My reaction to this story was probably the same as yours and any other decent person who could immediately appreciate the anguish that the false allegations had caused Lord McAlpine. I was horrified and angry at the stupidity of people who had taken no steps to ascertain the facts before passing them on to others. My feelings were, and still are, entirely on the side of an innocent man falsely accused of vile behaviour.
However … however. You will see at the end on my first paragraph I have italicised the word settle.
Later on, that day was it? Or maybe the day after. I saw the lawyer on television and he was saying pretty much the same as he had said on the radio only this time I could see his face which was the face of a calm and sympathetic man, acting for his client Lord McAlpine, and repeating those words only changing them slightly to end with *‘come and settle with us’.
It is this word settle that troubles me. It is such a comfortable word. There is no hint of conflict here. It suits the demeanour of the lawyer, calm and sympathetic. A velvet glove if ever there was one.
But, in this context, the word settle really means ‘Give us what we want’. And this, if you are on the giving side, rather than the wanting side, will almost certainly mean conflict. Not at all settling.
This leads me to wonder exactly how a settlement in such a case can be obtained. How does one quantify the damage done to Lord McAlpine? It’s not like losing a leg in a car accident where there are inevitably many precedents for compensation and a leg is a leg after all. Here we are considering anguish arising from the painful knowledge that until the denial was made (and believed) thousands of people either believed one to be a paedophile or knew that others believed one to be a paedophile and had passed it on through social media.
How is anguish to be assessed in monetary terms? It’s hard to quantify. I really don’t think it can be. I think it boils down to one’s advisor, the lawyer in this case, saying something like, ‘Let’s go for £x where x is a large amount and let’s see how they react. The size of x is arbitrary.
But the person who has apologised and sincerely wants to settle may be scared stiff at the thought of parting with such a sum. It may be more that they can afford. It could mean selling the house. And the family will suffer as well. Of course they should have thought about this before they tweeted or Facebooked or whatever. They should have thought about the anguish their words would cause Lord McAlpine. But they didn’t. A moment of madness, surely? And … careful what you say here … perhaps their anguish at the thought of parting with so much cash will be as great or even greater than that of Lord McAlpine? They may be tempted to say that a sincere apology is enough. They won’t pay the £x.
I suppose that the sum required for settlement might be reduced during the settlement procedure but such negotiation will take place against the knowledge that behind the lawyer’s calm and sympathetic and comfortable words there is, metaphorically speaking, hidden behind his back, within that velvet glove, a rod of iron which is the threat that if the person who wishes to settle does not agree to pay the arbitrarily selected sum of £x, then they will be taken to court where an action for libel or defamation (I really don’t know what it would be – I’m not a lawyer. Thank Heavens) against them will be heard and when they lose they will have to pay not only the £x but also all the court charges and the fees of the lawyers on both sides … plus the cost of photocopying and postage. Plus VAT at 20%.
This brings to mind the thought that whatever the anguish felt by Lord McAlpine at the time it is now over, or should be. Due to the amount of media coverage received there can be not one person left in the world who now thinks that Lord McAlpine was guilty of paedophiliac behaviour or ever could be. So it really is over now. Some lingering anger at the fools who so readily jumped in to condemn him and to pass on the news that he should be condemned perhaps. But it is really over now.
For those fools who acted so precipitously it may never be over. It all depends on how big is the x, doesn’t it?
I think that this is the time when Lord McAlpine should show mercy to those who have, albeit temporarily, harmed him.
*My recall of these words is as exact as I can make them but I did not take contemporaneous notes at the time, nor did I record them.
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