HAS anybody else noticed just how benignly the media have treated our Home Secretary, David Blunkett, over his affair with a wealthy magazine publisher, compared to their vitriolic attack on Sven Goran Eriksson over his relationship with a work colleague?

Why the difference? Eriksson was a single man, having a relationship with a single woman. Result? He is publicly pilloried, with cries for his job, if not his head.

He had allegedly brought his employers (the FA) and the national game into 'disrepute'.

Mr Blunkett, on the other hand, has a three-year affair with a married woman and is 'bewildered' about how news of it became public.

The media use words like 'romance' and 'turmoil' but there is no real criticism of the Home Secretary's behaviour.

The moral of this story is that if you want to behave, in your private life, in a way which could be construed as bringing your employer or profession into 'disrepute', become a politician -- not a football manager.

NOEL EKE, Pickering Fold, Blackburn.