The Scudamore Affair...

There may have been another thread on this recently so my apologies if so.

Something doesn't sit quite right with me in all of this. Okay, the emails concerned might have been from a Premier League.com address, which Scudamore's PA would have had access to. And yes, she may well have been offended by them (even if they weren't talking about her as such).

However, from what I've read, these emails came up while she was searching for somebody by name on the system, and she decided to read through them anyway, making sure to send herself a copy 'in case she wanted to keep them for any future legal action' she might have wanted to take.

Then, so offended is she, that she decides to wait 7 long months before deciding to do something about it; in this case, going to the papers.

The whole thing doesn't sit right with me. Yes, Scudamore shared inappropriate jokes and some dodgy banter with someone on a works email account. Yes, he might even hold sexist views, but even then - the emails concerned weren't what the PA was actually looking for; she decided to read through them anyway. Even though part of her job was to look after Scudamore's emails, I think there's a case for inappropriate behaviour on her part here, in that she was rifling through a personal email between Scudamore and somebody else, as well as forwarding herself a copy.

Apart from that issue, it also seems to me that as a society we're moving closer to this 'thought crime' that George Orwell talked about in 1984 - the idea that you can be punished for holding certain views, whether you air them or not. Plus, if everybody's private emails and texts were made public, NOBODY would keep their job - NOBODY. People who disagree with this last statement have obviously never sent or received a slightly dodgy joke by text, or have never seen anything other than works business on their works email. Nobody is whiter than white. I don't see how many people can take the moral high ground on something like this...

There may have been another thread on this recently so my apologies if so.

Something doesn't sit quite right with me in all of this. Okay, the emails concerned might have been from a Premier League.com address, which Scudamore's PA would have had access to. And yes, she may well have been offended by them (even if they weren't talking about her as such).

However, from what I've read, these emails came up while she was searching for somebody by name on the system, and she decided to read through them anyway, making sure to send herself a copy 'in case she wanted to keep them for any future legal action' she might have wanted to take.

Then, so offended is she, that she decides to wait 7 long months before deciding to do something about it; in this case, going to the papers.

The whole thing doesn't sit right with me. Yes, Scudamore shared inappropriate jokes and some dodgy banter with someone on a works email account. Yes, he might even hold sexist views, but even then - the emails concerned weren't what the PA was actually looking for; she decided to read through them anyway. Even though part of her job was to look after Scudamore's emails, I think there's a case for inappropriate behaviour on her part here, in that she was rifling through a personal email between Scudamore and somebody else, as well as forwarding herself a copy.

Apart from that issue, it also seems to me that as a society we're moving closer to this 'thought crime' that George Orwell talked about in 1984 - the idea that you can be punished for holding certain views, whether you air them or not. Plus, if everybody's private emails and texts were made public, NOBODY would keep their job - NOBODY. People who disagree with this last statement have obviously never sent or received a slightly dodgy joke by text, or have never seen anything other than works business on their works email. Nobody is whiter than white. I don't see how many people can take the moral high ground on something like this...

not going to take the moral high ground for the reasons you state (good post btw) but your whole "1984" theory is wrong, what hes done has nothing to do with the "thought police" infact, hes not in trouble with the law, but if i sent emails from my works computer with sexist or racist jokes, or anything of that ilk i would be fired. Yes there may be question marks over her integrety, and i hope she was paid well by the papaer as she might never work as a secretary again, but doesnt make it right what he did either.

There may have been another thread on this recently so my apologies if so.

Something doesn't sit quite right with me in all of this. Okay, the emails concerned might have been from a Premier League.com address, which Scudamore's PA would have had access to. And yes, she may well have been offended by them (even if they weren't talking about her as such).

However, from what I've read, these emails came up while she was searching for somebody by name on the system, and she decided to read through them anyway, making sure to send herself a copy 'in case she wanted to keep them for any future legal action' she might have wanted to take.

Then, so offended is she, that she decides to wait 7 long months before deciding to do something about it; in this case, going to the papers.

The whole thing doesn't sit right with me. Yes, Scudamore shared inappropriate jokes and some dodgy banter with someone on a works email account. Yes, he might even hold sexist views, but even then - the emails concerned weren't what the PA was actually looking for; she decided to read through them anyway. Even though part of her job was to look after Scudamore's emails, I think there's a case for inappropriate behaviour on her part here, in that she was rifling through a personal email between Scudamore and somebody else, as well as forwarding herself a copy.

