Domestic violence and the 'ginger ninja'

The Sun's editor Rebekah Wade found herself banged up yesterday for allegedly thumping her husband. But it was just a 'domestic', right?

The phrase 'you couldn't make it up' springs to mind. The red-headed editor of the biggest newspaper in the country, famed for her campaigns on naming and shaming paedophiles and on domestic violence, is forced to spend a few hours in the cells for allegedly giving her partner a 'thick lip'. That the aforementioned husband is none other than soap opera 'hard man' Ross Kemp is the icing on the cake. 'EastEnder Is Decked By The Ginger Ninja,' said Sun stablemate The Times joining a line of newspapers queuing up to have a little fun at the embarrassed couple's expense.

Still, it is at times like this when the Sun usually tops everyone else's frontpages and today was no different. 'Eastenders hardman beaten by lover' screamed the front cover, only to picture Kemp's co-star Steve McFadden who, by eerie coincidence, got walloped yesterday by his ex-girlfriend. Kemp was shown in a tiny picture in the corner, next to the words 'And his bruv's had a bit of bovver too'. All this pleasure at the expense of a high-profile couple who don't seem to be wildly popular is good fun, but it begs a serious question about Wade's credibility. Last month, the Sun stated that its domestic violence campaigns 'tell millions that using violence is unacceptable. If we speak out, children will learn it is wrong to hit loved ones.' Yet these campaigns start from assuming that one-in-four women are the victims of domestic violence by lumping together every tiff with the smaller numbers of women who suffer persistent physical abuse.

Wade chose to say yesterday 'It was just a silly row that got out of hand.' She doesn't seem to apply this sensible approach, which assumes that even people who love each other can occasionally fall out, to the rest of the world, instead promoting the idea that even minor scraps in family settings should be subject to investigation and apparently show that there is an 'epidemic' of domestic violence. After all her paper's moralising about domestic violence, this incident is a real slap in the face.

She campaigns for battered wives so what happened?, The Herald, 4 November 2005