To be sickened to hear all the tributes being paid to Cecil Parkinson

[wasonthelist]

The "father" who refused to have anything at all to do withhis daughter -

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/12120477/The-only-promise-Cecil-Parkinson-ever-kept-never-to-see-his-daughter.html

Didnt he try to get out of paying basic Child Support as well. Cant remember whether he was successful with that or not.

I thought he was an utter bastard before he died. I still think he is an utter bastard now he has died. His death doesn't miraculously sanitise his vile behaviour.

He put himself before his child and gagged the child and her mum so much it affected the child's health and school life.

Yanbu.

I hope that at some point his other children reach out to her.

I don't know why I typed 'every trifle' sorry - it would have been every THING she needed. Poor Flora, (and her Mum) with him as a Father

I agree. His behaviour was shocking and his treatment of Sarah Keays and Flora was disgusting.

These sycophantic tributes are revolting.

wannaBe if he had been that concerned he could have used a condom. They were available in the 70s and 80s you know.

And what proves you are talking bollocks is the attitudes towards single parents that are still prevelent today.

YANBU - the way he behaved seems indefensible

I don't get why his wife stuck around, who am I kidding of course we know why she did.
Did his other children know they had a sibling? I do feel sorry for them because there was nothing they could have done during any of the time that the order was in place.
I don't sympathise with his wife, unless this came as a complete shock to her as who would stick with a man who could do such a thing.

No, she was the ow. If she had posted on relationships that she had been having an affair with a married man for twelve years and was now pregnant so was considering going to the media in order to force his hand she would have got no sympathy on here and rightly so.

It seems pretty obvious that her going to the press was out of revenge because he didn't leave his wife and wanted nothing to do with their child. I don't agree with what he did fwiw, and have no idea what tributes are pouring in after his death, and don't believe for a second that dying suddenly turns one into a saint. But to paint the girlfriend as some kind of victim of all this is just as disingenuous. She knowingly had an affair with a married man who was also a public figure. for twelve years. She had no consideration for his wife and children while she was A, sleeping with him, and B, exposing their affair in the national media. He's a despicable bastard, but she is no better than he was.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-94556/Parkinson-hits-lies-Flora.html

According to him, it was all her mothers fault and she "tried to wreck his marriage". I would say that shagging your secretary for 12 years would do that on its own!

Horrible horrible man

YANBY the way he treated his own daughter was atrocious. It speaks voluminous about the sort of person he was and should be front and centre in any accounts of his life.

O for one won't be shedding any tears at his demise.

Yanbu - pathetic excuse for man

wannaBe how can you say she was no better than him. She didnt walk away from her child.

You have just proved that you are more willing to make excuses for mens behaviour yet have higher expectations of women.

Didn't he sack her when she told him she was pregnant? I thought that was the point she went public.

I don't think she was as bad as him tbh.
His wife obviously knew he had a mistress and was obviously fine about it, some people are.
It's only an affair if the other person doesn't know about it.
Only my opinion but the only person to blame is the man who turned his back on his second family including his partner of how ever many years.

The man was vile in his behaviour and the tributes are sickening. YANBU op.

NewLife4Me
The whole incident was major news at the time so it is quite probable that his children knew.

Chaz

I was trying to work out how old they would have been and if they were sheltered from it.
I can remember the news vaguely, it seemed to be a time when we were just beginning to hear about the private lives of our MP's.

Sara Keays won libel actions against three newspapers, and Lord Tebbit according to an article in The Independent - I won' t post the link as it had an annoying and hard to close pop-up ad on it,but she was certainly the victim of a smear campaign at the time to try and paint her as a promiscuous kiss-and-tell bimbo.

His 3 older daughters would have been (just) adults when the younger daughter was born.

I remember it very well and it was huge at the time.

They were having an affair and neither acted well to he honest.

However I stand by my op that this is in very bad taste as no one here really knows the details of anyone else's private lives and the man has just died ffs. I imagine his children are grieving so at least show them some respect here.

Ergh. I actually do have some sympathy for him in that I think the same scandal now would not completely end his career in the same way. I don't much like the sound of any of the adults involved tbh but I bet 95% a high proportion of his colleagues were also porking without portfolio and didn't get caught. I think he could have done an OK job wrecking the country like the rest of them without being a perfect human being.

Then I read apparently that his colleagues thought he was some kind of lost genius - “cut is the branch that might have burned full straight, And burnèd is Apollo’s laurel bough” - and I just want to puke.

More relevant is Jackie Onassis' quote - 'if you bungle raising your children it doesn't much matter what else you do'. I wonder if he thought of them all when he was dying.

YANBU - he behaved like a cunt of the highest order and I am utterly appalled at the truly draconian order he was able to obtain in order to protect his own interests. It was so extreme that Flora wasn't even allowed to be in her own class school photos or productions.

And if that lot didn't revolt me enough, his suggesting she be placed in an institution when her disabilities meant he needed to raise the child support he paid - which he only did so kicking and screaming - would do it all by itself.

And I agree with the pp that death in no way sanitises his barbaric choices whilst alive.

You can't control who you get as a parent of course. I don't mean to disrespect his kids at all, but I doubt they are reading this tbh. If, as he claimed in the Fail, Sara Keays was preventing him from seeing their child, he certainly had the power and wealth to have dealt with it. Whilst I accept I wasn't there, I find it very hard to believe that he really wanted anything to do with her.