Daily View: William Hague rumours
that the story reveals the political world to still be uneasy with homosexuality:
"Gay and lesbian politicians, and those suspected of being in this group, are now quite routinely expected to make a declaration of their sexuality, as straight ones, by and large, do not. It is as if speaking out is becoming a compulsory contribution to the cause, and intrusion into privacy not gossip but therapy.
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"No one rings up ministers to ask if they are secretly attracted to women. No one made John Prescott resign when it was revealed that he was having an affair with a junior member of his staff. No one blinked at the gush about women in Tony Blair's memoirs as they surely would have done had he written about a man. Yet it was still a big story when the prisons minister left his wife the other day and said he was gay."
Conversely [subscription required] that the justification for reporting the story shows that politicians' sex lives are not important to the electorate anymore:
"By the time we discovered in 2002 that John Major had been having an affair with Edwina Currie, people were amused rather than horrified by her tales of intimate baths and three-hour romps. Even Mark Oaten survived as an MP after a rent boy exposed their affair. In this coalition Government, Chris Huhne's decision to leave his wife of 26 years for a former Top of the Pops press officer has had no effect on his prospects as Energy Secretary. Crispin Blunt has carried on as Prisons Minister, although he recently announced that he is quitting his marriage because he is gay, and Boris Johnson hasn't been expected to stand down as Mayor of London over rumours of a child.
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"William Hague has had to issue a statement denying any relationship with his special adviser only because his department is paying the man's salary."
Conservative MP on to politics:
"Let us hope this is now an end to the matter. Mr Hague himself now seems to understand that it was poor judgement to share a hotel room with an assistant. A bigger issue of judgement is far more important. What does Mr Hague intend to do to improve the UK's relationship with the EU? How does he intend to win over Euroceptics to his tenure at the Foreign Office? When will he implement the Coalition's promise to end transfers of power to the EU or to give us a vote on such transfers? How does he fit in EU criminal justice changes to this policy? The mutterings I hear from fellow Conservative MPs relate to this, not to the state of his marriage."
now would be a good time to place a bet on William Hague becoming the next Tory leader, predicting the current story will die down:
"Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence, so unless Guido [blogger Guido Fawkes] is able to show proof that Hague has lied, I think most newspapers will be cowed by the threat of legal consequences (if not their dubious consciences) into letting this story die. This will be marked down as an ill-advised hiring decision, and likely lost in the sympathy for Hague's recent personal tragedy. The prospect of the resignation of the Foreign Secretary, over which some were salivating earlier this week, has passed."
Political blogger of Paul Staines, who blogs as Guido Fawkes, and originally published the allegations:
"So on the flimsiest of evidence a young man loses his job and the Foreign Secretary and his wife are forced to issue the most personal of statements, detailing miscarriages and a declaration on the state of their marriage.
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"What have we come to?...
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"I am afraid that all of us who blog have been sullied by this experience, even though only one blog was making the insinuations. I said on Radio 4's PM that there was part of me tonight that is ashamed to call myself a political blogger this evening, and I meant it. That may sound a bit holier than thou, but it is how I feel."
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