I do believe it's possible-with persistance - for Gary Glitter to revive his career. Hard but do-able.

The News of The World does not run the world, despite it's self belief. In fact all sales of tabloid newspapers are plummeting around the world as are glossy magazine sales. There is one place to market where Glitter cannot be touched-the internet ! What he is up against : this report by AFP full of assertions that are not proved ( and why not if those making them are so sure ?) "Keen to avoid the media, Glitter reportedly moved to Cuba and then Cambodia, where he was expelled in 2002, allegedly for trawling for underage sex. ( oh yeh..says who ?..allegedly is the word here) (snip)...

In March 2006 he was sentenced to three years in jail, the minimum term under Vietnamese law, which was later cut by three months. Glitter, who paid compensation to the families of both victims, evaded the more serious charge of child rape, which carries a maximum penalty of death by firing squad in Vietnam. ( what do they mean "evaded"-if these were charges that should have been applied then the whole Vietnam legal system is corrupt..perish the thought)...

The singer during the trial maintained his innocence, blamed a media conspiracy and claimed he was teaching the girls English, allowing them to stay overnight because they were scared of ghosts. Britain's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children this month called for tough action to stop Glitter from travelling abroad again if he returns to his home country.( who the f**k are these self appointed "guardians" to decide when a person's freedom should be curtailed ?...)

"Gary Glitter is a persistent offender responsible for a catalogue of sexual crimes against children," the charity's Diana Sutton said in a statement. ( what utter crap !..Glitter was charged with offences in Vietnam and no-where else..who can he be "persitent"..it's rumour built on ugly rumour)" Yet another self appointed expert who couldn't care less about child slave labour in Asia, which causes more harm, and is obsessed with sex !


PS About 3 weeks ago the top ABC (Aust.equivelent of the BBC) music show Rage had a few nostalgic hours of glam rock that included several Glitter performances. I'd forgotten how OTT they were..fantastic.

I've missed most of the coverage of the fuss surrounding Gary Glitter's release, although I did catch a channel 5 news item which claimed that Britain is "lagging behind" the USA in numbers of it's citizens convicted for crimes committed abroad. Britain has convicted one person in the last 5 years, while the USA has convicted 50. My thoughts went immediately to the difference in size of populations. USA must have around 50 times more people than the UK, so we are not really lagging behind when we consider proportions. Besides, the main question should be how many people deserved to be convicted. Should the aim really be to notch up convictions purely for the sake of not "lagging behind"? Maybe it should be seen to our credit that we only had one citizen commit a crime abroad.

Why can people never see the positive?

I've just seen the pictures of this broken, pathetic man on Sky "News". Surrounded by the most intrusive photographers it's ever been my misfortune to witness. The whole scene left me wondering who exactly is the "animal" here. One can only wonder what incentive any {ex?} sex offender has to reform. And I speak as someone with inside knowledge, being among that number myself. It's apparent that you can kill, rob, mug, burn, fight and generally consider yourself outside society and you will always be forgiven as long as you do your time and say the right things to your probation officer. There is always the chance of redemption. Unless society itself brands you beyond redemption, for which you simply have to commit one crime of a certain type. I've been there. I'm on the straight and narrow. But the more I see of the media frenzy surrounding cases like Thompson and Glitter, the more I wonder why anyone still bothers to talk about "reforming" sexual miscreants. I'm sorry for the things I did. For all I know so is Paul Gadd. Yet until our punitive justice system attaches some real meaning to the word "rehabilitation" people {and they ARE people, not irredeemable monsters} will continue to exist only on the fringes of society, the sense of alienation which was very probably one of the chief drivers behind their original offending behaviours will continue to make them much more of a risk than perhaps they are at present. I'm not saying we should welcome back Gary Glitter with open arms. I'm just pointing out that, like me, he's done his spell in prison but not anything like his "time". The unofficial sentence is the one which will stay with him for the rest of his life. We can be sorry. We can be sincere in those regrets. We're still human and we're far from beyond being worthwhile members of society. I still have loads to give. Finding takers is the difficult thing. I guess that's part of the sentence too. But maybe it shouldn't be.