Keir Starmer "not naming my children"

[Misthios]

Respect his stance not to allow pictures of his kids, fair enough, that is the decision he and his wife have made.

But the whole "i'm not publicly naming them" - you'd think as a former lawyer he'd know birth records are public record and anyone can find out in 30 seconds? So not the big secret he thinks it is?

Weird comment. I wasn't hoping to get anything out of it. This is the chat forum, right? Where people...chat?

His children absolutely have a right to privacy, like all other children.

You could similarly find out the names of pretty much anyone’s children- from famous actors to your schools headteacher to your local pub landlord - but it would be a deeply strange thing to do, on the spectrum of behaviors typical to stalkers, and raise multiple red flags. Keir Starmers children are no different to anyone else’s, whether the children of a prime minister or the children of a shopkeeper. They all deserve the same right to privacy.

If people were only allowed to comment/start threads on things which directly affected them, MN wouldn’t exist! I never understand the snarky MYOB posts on a chat forum. Random musings about random stuff is its entire and only purpose!

It was a bit different before camera phones and 24 hour news and social media, you could have a photo op then that was it pretty much (although kids like Chelsea Clinton still got loads of shit)

Now if they were named and pictured they'd never be left alone again. Who needs that as a teen, whether trans or not?

It's nuts enough having a parent in high office without all that.

Are you absolutely sure in this?
wow, you live and learn…

Seems like 100% right to me - they are high school age aren’t they so probably will become adults during this government. By not naming them to the press I would think they are then roughly protected from being photographed/reported on in the press (not sure if he’d have any legal come back but it’s pretty clear it would be a shitty thing to do!). Nothing to do with whether or not random individuals can search their names on birth records…. And I’m sure their class mates know exactly who they are, not sure why that would mean the whole country should know what they are up to 🙄

I suspect OP has an agenda,and knew exactly the turn the thread would take.

You know nothing about his children. Nothing. You may have heard rumours?
Nothing to do with policies.
Do not use children as a weapon against politicians. Challenge Starmer, discuss his policies, whatever.
Not anything to do with his children.

OP you’re confusing privacy and confidentiality. Of course the names aren’t confidential and you could find them out easily. That is nothing to do with the question of whether they are private, and that’s a factor for how far the press can discuss his family. The IPSO editor’s code states-

“Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent. In considering an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy, account will be taken of the complainant’s own public disclosures of information and the extent to which the material complained about is already in the public domain or will become so.”

In other words, if Starmer put his kids’ names into the public domain it would give the press licence greater licence to discuss his family. By setting a hard line that it’s all private, he makes its much harder for an editor to justify that kind of intrusion.

I honest don't care about his kids - I suspect most people won't search them.

.....and?

I’ve got lots of laughter out of it .
sorry 😔

Thanks @CraigBrown for explaining and I do totally get why they want to keep their kids out of the public eye. And I suppose saying "we keep that private" is less wordy than going into long explanations about code of conduct.

I still don't think it's correct that printing anyone's full name is a GDPR breach though.

Good for him. He's doing everything he can to protect what privacy they have left. Their children are teenagers are they not, so at an extremely sensitive time and still have to go to school.

I know that the birth records are available as a matter of public record via the GRO, but by taking this action Starmer (and his wife) are making clear that they don't want this information openly published.

You "suspect" wrong. Sorry to disppoint.

Well, he certainly made a tool when he made Kier.

Well, he certainly made a tool when he made Kier.

A right spanner.

@Spirallingdownwards

"The same way any parent does. They choose a school based on whether it is the right place for their child."

Except if you can't afford for your child to go to private school then you don't get the option to chose necessarily the "right place."

But the whole "i'm not publicly naming them" - you'd think as a former lawyer he'd know birth records are public record and anyone can find out in 30 seconds?

You can’t seriously be as thick as you are pretending to be.

He certainly threw a spanner in the Tories' works, tbf.

Well that’s not quite true because journalists are bound by a code of ethics and what interests the public is not the same as the public interest and it’s the latter that journalists should pursue, not feed the latter. Just because Joe Public wants to know what brand of toothpaste Keir Starmer uses (for example) it doesn’t mean a journalist is duty-bound to find out that information and publish it. Public interest is stuff that impacts the welfare or wellbeing of the public and society - naming his kids, or his toothpaste, does not meet that test. The job of the journalist isn't to fuel gossip or feed people’s idle curiosity - although we do have yellow journalists of course.

Sounds like something a good parent would do.

He’s trying to protect his kids.

He knows it’s impossible to protect them from the public eye completely but he’s trying his best.

If some weirdo wants to go and search the names up, then it says alot about them and it’s no reflection on him.

So what are they?

Quite, @Choochoo21

press and some of the public are vile, he knows this. It seems sensible to keep the children’s lives as private as possible.

he chose this life, they didn’t.

i respect him for keeping them out the comments section of news papers