The Wrong Kind Of Whiplash?

Just as we seem to have the wrong kind of snow or the wrong kind of leaves on line, so too we seem to have the wrong kind of politicians in the UK and Europe.  Wrong at least when it comes to lack of hypocrisy when legislating about our private lives.  Take Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for example.  Women are at the centre of his life and also form the heart of his  trial from bench to the witness stand.  The trial revolves around allegations that Berlusconi paid for hair – it just happened to be attached to a 17 year old underage prostitute, Karima El Mahroug, at the time!  He then committed an abuse of office by getting her released from police custody in a separate case.

One of the organisers of the "events" attended by the 74 year old Silvio was Nicole Minetti, a 25-year-old brunette and Berlusconi confidante considered by prosecutors to be a sort of madam working for the roving eyed premier.  How else do you explain her meteoric career progression from a dental hygienist to starlet on one of Berlusconi's television channels and ultimately becoming a local councillor for Berlusconi's People of Freedom party in Lombardy, one of Italy's wealthiest regions. She has even suggested to the press that she hopes to be foreign minister one day.  That said, Italian  equal opportunities minister Mara Carfagna was also once a show girl on a Berlusconi-owned TV channel, so that route to high office seems to be open to anyone, female at least.

Then of course there’s the case of the 42nd President of the United Sates, William Jefferson Clinton, who apparently was unfamiliar with the services of a decent dry cleaner or indeed the function of a humidor.  22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky alleged at least nine instances of sexual relations with the President, which he famously denied in a very "lawyer-speak" way of course.   Although he was impeached in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives, he was subsequently acquitted of all charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day Senate trial.

Before you run off thinking that we Brits are immune to this sort of sordid affair, cast your mind back to the lovely Lindi St Clair, otherwise known as Miss Whiplash (not the sort you can claim compensation for).  She plied her dominatrix trade from a house in Eardley Crescent, in Earls Court and it would seem from what was Norman Lamont’s basement flat in Notting Hill between 1974 and 1985.    No one of course is suggesting that the then Chancellor of the Exchequer had any knowledge of Miss Whiplash personally or indeed what was going on in his flat,  but Lindi maintained that 252 Members of Parliament had been her clients.

Maybe it’s this connection  that still makes whiplash such a “comedy injury”, easy to fake and seemingly the inevitable result of any  even minor road traffic accident, whiplash can also result from sports injuries or even  just a simple trip or slip. It can cause pain, stiffness and restriction of movement and there the similarity to Lindi’s attentions ends!   In more serious cases, there can be swelling, long term back pain, dizziness, lethargy and nausea for months or years.

The author, Allan Bisset, works with a company that specialises in no win no fee compensation claims and regularly takes on compensation cases for a variety of accidents that result in whiplash injuries.