Harold Wilson: Eh?

Jack Straw, The Times.

Closet Queens: Getting Away With It

From 1885, when the Labouchere amendment created the new offence of gross indecency, until 1967, when the recommendations of the Wolfenden committee were enacted, all homosexual behaviour was illegal in Britain. It continued to attract intense social disapproval for long after that: as late as 1993, according to the annual British Social Attitudes survey, most people still considered it to be “always wrong”. In this cruel and illiberal atmosphere, politicians with gay inclinations had to keep them secret from the public at large, and ran enormous risks. They were obliged either to repress their sexual feelings and lead celibate lives, or else to lead double lives, indulging their tastes clandestinely while outwardly conducting conventional, heterosexual existences, often married with children.

Yet paradoxically, “closet queens” (to use an expression that came into vogue in the 1960s) often made effective politicians. They were past masters when it came to keeping secrets, and taking calculated risks; they were also actors on life’s stage, with a strong sense of showmanship, and a flair for intrigue and subterfuge. And there was probably a far higher proportion of homosexuals in politics than in most other walks of life, partly because, as actors and risk-takers, they were drawn to the profession, and also because 20th-century British politicians were often educated at all-male boarding schools, which fostered intense (often sexual) friendships among their pupils, and provided unintentional training in the art of breaking the rules and getting away with it...

Michael Bloch, Double Lives, The Guardian Review.

A nice introduction to Michael Bloch's new book, Closet Queens: Some 20th Century British Politicians.

Roll up, roll up! All yer favourites are here; Lord Rosebery, Earl Beauchamp, Balfour, Tom Driberg, Lord Boothby, most of MacMillan's cabinet (!), Edward Heath, Jeremy Thorpe, Norman St John Stevas, Mandelson, Portillo, Ron Davies, and intriguingly, if not entirely persuasively, Winston Churchill...

PS Craig Brown is not too impressed.

Crufts: Dog Murder Mystery

The Sun.

At least they can't try and pin this one on Jeremy Thorpe.

Maybe they'll blame Putin?

Update: Brookes in The Times, Tuesday 10th...

Fagburn: Death Of The Year

For what man has not wanted to try and kill his ex-boyfriend?

Jeremy Thorpe Funeral: Stand By Me

As Mr Thorpe's coffin was carried out of the church some mourners were surprised by a medley of some of his favourite songs played by the Minehead String Quartet; Cher's Bang Bang, Queen's Killer Queen and Getting Away With It by Electronic...

Daily Mail.

Jeremy Thorpe: Establishment Cover-Up!

And now a quick sneak peek back to how the Mail marked Jeremy Thorpe's laughable acquittal...

Jeremy Thorpe: 1929-2014

I'm stilll gone, but couldn't miss documenting this. x

Jeremy Thorpe tribute bingo; Eton, colourful, charismatic, gifted mimic, brown derby, former male model, great dane, hired a hitman to kill his ex-boyfriend, allegedly, Minehead, bunnys can and will go to France, bit the pillow, acquitted, judge, a verdict that surprised many, pink oboe, Peter Cook, retired from public life, Parkinson's, devoted wife, Nick Clegg comments...

PS Jeremy Thorpe scandal: Where are they now?

Cyril Smith: Getting Away With It

Cyril Smith, the former Liberal MP for Rochdale, was one of the best-known and best-loved politicians of the 70s.
Far better known for his numerous TV appearances than for any cause he may have championed.
Colourful, larger-than-life, a real character, professional northerner and jolly fat man etc.
The police had a two-inch thick file on him of allegations of serial sexual abuse of boys at two care homes in Rochdale dating back to the early 60s.
Local councillors and police, the Liberal party leadership, then Special Branch and MI5 all chose not to seriously investigate, and colluded in a massive cover-up.
Only two publications - Rochdale Alternative Paper and Private Eye - covered the story during his lifetime.
He was never charged.

Watch The Paedophile MP: How Cyril Smith Got Away With It on 4OD.

Tom Watson: The Thick Plottens

Tom Watson MP will use parliamentary privilege tomorrow to literally blow the lid off one of the greatest parliamentary cover-ups of our time.
Fagburn can exclusively reveal that he will sensationally name names - many of them household names - involved in a secret gay Tory paedo ring that goes to the very heart of the so-called British establishment.
Mr Watson will say Edward Heath shot Jeremy Thorpe's great dane - and secret canine lover - Rinka in 1975 because he was about to expose how Harold Wilson was paid millions in Kremlin gold for gay sexual favours to Russian premier, Leonid Brezhnev, during a fake moon landing on a grassy knoll witnessed by Lord McAlpine, Lord Lucan, Sir Jimmy Savile, Norman St John Stevas, and Diana, the Princess Of Wales.
Long rumoured on the internet, the plot is known to conspiracy theorists as the 'Tom Watson Has Completely Lost The Plot Plot'.
Tom Watson, last seen wearing a hat made of tinfoil and polishing his massive ego, told Fagburn; "If I lose all my credibility after this, I blame dark forces about which we know little. Wibble."

Update: If Watson ever does name names, instead of hint-hint you might want to compare and contrast his allegations with this new piece by David Icke, that draws in Heath, Savile, Wilson, McAlpine, Mountbatten, Wilson, Diana... You couldn't make it up etc etc. 

Vince Cable: Cable Leaks

Of course the really shocking thing about VInce Cable's departure is that this is the first time in living memory when a Lib Dem has been felled by something else apart from his own closetry.
Though Fagburn did a double-take when he saw this article in The Guardian called; 'If Vince Laws had been a Tory would he be out?'
And, hey, at least Vince Cable didn't have anyone's alsatian killed.

Lib Dems: Scandal Days

Now I don't care about you, but as this is the last Sunday before the election I was hoping that one of the Sunday papers would have unearthed a sordid scandal on a leading politician that would have left their political career in tatters!
Ideally, I was hoping for one of them to have taken part in a sex act so disgusting it couldn't be described in a family newspaper - the Lib Dems are good at them.
What happened to the good old days when a Liberal leader could have been counted on to at least hire a hitman to take out an embarrassing old boyfriend and any alsatians who had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Mind you, it's not really a scandal if you're found not guilty, is it?
Perhaps we should feel proud that our political leaders now appear to be so wholesome, pure and squeaky clean?
Or that we live in an age when being thrown out of one of our leading public schools for drug dealing and being a reformed cokehead appears to be no bar to a man serving in the most powerful office in the land?
Of course, some scandal may yet emerge. A week is, as they say, seven days in politics.