Ryan Giggs may be the talk of the town in Britain after a judge blocked all coverage of his connection to a sex affair with a model but it is impossible to see a similar event happening here.

No judge in his right mind in America would seek to prevent coverage of a sports star and an alleged affair.

This is not national security we are talking about, nobody was threatened with death, this is about the oldest story in history, boy meets girl and strays from wife.

Take Brett Favre for instance. I'm sure there is nothing more he would have liked than to stop publication of his ridiculous e mails to a New York Jets employee featuring pictures of his private parts.

He did not have a hope in hell and the story exploded into the national media soon after it became known.

The First Amendment protects our freedom of speech in a way that the British and indeed the Irish can only dream about with their outmoded libel laws and stuffy judges wearing horsehair wigs.

Giggs would have been on page one a few days after the allegation was made and likely most of it would have been forgotten by now.

But the British insist on these outdated legalisms that take no account of the Internet or modern day reality.

It is time they grew up and stopped the silliness.