Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The Strange Case of Cameron's Helmet


Prize for the most ridiculous space-filling story of the day goes to this morning's edition of The Times. Under the headline HATS OFF TO THE MAN WITH NO HELMET reporter (and I use the term loosely) Will Pavia delves into the vexed question of why, when cycling to work yesterday David Cameron removed his helmet when he approached Westminster. Indeed, he consults a psycologist to explain this strange phenomenon. His report goes on... Peter Collett, an Oxford psychologist, believes that the explanation lay within the classical mosaic of Alexander the Great fighting the King of Persia. “Being a man with a classical education, he would have known that Alexander always rode into battle without a helmet.” So that explains it then. But there's more. It could, however, be part of Mr Cameron’s desire to appeal to the youth of Britain, Dr Collett said, or something even more prosaic: “It could be that someone stopped him on the way. When people stop me I take my helmet off; I don’t want to look a wally.” Did it ever occur to this so-called journalist that the reason he took his helmet off was that his savvy media team had arranged for a TV camera and a photographer to be at the entrance to the House of Commons to film him riding into the building? I know, I saw them do just that!

1 comment:

Mike Wood said...

I'd presumed that it was just that Parliament security isn't too keen on people wearing helmets, balaclavas, pairs of tights on their head etc when they enter the grounds.