This story just gets weirder by the day. And now we're told anonymous Tory donors paid for Werritty to be Fox's 'adviser'. Who are these people, and what is their agenda?
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Most here have been silent on this matter. I see that when Fox was burgled, his car was stolen and inside that car was a laptop. Opportunist criminals don't generally know which vehicle is owned by the person whose home they have entered unlawfully.
The journalists are saying that Cameron is reluctant to dismiss Fox because he represents the traditional wing of the Conservative Party. Absolute rot. What has already been revealed is enough to have lost him the support of that wing. No. Fox has something on Cameron and it is big.
It was a hard act to follow but this Government has achieved it. What with Murdoch and all, it is now even sleazier than the Governments of Major, Blair and Brown and equally inefficient. -
You may be onto something there, lat. I've heard that Fox is particularly disliked by Cameron and that Quentin Letts of the Mail has been given anti-Fox briefings designed to undermine the Defence Secretary. He may well have something on Cameron - that would explain why he wasnt' made to walk immediately.
I can also believe that Fox has made decade long attempts to beard himself - why all those carefully planted 'stories' about his celebrity 'girlfriends'?Comment
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The plot further thickens over Fox's sanctioning of mistreating Iraqi detainees in contravention of UN Charter of Human Rights, dwarfing the current issue imv:
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What amazes me is that this big tall guy has been walking behind wee Foxy just about everywhere he goes without anyone, including our ever-nosey media, apparently noticing, at least until recently? Very, very strange ...
However, all of this is deflecting us from the real entertainment at present. Cameron 'apologises to women' and keeps banging on about how unfairly treated they are, not least by himself (does one suspect that Samantha might be something more than just an undeniably pretty face?) and also that he 'passionately supports gay marriage because (wait for it) he is a Conservative'
Who needs comedians when we have our elected politicians constantly making us laugh?
More, more ... !
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There are a lot of strands. On a more trivial point, I used to think that Brown on occasions could look like Richard Nixon but Fox does even more so if that is possible. It is in those steely eyes and that grin. There is also the interesting aspect that he is one of the very few Tory bigwigs who was raised in a council house. Stand by for even more Etonians. Oh, the irony of it all.
Can I just ask something here with due respect to all contributors? I realise this is sensitive stuff. We have had Laws, Hague and now Fox. There are some similarities and some differences. In each case, there have been suggestions of hidden gay relationships. Laws isn't married. He wasn't in a security related policy area. The person concerned was not an adviser. However, there were financial irregularities. Hague is married. He is in a security related policy area. The person concerned was an adviser. There were no financial irregularities in respect of his adviser. Fox is married. He is in a security related policy area. The person concerned is an adviser. There are suggestions of financial irregularities. Political controversy and intrigue used to be more simple.
Sure, much of this stuff could almost be as complicated if there were suggestions of a heterosexual affair. There are many historical examples. Somehow, though, and it is probably the media interest and influence more than anything else, these situations seem even more complex when they are about one male and another male. You don't get this kind of thing with Stephen Twigg or for that matter with Angela Eagle. I just wonder. While either of those would no doubt sit fairly easily in a Foreign Office or a Defence role, is it really sensible to place people like Hague or Fox in such roles when they have been the subjects of whispering campaigns for years? Why not give them health, education, environment, etc? It is not as if those are insignificant areas.
It seems naive to me not to do so and I don't understand it. For example, I don't think that most of the establishment is that naive. Are they therefore placed specifically in these positions to enable them to fall? If so, why? Are they seen as being too strongly in competition? Too much of a challenge? After all, both Hague and Fox could easily have become the Prime Minister. Or could it be that it takes the kind of mind that operates chinese walls of whatever kind to run foreign policy or the miltary. Perhaps active politics generally is an area which requires traits that are the very opposite of transparency and directness.
Incidentally, Fox's wife has an absolute hatred of cigarettes. She is closely associated with the British Lung Foundation. I note that the so-called charity Werritty allegedly ran from Fox's office had Philip Morris firmly on board. Whatever the truths in the Fox marriage, that is not likely to be at all warmly welcomed. It could even be the biggest issue for her and yet he seems strangely unperturbed by it all. One has to marvel at the arrogance and ask if that is a truly sane position in the circumstances.Last edited by Guest; 13-10-11, 00:29.Comment
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Agreed, but that is not the issue here.Originally posted by BetweenTheStavesComment
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What "special skills" does this man have in order for him to be paid to fly round the world as an "advisor" ????
most of us DO something or KNOW about things but it seems that he simply "advises" and gets paid a small fortune for his services.
