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

There's a grieving family here.

One of his two families. I am not sure how the daughter he fathered and never saw feels.

This isn't some half whispered gossip or innuendo. His actions are a matter of public record.

It's bad taste to vilify someone the day they die unless they are pure evil.

Likewise it is dishonest to issue hagiographies for someone doesn't deserve them.

Hihohoho1

You make some fair points about us all being flawed, and that we can't know the truth as we weren't there; all valid. I'm therefore a little surprised you go on to make an allegation about Sara Keays selljng stories to newspapers which can surely have scarcely any more solid basis.

so a bit of respect for his children wouldn't come amiss.

I agree, shame he never managed it.

homeless and destitute
It was the 1980s not the 50s!!

It was same time that Tory John Redwood was banging on about the scourge of illegitimate children.

Yanbu OP.
It is sickening what he did to that poor girl and the way it affected her everyday life.

I have no respect for anyone who can ignore their child.

Snort at destitute. The secretary's family lived in an enormous Georgian man or house near us. Remember all the press camping there. Still a low way to behave but don't worry about the destitution of the secretary!

He is/was revolting.

John Redwood wasn't an MP at the time Liney but there were plenty of others blaming single mothers for the world's ills.

Giddy was Redwood one of the early 90s nutters? I vividly remember him ranting on about how the maternal grandparents should be financially responsible for 'out of wedlock' babies. Not the actual impregnating fathers, oh no.

It was also just a few years later (1991) that Peter Lilley gave a speech about single mothers......and it wasnt complimentary.

I would not have wished the illness that killed him upon anyone. His behaviour towards his daughter, his mistress and indeed his wife was disgraceful though.

I'd normally be the first to say 'don't speak ill of the dead' but the fawning hagiographies I've heard make me hurl.

fleurdelacourt hit the nail on the head:

Facts:
he never met Flora,
he only paid what he was legally obliged to do, even though he had loads of cash
he used his wealth and power to take out that draconian injunction to prevent Flora from any public exposure

This isn't admirable in any way.

It doesn't actually matter what Sarah Keays did wrong or right - he treated his child very badly.

It's in bad taste because we are not allowed to speak ill of the dead.

Even if they were bastards.

YANBU

The atmosphere at the time was a backdrop of Thatcher's "return to Victorian values" - actually, with her characteristic oversimplification, she maybe missed the fact that Parkinson would've been fine in Victorian times, as it would've all been hushed up.

Just before anyone has a go at me for being partisan, John Prescott turned out to be no better than some of the Tories he was criticising. He was always having a go at senior Tories for being caught with their fingers in the till, or their pants down - and he rightly pointed out this was at odds with their puritanical outpourings - but omitted to mention he was having a go on one of his employees too.

He dripped on to the scene in 1987. And was odder than odd. Before AnthemGate :)

I'd never heard about any of this before.The poor girl,it sounds like she's had enough to contend with as it was.

I really can't understand how any court thought that what they allowed was in anyway normal.

Actually, it was John Major in the 1990s who launched the Back to Basics campaign which (ill-advisedly) harked after stronger family values among other things. Thatcher, for all her many, many sins, kept sensibly quiet about sexual mores and morality for the most part.

It was speculated at the time that Thatcher had a bit of a crush on suave, high Tory Cecil P and that was why he was allowed back into the fold with relative haste.

I'd forgotten how horribly he had behaved towards his youngest daughter. He said, although it's no exoneration, that he put aside several hundred thousand pounds - presumably in a trust fund - to provide for her. It probably would have meant more to have a relationship with her though and I don't see why he didn't as everyone knew about the circumstances of her conception anyway . There was literally nothing to hide.

Actually, it was John Major in the 1990s who launched the Back to Basics campaign which (ill-advisedly) harked after stronger family values among other things. Thatcher, for all her many, many sins, kept sensibly quiet about sexual mores and morality for the most part.

"Victorian values were the values when our country became great."
M Thatcher TV interview, 1982.

YANBU, I remember it well, revolting man.

Good memory wason

wasonthelist

Thatcher wasn't the one spouting Victorian values and back to basics. That was john major and fairly hilarious to now know he was shagging Edwina Curry at the time.

Look don't get me wrong I am in no way apologising for him just feel the day he died is not the right day to start saying he's a bastard.

And yes the eulogies are frightful too.

Regards Keys she was rich, educated and utterly lacking in any feelings for his wife or her children. Not mother of the year in my opinion and I know she sold her stories as I remember reading them and remember her advertising the facts in the daily fail. They had a television advert with her on it.

being dead doesn't absolve you of anything. The guy was a cheat and a crap politician.

Edwina Currie was most upset at the time about the treatment of Parkinson. She and John 'back to basics' Major spent years shagging. Family values?

not of the same order, but 'don't speak ill of the dead'...Jimmy Savile? Greville Janner?