Apart from that issue, it also seems to me that as a society we're moving closer to this 'thought crime' that George Orwell talked about in 1984 - the idea that you can be punished for holding certain views, whether you air them or not. Plus, if everybody's private emails and texts were made public, NOBODY would keep their job - NOBODY. People who disagree with this last statement have obviously never sent or received a slightly dodgy joke by text, or have never seen anything other than works business on their works email. Nobody is whiter than white. I don't see how many people can take the moral high ground on something like this...

not going to take the moral high ground for the reasons you state (good post btw) but your whole "1984" theory is wrong, what hes done has nothing to do with the "thought police" infact, hes not in trouble with the law, but if i sent emails from my works computer with sexist or racist jokes, or anything of that ilk i would be fired. Yes there may be question marks over her integrety, and i hope she was paid well by the papaer as she might never work as a secretary again, but doesnt make it right what he did either.

Spot on, Paul

The question of "trust" on both sides will have irretrievably broken down and it may only be a matter of time before Scudamore "steps down", whilst the woman will find it difficult to get another job now her identity is out there (not saying it is right or proper, but it is how the 'system' works)

There may have been another thread on this recently so my apologies if so.

Something doesn't sit quite right with me in all of this. Okay, the emails concerned might have been from a Premier League.com address, which Scudamore's PA would have had access to. And yes, she may well have been offended by them (even if they weren't talking about her as such).

However, from what I've read, these emails came up while she was searching for somebody by name on the system, and she decided to read through them anyway, making sure to send herself a copy 'in case she wanted to keep them for any future legal action' she might have wanted to take.

Then, so offended is she, that she decides to wait 7 long months before deciding to do something about it; in this case, going to the papers.

The whole thing doesn't sit right with me. Yes, Scudamore shared inappropriate jokes and some dodgy banter with someone on a works email account. Yes, he might even hold sexist views, but even then - the emails concerned weren't what the PA was actually looking for; she decided to read through them anyway. Even though part of her job was to look after Scudamore's emails, I think there's a case for inappropriate behaviour on her part here, in that she was rifling through a personal email between Scudamore and somebody else, as well as forwarding herself a copy.

Apart from that issue, it also seems to me that as a society we're moving closer to this 'thought crime' that George Orwell talked about in 1984 - the idea that you can be punished for holding certain views, whether you air them or not. Plus, if everybody's private emails and texts were made public, NOBODY would keep their job - NOBODY. People who disagree with this last statement have obviously never sent or received a slightly dodgy joke by text, or have never seen anything other than works business on their works email. Nobody is whiter than white. I don't see how many people can take the moral high ground on something like this...

not going to take the moral high ground for the reasons you state (good post btw) but your whole "1984" theory is wrong, what hes done has nothing to do with the "thought police" infact, hes not in trouble with the law, but if i sent emails from my works computer with sexist or racist jokes, or anything of that ilk i would be fired. Yes there may be question marks over her integrety, and i hope she was paid well by the papaer as she might never work as a secretary again, but doesnt make it right what he did either.

No, he's not in trouble with the law and yes, anybody caught expressing themselves in such a way on works email accounts can often expect to be disciplined or sacked. However, he wouldn't have been caught if it wasn't for his PA reading emails she shouldn't have been.

It amazes me, the amount of people who come out in the media (not you ) after something like this and take the moral high ground when as we both know, the vast majority of people have probably been guilty of something similar, or holding equally unpopular views. It's the criticism of people like Scudamore for holding certain views or the suggestion they should undergo training/classes to change their views that I can't understand - that's where my thought police theory comes in. Like when someone comes out and says "we can't have someone who thinks like that, running such an establishment etc".

He was in the wrong, yes - but the media is focussing solely on this and ignoring the PA's obvious wrongdoing here, jumping on one person for the way they think/what they might have said in private and ignoring the fact that if it was in private, it's not relevant at all.

Same with Clarkson - his recent 'did he say the "n" word or didn't he' saga happened during filming for an episode and not actually on a televised episode. Again, it was leaked to the press by someone with an agenda and a shitstorm ensued. I reckon the people who were clamouring for his sacking were the sort who didn't like him anyway...

Another example is the whole Roy Hodgson/Andros Townsend episode last year - a misconstrued phrase used by an old man and used against him by some tw*t in the dressing room who went to the papers immediately...

Breaking news now suggests that Scudamore is keeping his job and no further action will be taken.

Totally agree with Mattd on this. I just heard an interview on the radio with the woman involved and she admitted receiving money from the papers for this story but she didn't want to disclose how much... I think she may have made a tidy sum!

Its because of women like this that men take the p!ss in the first place...

Totally agree with Mattd on this. I just heard an interview on the radio with the woman involved and she admitted receiving money from the papers for this story but she didn't want to disclose how much... I think she may have made a tidy sum!

Its because of women like this that men take the p!ss in the first place...

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