Published at 19:27, Thursday, 25 March 2010

NO MAN is an island, but I wish we could sometimes aspire to be at least a little private yard.

Last weekend we saw corporate and social responsibility at its best with Sport Relief.

Those who “have” gave generously to those who have not.

Sports people, actors and actresses and other celebrities gave their time and often a lot more to ensure that we knew how people in this country and overseas were suffering because of a lack of money.

They cycled, skied across the English Channel and ran 43 marathons while the rest of the population ran or walked miles, dressed in funny clothes, or we simply gave as much money as we could.

Sport Relief, Children in Need – these are the things that prove that no man is an island, that we have a duty of care to each other.

Every human who dies of hunger or because they cannot afford a £5 mosquito net is our responsibility because we have more than we need and therefore we are obliged to share.

BUT, and here’s the but, not being an island does NOT make me responsible for Tiger Woods and John Terry and nor, by the way, are they responsible to and for me.

Woods, who is going back to golf, appeared on TV the other morning apologising once more for his many infidelities. He apologised to his wife and family (as well he should) and he apologised to the public.

Why? He didn’t cheat on me. Why would he apologise to me and why should I care?

And why on earth would they get a psychologist on TV to tell me whether or not he was being sincere?

This idea that the public has some kind of right to be outraged by events that have nothing to do with us started, I think, with the death of Princess Diana.

I have never and will never watch Helen Mirren’s portrayal of the Queen because the film deals with the distressing events immediately after Diana’s death.

Her death was a tragedy. Many people had loved her and were right to mourn for her just as I mourned the death of Elvis Presley.

I did not, however, expect the Presley family to rush to my side to comfort me. As a fan I felt his death keenly but I had not lost a member of my family.

When the British public began wailing because the Queen was not in London comforting her subjects I was really quite shocked. She was at home with the two grandchildren who had just lost their mother.

We’d lost a magazine cover girl. We’d lost someone who did a lot of work for charity and whose glamour brightened our lives. We had not lost our mother, sister, or friend.

Nowadays it is not even the death of heroes that we feel we have to get involved in.

I can understand the newspapers reporting that John Terry (and a million other footballers we could name) was caught having affairs.

We can feel sorry for Cheryl Cole and even be irritated that someone as seemingly wholesome as Vernon Kaye is sending rude texts to girls.

It is news of a kind, I agree, but it goes no further than that. It is not our business. We have no right to get indignant and we certainly have no right to expect an apology. Apart from disappointing us or ruining the image we have of a celebrity, the hurt was not done to us.

On a much more serious note, I think the same applies to the recent controversy over the re-imprisonment of Jon Venables, one of the killers of two-year-old James Bulger.

The brutal death of an innocent toddler was sickening and we would be less than human if we were not horrified and repulsed.

But, again, we are not to be considered first in all this. We don’t have the right to know what has gone on to have him put back in prison unless it directly affects the safety of ourselves or our children.

The only people who have the right to anything in this case are the parents and immediate family of James Bulger.

No man is an island. But even if humanity can be described as one big continent there are still borders and walls and garden fences. Not everything belongs to us.

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk