The Standard has returned to the subject of Kulveer Ranger's recent motorbike mishap in Georgia, but this time in a sympathetic way:
Tariel Ivanishvili, 44, suffered broken legs, a broken hip and fractured skull when Kulveer Ranger hit him during a charity ride...Today he and his family spoke for the first time of his ordeal - for which he does not blame the City Hall adviser....
The Georgian sponsors of the rally, sparkling wine makers JSC Bagrationi, had Mr Ivanishvili moved to a hospital in Kutaisi - where Mr Ranger visited him - and vowed to get him walking again, according to his family. His wife Lela said: "Mr Ranger is a very nice man. He came to see us twice and promised to pay for all expenses, and then left suddenly."
Mr Ivanishvili said Mr Ranger was keen to see he was recovering. "When he [Mr Ranger] came to visit his eyes were so scared - he could have killed me, you know, and I just smiled back at him. We shook hands and he joked, You'll see, after your full recovery we'll play football together in England.'"
Not quite sure what the "left suddenly" bit's about, but Kulveer certainly emerges from the story with credit. Could the Standard's recent change of news editor have anything to do with it?
Update, 8 October. An email from the Standard's outgoing news editor Hugh Dougherty:
Just had your blog pointed out to me. Hate to tell you, but I'm news editor until the end of next week and oversaw the story, so sadly its tone is not down to my successor having a change of heart about Mr Ranger. If you look at the juxtaposition of the picture and the words, you may take a slightly different view of whether we were sympathetic - I'd say we were studiedly neutral.
Interestingly, an Assembly Member emailed yesterday saying, "I thought the ES was a bit snide about Kulveer in that article."
So there we have it, whatever "it" may be. I wonder what Kulveer makes of it all.