So in the spirit of the bog society I would like to offer myself as a replacement (after all if anyone can set up a school then it can't be too taxing !!)
I am very fond of exotic food and could advise the defence secretary on matters of esoteric sound art, I also think that he would benefit from someone with the experience of working with the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra , after all there could be great capital to be made at all those tedious banquets.
Though it has NO relevance whatsoever to any ability I may or may not have I would like to assure the members (in both senses !) of the press that I don't "bat for Darrington".....Comment
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I don't quite go along with the arguments put forward about sexual preference. It is not the case that openness is a prerequisite for holding high office. However, we are being asked by both Fox and Hague to accept that they are heterosexual. Both are married. Meanwhile, their behaviour doesn't appear to everyone to be wholly in line with that pattern.
If it were the case that heterosexual men with considerable political and economic power were having sex with men, I am not sure that I would see them either as gay but in the closet or bisexual. Rather I would be asking whether the sexual relationships involved were indicative of a particularly arrogant kind of individual whose greatest tendency isn't sexual as such at all but more an abuse of privilege across the board.
Such questions would not be appropriate to ask of those with considerably less professional power in similarly complicated private arrangements. For example, it seems to me to be a wholly different matter if a genuinely gay person both gets married and has ongoing relations with men for reasons entirely separate from huge professional ambition.Last edited by Guest; 13-10-11, 23:07.Comment
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That's a new one. Could you explain the derivation of this phrase?Originally posted by MrGongGong View Post
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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My brother lives in Pimlico and the Fox's pad is across the road for him. Apparently the road has turned into a small media village with press and reporters there virtually around the clock.
Now, where have the civil service been in all of this. They are well used to handling 'independent' advisors that come in on the coat tails of new ministers I would have thought; and yet this so called consultant has had an unparalleled degree of access.
If he's Fox's bag man then that is one thing, but if he has been presenting himself as something other than that is another, and the suggestion by Fox's 'friends' that things have happened behind his back is absurd.
As regards the gay angle (and I strongly believe that to be the relationship between them), I don't honestly see that that has a relevance. Politics and public life attract people of a particular dynanism. If you like, people that work hard and play hard. You only have to look at the long line of previous ministers whose mistresses were there secretaries. Michael Parkinson, Paddy Pantsdown and so many more.
That there have been three stories in a row alluding to same-sex paramours is indicative only of our more open world. The press in years gone would simply not have gone public. As an editor or proprietor would have said, 'for the sake of his wife, his family, y'know, let's pass on this one chaps - now what else have we?'.Comment
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I haven't posted about this to date because each day it gets wilder and wilder and a chap does like to know where a chap is.
Most angles have been covered except the question of Werrity's advising Fox on health-related matters when Fox was shadowing the Health Dept years back. Mr Werrity seems to have a range of expertise, all of it conveniently fitting in with Dr Fox's political responsibilities.
The real stinker for me is the 'charity', Atlantic Bridge. The Charity Commission obviously asked some pretty good questions because the Trustees chose to close it down rather than continue & having to answer. I'd like to know why the Commission got involved (who alerted them;and to what?) and why the matter was not pursued even though the Trust was wound up. Malpractice is malpractice. It looks to me as though Atlantic Bridge may have been used as a conduit (this is ALL speculation) for funds to pay for Werrity, ostensibly furthering Atlantic Bridge's aims but actually funding his 'advisory work' for Fox. I see that Hague and Gove were amongst those involved in setting it up.
Curiouser and curiouser ...Comment
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I believe those who wish to attain high office must be prepared to have their private lives open to scrutiny ... that goes with the territory and the public are surely entitled to know a bit about the character of their representatives.
'Sexual preference' is not the issue for me, it is public pretence and private reality. As others have pointed out there are now plenty of politicians who are openly 'gay' and their honesty must be commended.
Whatever the truth, be it financial or otherwise, Fox has brought all this on himself ... for a man supposed to be in charge of the defence of the realm his apparent naivety is little short of frightening.Comment
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Some nifty points there, shb but I'd just correct your assertion about Michael Parkinson - that was wor Cecil, tha knowsOriginally posted by Stillhomewardbound View Post
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You mean all the time he was sitting in that chair chatting to celebs, he was actually running the country and having it orf behind that nice Mary's back???Originally posted by Stillhomewardbound View Post
Ahem....
Cecil, perhaps, shb?
EDIT: I knew you'd jump on it too Ammy !"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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