The sneakily taken video of Leo Varadkar in nightclub is another example of sinister digital voyeurism – he deserves his privacy

18 comments

  1. > The talk of the town lately has been about Leo Varadkar’s **alleged** faux pas, which found the politician grudgingly admit that he had made “an error of judgment” when he was out socialising in a popular Dublin venue.

    > We have become a surveillance nation, but the surveillance is not coming from the state, it’s coming from our fellow citizens

  2. I think he should have a small bit of cop on, he’s in his mid 40s mauling people in nightclubs. I’d like a bit more professionalism out of the leader of the country. He does have the right to do what he wants in his private life but when he’s in public he’s always in the spotlight, he signed up for that

  3. It’s true that there needs to be more thought put into how this stuff is treated, but I reserve the right to be internally absolutely raging if this is the thing that gets it done.

    It would be like The Onion’s “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point” times a million billion.

  5. How is anything happening in a location under a publicans license under “privacy”.

    It’s not like someone filmed in through his bedroom window.

  6. To an extent, when you’re a politician you should expect to have less privacy than the average person. It’s a consequence to help balance all the perks of the position IMO.

  7. Like I’m all for people having their private life, public figures included. I hate lynchmob online culture….however…there is something extremely daft to the point of almost difficult to believe poor judgement here. Yes its none of our business, however, it was in plain sight in a popular night club….i dont know how he expects people not to react to it.

    There comes a certain expectation with holding public office and I think politicians have to at least acknowledge it. You cannot hide behind ‘but muh private life’ when your behaviour is happening out in the open in full view of many people. That expectation would be fair if someone followed them to a hotel room, with them holding hands or kissing….. but that’s not what happened here at all. Perfect example of hubris gone wrong for a politician.

    Like I really couldn’t care about his private life. I’m far more concerned with some of his dodgy political decisions. But trying to pretend people shouldnt react to this is just wilfully thick logic.

  9. Fuck his privacy. Where have the homeless got to go for privacy? Why does he need consistent raises whilst the rest of us starve. People standing up for one of the many criminals fucking this country into the ground. Do you think all those brave men took ireland back from the British to turn it into this? I’d rather be English than live in this cesspool of a country where the public love getting fucked.

  10. One of the things which has been assumed about this story (along with several conflicting versions of his relationship status), is that Leo didn’t know he was being filmed. He hasn’t actually commented on that either.

    Public figures are certainly entitled to privacy, albeit with a lesser degree in public spaces.

    However if the video is being referenced as justification to more generally demonise people using cameras on public figures, or to drive legislation, it would be interesting to first know whether Leo did see the camera and whether he knew they were filming. Did he see and have an opportunity to object or was he unaware it was happening.

    He certainly seemed to look straight at it before moving in and it looked fairly close. It made me wonder if the person filming was a friend of one of the two.

    Most people have sympathy for a perceived invasion of privacy. If filming wasn’t done surrepiciously, and the real issue was sharing to a wider circle (i.e. the general public), that would cast both it and the responses in a somewhat different light.

  13. We are a country known for leaving people, no matter how well known, alone.

    “But he’s a public figure”

    So what! What does that matter, like what reason is there that because he’s known he can’t be left alone.

    Fucking weirdos trying to justify this voyeurism. Just because you’re used to everyone cataloguing their entire lives via social media doesn’t mean you have the permission to do it for someone else.

    Should all be ashamed trying to justify such bullshit.

  17. Was it sneaky, yes
    Was it uncool, yes
    But the reaction to this shows how out of touch this generation of politicians are because this happens to ordinary people every day of the week on social media. Kids from maybe 10 upwards have every ‘misstep’ they make published online in seconds. Politicians are close to a decade behind the rest of us.

  18. Look, I think he’s a scumbag professionally and as of now based on him cheating on his partner, I think He’s a scumbag personally.

    But my thoughts on him aside, his actions in the video have nothing to do with him running the country, and people are making way too big of a deal of it. He’s a gowl but thats about it

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