RIP Jeremy Thorpe

[Mary Chambers]

I saw him and Marion at Aldeburgh in, I think, 1980. Marion was a great friend of Britten and Pears. At one point the Stein family shared a house with them in London.

I didn't speak to them! I always rather admired Thorpe - and Marion, too, for that matter. He seems to have had wretched health in his later years.

[vinteuil]

I always like to chat to folks at concerts anyway. adds to the fun.

... it doesn't "add to the fun" of a person who might not want to be "chatted to"

[teamsaint]

... it doesn't "add to the fun" of a person who might not want to be "chatted to"

I kinda use my judgement.

It seems to work. people usually seem to want to chat, and if their demeanour or the course of the conversation suggests that its a bad idea, I would stop, or not start. Obviously.

easy, really.

[mercia]

no quotes from Charles Kennedy, or is he unavailable these days ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30333900

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Until yesterday's obituaries, I hadn't realized how important a political figure Thorpe had been: when I was growing up, he was first "the one that Mike Yarwood couldn't do" (before Thatcher!) and then "the one in the Trial". That he increased the popularity of his party sevenfold completely bypassed me until yesterday.

[Bryn]

Any mention of Jeremy Thorpe, even his passing, always puts me in mind of:

No wonder he sought not to interact much with those he encountered by chance at public events.

[Beef Oven!]

Until yesterday's obituaries, I hadn't realized how important a political figure Thorpe had been: when I was growing up, he was first "the one that Mike Yarwood couldn't do" (before Thatcher!) and then "the one in the Trial". That he increased the popularity of his party sevenfold completely bypassed me until yesterday.

Even though I was quite young, I really enjoyed listening to him speak and thought he was the best of all the politicians by a mile. I remember really rooting for him and the Liberals as the grew and grew in that period - British love for the underdog?

[Beef Oven!]

Any mention of Jeremy Thorpe, even his passing, always puts me in mind of:

No wonder he sought not to interact much with those he encountered by chance at public events.

I wondered when this would come up - for me, one of the funniest (and cleverest?) sketches, ever.

Everyone's got a skeleton in the cupboard, let's not judge the great man on that!

[muzzer]

Cooky's finest moment MHO. And there are plenty to choose from....

[Beef Oven!]

Cooky's finest moment MHO. And there are plenty to choose from....

Seconded!

[Bryn]

... And there are plenty to choose from....

Why Bother with Radio 3, indeed.

[salymap]

Thorpe's solicitor often passed our office and mr T arrived later Don't remember much more about JT but RIP

[amateur51]

Cooky's finest moment MHO. And there are plenty to choose from....

[gradus]

In 1966 my future wife and I were eating in the Golden Lion Ipswich whilst at the next table Mr Thorpe was lunching with half a dozen local dignitaries and entertaining them with a virtuoso display of jokes and anecdotes that had them in stitches, evidently a very clubbable man and not difficult to see how his charm had got him to the top of the Liberal party in those days.

[amateur51]

Possibly one of the last throws of class deference in UK, the Thorpe trial was a classic attempt to keep the lid on. If only Thorpe had said "yes, so what?!" when asked about his sexuality it would have hastened an improvement in life for so many people through the push for law reform and social attitude change which the Liberal Party under Thorpe had backed.

I'll never forget Marion Thorpe's blazing eyes when, at a Press Conference, she demanded to know "who said that?!" when BBC (was it?) 's Ian Ross asked JT if he'd had a 'homosexual relationship'.

Thorpe was defended by the astonishing George Carman QC, a somewhat theatrical but quite forensic barrister. His successful defence of Thorpe made his career.

In many ways Thorpe was a 'victim' of his circumstances and for that I feel sorry for him. The attempt by several Liberal MPs and several of Thorpe's friends to cover up his affair with Scott was completely and almost charmingly incompetent and only made matters worse for him. The attempted murder of Scott could have been written by Tom Sharpe in his pomp.

I too used to see him at Aldeburgh where he didn't appear to hide away; rather he walked about in the interval but looked a broken man, with the characteristic Parkinsonian deadpan mask. I caught his eye several times and said 'hello' once but got no response, understandably.

His raffish (for the time) dress style and habit of vaulting over fences in front of the camera at election time marked him out as quite different to Heath & Wilson. Listening to extracts of him speaking on the radio yesterday I was struck by how 'posh' his accent sounds now. However his record as a constituency MP for North Devon was a noble one and he is still remembered in those parts for backing the building of the North Devon by-pass.

O tempora, o mores.