Go to jail, MSN UK tells Doherty

James P sends us a link to MSN's UK gossip blogs with the observation that it's "the strangest thing I've seen in a while".

And it is somewhat odd - David Levin (writing, as a footnote stresses, in a personal capacity and not as some sort of Voice Of Microsoft) pens an Open Letter to Pete Doherty, suggesting he should go to prison:

Dear Pete,

Does this letter find you off your head, in and out of rehab, in and out of court, covered in filth and messing up supermodels’ lives? I thought so! That’s why I’ve given up on you. If you have any self-respect left, you’ll keep reading...

There's something touching about it - the desperate hope that, with friends, family, management and band members having tried and failed, just maybe an MSN writer sharing how disappointed he is in Doherty might be enough to get him to straighten himself out.

If MSN have stopped believing, how low must you be? For god's sake, Pete, sort yourself out before IDon'tLikeYouInThatWay turn their backs, too.

David's suggestion? Like Michael Howard, he believes that Prison Works:

It would be great to wake up one morning, pick up a paper, and see you. Not the filthy, wasted you, kicking photographers outside courtrooms, but a clean, smiling you, on the way to record some good music again (not with Babyshambles, they’re crap). And it seems like some time behind bars is the only way this might come true.

So for that reason, Pete, I’m gonna be hoping that the judge in your next case doesn’t go easy on you this time. It’s for your own good.

It's not entirely likely that Doherty will get clean while in prison - it didn't work before, and unless he's able to get on some sort of program like Prisons Addressing
Substance Related Offending, the chances of him finding help this time are slim. Rather, Doherty probably needs prison because at the moment, it looks like he's ignoring court judgements without consequence: there's a limit to the number of times a judge can say "try to do better this time" without starting to give the impression that non-custodial sentences aren't serious. Prison, in itself, won't do any good for Doherty. But neither is this perpetual judicial indulgence helping him, either.