Ant McPartlin

McSwaggerty

Fined £86,000 for drunk driving.

Loose change for someone who earns £130,000 per week.

£130,000 per week !....that's over half a million for a month for doing what exactly ?

Totally Absurd.

BloodEagle

So, there should be a sliding scale of fines based on how much the defendant earns?

Fretwired

BloodEagle said:

So, there should be a sliding scale of fines based on how much the defendant earns?

I thought there already was .. for example speeding:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/speeding-fines-rise-175pc-weekly-wages-monday/

BloodEagle

Oh right haha, well thats bullshit then

crunchman

BloodEagle said:

So, there should be a sliding scale of fines based on how much the defendant earns?

There already is.  If one of us had done that, the fine would have probably been £1000, not £86,000.

You can argue that it should be more than £86,000.

Even if it was £860,000 the 20 month driving ban would probably be a bigger inconvenience though.

Flanging_Fred

Whether you like Ant and Dec or not the fact is that they are very popular and bring in lots of viewers = lots more advertising = lots more money.  The people who pay them that much aren't doing it out of generosity.

I personally think they are pretty talented at a job that I expect is far harder than it looks. They've also been working at doing this since they were children.

The drink driving was a dick move, but Ant clearly has a alcohol problem and I wish anyone in that position a speedy road to recovery.

Fretwired

crunchman said:

BloodEagle said:

So, there should be a sliding scale of fines based on how much the defendant earns?

There already is.  If one of us had done that, the fine would have probably been £1000, not £86,000.

You can argue that it should be more than £86,000.

Even if it was £860,000 the 20 month driving ban would probably be a bigger inconvenience though.

Ant can afford to be chauffeured around and as a TV presenter I doubt he drives to work. The production company send a car.

If it was you or me we'd be buggered and have to use public transport.

EricTheWeary

One of the largest ever fines in the UK for drink driving, he also got a 20 month ban and potentially damage done to his career ( although celebrities seem to bounce back from these kind of things, his life might be considerably more damaged if he were a Tesco delivery driver). Wether it's right or just I don't know but it isn't particularly lenient by the standard of these things. 

joneve

Flanging_Fred said:

Whether you like Ant and Dec or not the fact is that they are very popular and bring in lots of viewers = lots more advertising = lots more money.  The people who pay them that much aren't doing it out of generosity.

I personally think they are pretty talented at a job that I expect is far harder than it looks. They've also been working at doing this since they were children.

The drink driving was a dick move, but Ant clearly has a alcohol problem and I wish anyone in that position a speedy road to recovery.

Very much this. 

What he did was completely fucking stupid, but not a move of someone that's got his shit together, and that has a history of depression and addiction. 

I'm not saying it's right, but I've seen what that type of stuff can do first hand, and it's not nice. 

randella

McSwaggerty said:

Fined £86,000 for drunk driving.

Loose change for someone who earns £130,000 per week.

£130,000 per week !....that's over half a million for a month for doing what exactly ?

Totally Absurd.

The local police force are now £86,000 better off, and I doubt McPartlin will be doing it again (which, surely, is the point?) - unlike the recidivist 17-G&Ts-down-the-golf-club-at-lunchtime crowd from a previous generation to whom it was seen as de riguer.

I should imagine his hours are long and stress levels are high.  He's been doing this since he was a teenager, so you could argue that he missed a chunk of childhood.  He's also very good at it, whether his entertainment-lite style is to your taste or not.

I always thought they were pretty good on SM:TV alongside Cat Deeley, that programme nursed me through umpteen student hangovers.

joeyowen

One question I haven't figured out, 
His mum was in the car with him, so was she drunk? Unaware? Or a dick as well?

Wish him well in his recovery, but I struggle to sympathise with drink driving

Fretwired

The guy is popular. I'm sure that after rehab if he's OK and quits being an alcoholic he can resume his career. It's happened to people in public life before, including government ministers.

digitalscream

joneve said:

Flanging_Fred said:

Whether you like Ant and Dec or not the fact is that they are very popular and bring in lots of viewers = lots more advertising = lots more money.  The people who pay them that much aren't doing it out of generosity.

I personally think they are pretty talented at a job that I expect is far harder than it looks. They've also been working at doing this since they were children.

The drink driving was a dick move, but Ant clearly has a alcohol problem and I wish anyone in that position a speedy road to recovery.

Very much this. 

What he did was completely fucking stupid, but not a move of someone that's got his shit together, and that has a history of depression and addiction. 

I'm not saying it's right, but I've seen what that type of stuff can do first hand, and it's not nice. 

Indeed. One of my friends deliberately drank himself to death because he assumed he'd already hit the point of no return. It took just over a year, and it was horrific to watch.

Sometimes, all it takes is a massive slap-round-the-face wake-up call, and by all accounts this seems to be doing the trick.

