Liam and Jody
I’m getting quite a lot of searches from people who want to know whether Liam Fox MP is gay because of this post.
I’ve got two things to say to you.
Firstly, if sexual orientation is still a big deal in the Tory party, well then frankly they deserve Liam Fox as leader. (Not that they are going to get him, given that he was knocked out an hour ago).
Secondly, here’s what you should be doing something about: the horrific murder of Jody Dobrowski on Clapham Common.
Ask any lesbian or gay person, and they’ll have a story to tell about homophobic abuse. In Oxford, we think we’re safe, but Debbie Baxter and her girlfriend can say otherwise. In fact, 90% of lesbian and gay people in Oxford have suffered abuse at some point in their lives.
I think Jo’s and my story is typical in some ways, involving alcohol and pub-closing time, and stereotypical in others, as it happened outside a big city. We were walking back from the pub in a Welsh market town on a Sunday night, hand-in-hand, about three-and-a-half years ago. It was about ten-thirty, and we just had to go along the high street to get home. There were some young lads messing about in front of us, and we tensed as we passed them, but no trouble. A few older men walked towards us, and on past us. Then one kicked Jo from behind. She spun round and gave them a mouthful, and that was that. Two men kicking my girlfriend on the floor, one hanging back, me trying to pull them off her, shouting, abuse - apparently they wanted to kick her, but all I needed was a good man to set me right. We got away, moved down the street towards the police station - there was loads of noise, but no-one came out, or maybe it wasn’t staffed. The police station was opposite Jo’s house, but we couldn’t go in, as then they’d know where we lived, and it was a small town. Jo was back on her feet, keeping her distance. Eventually the guy hanging back, realising that it had gone too far, got his mates away and they disappeared. Jo was bruised and we were both frightened.
Most lesbian and gay people I know have a story like this. So if you’re here to find out about Liam Fox and the gay “smear”, fuck off and do something useful - like teach your kids that gays are people too.
You’ve got to admit Fox pulled off a political first today - the first MP to publicly smear himself in the press…
Now that takes some doing.
That is, of course, if you think someone being called gay inaccurately is a smear…
If you have an MP who is hypocritical about homosexuality, then I think it is perfectly reasonable to point out that they are themselves gay. Otherwise, it is no more relevant than the colour of their wallpaper.
Jason Donovan won libel damages over inaccurate claims about his sexuality, so it is still considered actionable. I’d be interested to see if Graham Norton could sue if someone claimed that he was straight….
In the context of the Tory Party, which has a long history of both intolerance and hypocrisy on homosexuality, yes such an allegation does count as a smear - in fact, having read the interview in the Evening Standard that was precisely Fox’s point in rather cynically raising the issue himself.
After what happened to Cameron on the drugs non-issue, it almost seems as though Fox was deliberately trying to paint himself a victim of dirty tricks as well in an effort to implicate Davis - the inference being that as he was only candidate not to have had rumours spread about private matters then it must have been him and his supporters spreading the rumours - an interesting tactic if that is what he was up to as off the three left until yesterday, Fox would have been the best placed to play dirty as he was the only one to have been a full-time whip; Cameron was never in the whips office and Davis was only ever an unpaid assistant whip, so neither would have had any significant access to the kind of information and ‘leverage’ that the whip’s office has by traditional repute.
The Cameron & drugs situation shows how dirty tricks backfire. Now whilst Fox, unlike Davis, had something that actually resembled a campaign team, he also knows when not to shoot himself in the foot in such a way on non-policy grounds. His courting of the Cornerstone Group was another matter though, but thankfully he’s now of the contest and the party has the best possible choice available to it - Cameron offering members the chance to vote for forward looking, progressive, sensible One Nation Conservatism; and Davis offering the party the chance to have the decisive watershed it needs by voting against a flagbearer of everything the public hates about it.
From recollection wasn’t the Donovan case legally about calling him a manipulative hypocrite for denying being gay rather than over whether or not he is? (Although I don’t think the distinction was sufficiently noticed and it cost him large amounts of support.)
As for if this could be considered a smear, there is still a legal argument over whether claiming someone is queer would in itseld be grounds for a legal suit. The court is supposed to ask only if the allegation would diminsh the standing of the plaintiff in the eyes of “right-thinking members of society” and not whether or not the public attitudes themselves are unreasonable. It leaves the question of whether the court judges homophobia to be sufficiently widespread as to be part of “right-thinking members of society generally.”
Bugger! Does anyone know how to put paragraph breaks in posts?
Politicalhack:
“If you have an MP who is hypocritical about homosexuality, then I think it is perfectly reasonable to point out that they are themselves gay.”
I agree with this 100%, and having looked at Liam’s voting record, it would seem he would fit this description. However, I don’t think that those who were making comments about his sexuality were doing it from a sense of outrage that he voted to keep Section 28 whilst they believed he was receiving favours from young men…
Seeing as my site is out of action at the moment I’ll see what I can do…
Nope - tried, but can’t figure out. It’s something to do with the margin / padding for the comment list. Will try to dismantle the stylesheet later - hopefully without breaking it completely