What do yo think of Williamn Hague's statement re his marriage, miscarriages etc

[squeaver]

here

Yes I'm another one
I was initially swayed by empathy
It is all quite fascinating
But...they must assume there are enough savvy people out there to expose any spin effort. SO are we being double bluffed?

yy utterly fascinating

feel sorry for Ffion

(anybody remember her in one of those tele progs saying that folk kept calling her Effion?)

People are saying he showed "poor judgement" in sharing a hotel room with a colleague. FFS. On the road campaigning, with a few staff, people double-up in twin rooms. Now suddenly anyone who shares a room with anyone else, regardless if they have a professional relationship, can be said to have been using poor judgement.

How carefully do people in the public eye have to be these days?

It would be a laff if it turned out to be true because that's classic Tory stuff. But I don't believe it for a minute.

God, I shared one end of a caravan with my best friend in single beds last week, does that make me gay. No.

How terrible sad for Hague, his wife and the campaign manager.

Hague has shown a lot of 'poor judgement' with his various gay male assistants over the years....

"How terrible sad for Hague, his wife and the campaign manager."

And that just shows that Hague's tactics of throwing his wife out to the wolves of the media as a distraction is working.

Anyone that feels any pity for Hague is actually supporting what he's done to his wife.

Hague could have answered the questions.

He could have explained why he needs four special advisers, double the number of his Labour predecessors and double his own parties guidelines.

He could have explained why his staff of three skilled and experienced advisers were cracking under the strain of his workload.

He could have explained why the addition of an under skilled and under qualified fourth adviser would suddenly make the workload bearable.

He could have explained why he felt that our taxes should pay for the under skilled and under qualified extra adviser.

He could have explained if he had any extra reasons to add a particular under skilled resource to his workforce at our expense be those reasons sexual, personal or favours to friends.

But that's not what he did.

He chose to put his wife through all of this instead.

And you feel sorry for him?

Sooooo.... those of you who are convinced that he is lying about his relationship with the attractive young obviously gay special adviser, what do you think is going on with his marriage to Ffion, ie is it merely a facade or not?
Because I can imagine that he might be bi, but the chemistry between him and Ffion seems so genuine I cannot believe it is a sham.

Good posts Badgers Paw.

She's his beard innit.

He was the leader of the tory part at one stage - a potential prime minister - at a time when it still would have been considered inappropriate to have a gay leader.

Look at the number of politicians that were married for a long time, had families and then came out as being gay.

so you think entirely fake then BTino?

I can believe that being a male politician means spending far too long in all-male groups in which misogyny is tolerated so that if you are bisexual to start with you end up feeling more comfortable with your gay side than your straight side IYSWIM.

Prhps not entirely on her part. But she was just a lowly civil servant and he a high ranking politician destined for leadership when they married. She was soon appointed as his private secretary and her career has blossomed too.

Putting emotions to one side, the marriage has been great for them both. No-one knows how they truly feel, we can only speculate and my speculation is that he is gay and this is possibly known, or suspected, by his wife.

"Look at the number of politicians that were married for a long time, had families and then came out as being gay."

Have there really been that many?

Crispin Blunt, Jeremy Thorpe, Greg Barker, Ron Davies, Mark Oaten.

Sure there must be others

feel sorry for ffion - why do women do this or did she not know??

The thing is of course, we hear about it when it is a politician.

It maybe happens as much among non politicians.

Ffion was not lowly. She was an Oxbridge graduate with a promising future in her own right, not some kind of pen pusher in a back office.

And it was New Labour who started the business of having gazillion unelected special advisers, or do people just have short memories?

This is a story about nothing.

Having had to share an hotel room with my boss on a course, and then with another teacher and 2 TAs on Activities week, I don't see this as a story at all. Don't forget Hague is from Yorkshire and they are careful with money.

Can someone explain why an intelligent woman would agree to be someone's 'beard' - I have heard the same about Sarah Brown? Even Campbell and Balls have said they believe Hague's statement, and I would have thought that those two would have been first in the queue to stick the knife in and twist it if there was any political capital to be made out of this for Labour.

As abr1de says, the last lot had loads of special advisers, so by comparison the Tory count is small.

Hague is shaping up to be an excellent Foreign Secretary and I wish everyone would leave him alone to get on with it.

"Can someone explain why an intelligent woman would agree to be someone's 'beard' - I have heard the same about Sarah Brown? Even Campbell and Balls have said they believe Hague's statement, and I would have thought that those two would have been first in the queue to stick the knife in and twist it if there was any political capital to be made out of this for Labour."

I am not saying this is the case for Hague, but for the sake of power many things are done. In olden days power dictated that kings and queens would have arranged marriages to benefit both families, similar to arranged marriages in the East today. It is always possible that party workers are introduced to each other so that power can be achieved for the anointed one. There are marriages where both parties lead completely different social lives, but where the marriage is maintained for the benefit of the outside world.

The politicians and media keep Westminster secrets secret, because otherwise all of their dirty linen would be revealed by the other side. It is noteworthy that the Hague rumours come from the right and not from the left at all. All of the MPs knew about each others' expenses but none of them spilt the beans. We were told it was common knowledge in Westminster about Mr. Integrity, but nobody released the information before the election when it could have done most harm and helped Labour to possibly win. Politics is theatre, it is a charade. When the curtain falls, they all drink together. Milburn has been invited to help the Tories out. They talk a good game on Newsnight, but that's all it is. Do you think that none of the Labour MPs knew about Ted Heath at the time?

I dont know if he really is gay but i wasnt surprised to hear about this.

I was a party held by my exDH's brother who is gay and knows alot of people in the media and politics and Amanda Platell was invited by him - she was his press secretary at the time and i spent ages talking to her. After she left my ex BIL told me that there were a few people that he knew who had said they had had 'encounters' with him and that he thought he was gay.

Not sure if its true but have no reason to disbelieve him as he had no reason to lie but like i said i wasnt surprised to hear about this, hearsay and chinese whispers sometimes have a degree of truth to them.

I dont think he was married back then to Ffion although i cant remember properly - im sure his marriage isnt a sham, people change and i feel very sorry for them both that they are going through this but i cant help but think considering what i heard 10 years ago that there is perhaps something more to this, cant say for sure as its only rumours but i feel sorry for them both - it cant be nice to have your marriage dissected like that in the press.

Claig - that was then with the political arranged marriages. I am a bit older than Mrs H and I wouldn't agree to marry someone for the sake of their career; I can't see any woman of my generation or younger agreeing to be a 'beard', especially if they have brains and the ability to forge themselves a career and don't need the bloke per se.

I thought it wasn't substantiated about Ted Heath; I know some men who have never married, but who aren't gay; they prefer to be single...why is the automatic assumption that they are gay?

so he's not away, this Tory Hague, is he no? then i care nowt about any of it.

if it made him go away then maybe it'd be for the better.

but these folk are like a midgie bite, it never goes away in those who are most badly affected.

Those who are mostly affected are in that situation because the party that purports to champion them spent too much money.