JezWynd

joeyowen said:

One question I haven't figured out, 
His mum was in the car with him, so was she drunk? Unaware? Or a dick as well?

Wish him well in his recovery, but I struggle to sympathise with drink driving

Twice over the limit doesn't mean he drank much, maybe a large vodka and orange for breakfast followed with a mouthwash. He's obviously used to functioning with alcohol in his system. I worked for many years on a litre of vodka a day. Many people were oblivious (me included).

randella

JezWynd said:

joeyowen said:

One question I haven't figured out, 
His mum was in the car with him, so was she drunk? Unaware? Or a dick as well?

Wish him well in his recovery, but I struggle to sympathise with drink driving

Twice over the limit doesn't mean he drank much, maybe a large vodka and orange for breakfast followed with a mouthwash. He's obviously used to functioning with alcohol in his system. I worked for many years on a litre of vodka a day. Many people were oblivious (me included).

If he was deep enough into his habit, there's a good chance he might not have had a drink at all if they nabbed him early in the day.

Legionreturns

Interestingly, certain cretins on social media have been using this as another chance to bash Tories (*) by comparing it to the 18 month ban and £200 Michael Fallon got for drink driving and claiming the system is bent and worked for him. 

Only issue is, Fallon got his conviction in 1983! 

Personally, I don't think you should go lightly on drink driving no matter what the excuses might be. The moment you step behind the wheel drunk, you're putting other people's loved ones at risk. I think it should be a lifetime ban. Don't like those consequences? Don't be a dick and drive pissed. 

(* I'm all for calling out abuses of power and sticking it to the ruling classes, but making up shit in completely misleading ways dilutes the whole picture and reduces the effectiveness of accusations that have real substance, of which there are plenty with this government!) 

EricTheWeary

randella said:

JezWynd said:

joeyowen said:

One question I haven't figured out, 
His mum was in the car with him, so was she drunk? Unaware? Or a dick as well?

Wish him well in his recovery, but I struggle to sympathise with drink driving

Twice over the limit doesn't mean he drank much, maybe a large vodka and orange for breakfast followed with a mouthwash. He's obviously used to functioning with alcohol in his system. I worked for many years on a litre of vodka a day. Many people were oblivious (me included).

If he was deep enough into his habit, there's a good chance he might not have had a drink at all if they nabbed him early in the day.

3:50pm. If it was alcohol in his system from the day before that's a shed load of booze. Seems more likely he had alcohol that day. Every chance he would have been able to hide it from or minimise it to his mother. 

randella

EricTheWeary said:

3:50pm. If it was alcohol in his system from the day before that's a shed load of booze. Seems more likely he had alcohol that day. Every chance he would have been able to hide it from or minimise it to his mother. 

In which case he probably did have a drink or three.  As re. hiding it, you're not wrong there.  I've seen it done by professional boozers first-hand, like Paul bloody Daniels.

joeyowen

JezWynd said:

joeyowen said:

One question I haven't figured out, 
His mum was in the car with him, so was she drunk? Unaware? Or a dick as well?

Wish him well in his recovery, but I struggle to sympathise with drink driving

Twice over the limit doesn't mean he drank much, maybe a large vodka and orange for breakfast followed with a mouthwash. He's obviously used to functioning with alcohol in his system. I worked for many years on a litre of vodka a day. Many people were oblivious (me included).

Fair point, I'm not overly educated on alcohol levels, I've always been super cautious.

I take it back to an extent, if that does clear up why the mother was unaware

EricTheWeary

joeyowen said:

JezWynd said:

joeyowen said:

One question I haven't figured out, 
His mum was in the car with him, so was she drunk? Unaware? Or a dick as well?

Wish him well in his recovery, but I struggle to sympathise with drink driving

Twice over the limit doesn't mean he drank much, maybe a large vodka and orange for breakfast followed with a mouthwash. He's obviously used to functioning with alcohol in his system. I worked for many years on a litre of vodka a day. Many people were oblivious (me included).

Fair point, I'm not overly educated on alcohol levels, I've always been super cautious.

I take it back to an extent, if that does clear up why the mother was unaware

The legal limit is around 4 units of alcohol. Depends on how the body processes it as to how high your reading is. Your body takes about an hour to start getting rid of it then about a unit per hour. Ant was just over twice the limit, so that's about 9 units still in his system. That's about 6 glasses of wine that day if he had only just finished drinking. 

munckee

I think the fine and ban is in keeping with anyone else.  I thought the round of applause they had for him on the last show was a bit much, he nearly killed innocent people by drink driving, its pure luck he didn't hit a push chair etc.  Mind you as someone pointed out to me last week Kirsty Gallacher turned up drunk to pick her kids up from school and has not damaged her career one jot.  If celebrities make a comment which in any way could be construed as racist, sexist homophobic whatever and their careers are virtyually stone dead - drive drunk and the public forgive because its not that bad?!?