The Whip Hand

When considering ways to protect the reputation of an individual or organisation, making a clean breast of it is always our favourite approach. If your closet door is always open, there’s no place for those nasty skeletons to lurk, awaiting painful and damaging exposure.

Being totally frank once certain private indiscretions have already been aired is a more high risk strategy, particularly when you’re a famous figure and you’re trying to disarm the libel defence of one of Britain’s leading tabloid newspapers.

But after a sensational first week at the High Court in London, Max Mosley, president of the FIA, the body which governs Formula One motor racing, could be argued to have the whip hand, if you pardon the pun.

Day after day of frank admissions over shaven buttocks, stern German dominatrices and an longstanding interest in sadomasochism seem to have strengthened Mosley’s chances of winning his case, especially after the News of the World’s key witness refused to give evidence.

Having already won a vote of motor racing’s leading players to keep his FIA post, his bold tactic of (quite literally) baring all has paid dividends.

His fortunes contrast sharply with another Alpha Male in the world of business, Sir Stuart Rose, the chairman and chief executive of Marks & Spencer. After fighting off the interest of Arcadia’s Philip Green and re-establishing the firm’s dominance on the High Street, Sir Stuart has seen the retailer’s performance dip markedly, attracting the criticism of his former fans amongst its shareholders.

It makes you wonder whether Max Mosley might have earned less credit for a little shopping at M&S than indulging in a little slapping and S&M!