The hypocrisy of Lembit Opik

Self-styled lethario of the Commons Lembit Opik has hit the headlines for his “relationship” with a 21-year old lingerie model, ostensibly anchored in a mutual interest in a campaign on eating disorders. This is familiar territory for the serial sleazeball, who made big play of his relationships with weather presenter Sian Lloyd and Cheeky Girl Gabriella Irimia.

In the media offensive with model Katie Green, Opik opines:

If the fashion industry is organised to celebrate the ‘dangerously thin’ look, it’s no wonder thousands of people die from eating disorders in the UK every year.

In the last parliamentary session Opik signed a whopping 198 Early Day Motions and sponsored 13 on such pressing issues as Tracking Near Earth Objects and Segways and the Snow. Given his apparent interest in this subject, one assumes he has been pursuing the matter in parliament. Perhaps he signed last October’s Early Day Motion expressing concern at “the clear pressure on models to achieve a size zero body”? Or maybe he backed Richard Younger-Ross in welcoming the launch of the Model Health Inquiry? And how could we forget Eating Order Awareness week in February?

The fact is that Opik has signed none of these. To miss an EDM on one of ‘your issues’ is unfortunate; to miss two is careless; but to miss three probably means you didn’t give a monkeys in the first place. It seems the only time our ladies man has mentioned ever eating disorders in Parliament was in a written question which was answered (surprise surprise) one day before Katie Green’s campaign was launched in The Sun.

The charitable might ask what is wrong with an MP widening their parliamentary interests or their attention being drawn to a particular issue by a celebrity campaigner. This argument might stand up were it not for Opik’s weekly column for for newstand pornographers the Daily Sport.

This publication is soft-core porn dressed up as a red top tabloid, keeping its readers on a daily diet of upskirt photos of celebrities getting out of cars and stories such as “WAG in Hotel Roasting Sex Vid” and “Credit Crunch Turns Girls Lesbo”.

Hey, Lembit! You don’t suppose your employer is a paragon of publications which, erm, drive unrealistic and unhealthy conceptions of body image in young women?

What a complete and utter hypocrite.