seven years; for dealing, it’s life.
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