Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

hughes personal life

62 replies

stitch · 26/01/2006 09:19

who cares if he had gay relationships? if they were consensual, does it matter?
really annoying how media time is being used up like this.

OP posts:
motherinferior · 26/01/2006 10:37

I would like to say to all LibDems out there that you have really cheered up my January.

Marina · 26/01/2006 10:38

oh har har MI. Your turn will come I am sure.
Something more about Prezza and his poll tax bill maybe?

motherinferior · 26/01/2006 10:38

I think campaigning on a gay-bashing ticket is loathesome in anyone.

motherinferior · 26/01/2006 10:39

I have gone off Prezza; he really is very flirtatious in real life.

Marina · 26/01/2006 10:39

Yes, agreed totally on that. But policies still a refreshing alternative on many fronts...

kittyfish · 26/01/2006 10:47

Unfortunately all of our politicians of whichever colour are pretty loathsome. They all lie and cheat and spin. Hate the lot of them.

Caligula · 26/01/2006 10:50

I've just had a great idea - why don't we throw Gordon, Hughes, Tatchell, Galloway, Minger, David Steel, Paddy Pantsdown and Oona King in the Big Brother house and then never evict them?

LadySherlockofLGJ · 26/01/2006 10:52

The sad thing about all of this, is the lies and the misinformation re Peter Thatchell.

It also leaves Menzies Campbell looking like the default candidate, and if (and lets face it he probably will)he is elected, then his role will lack a certain amount of gravitas as he will always be seen as the best of a bad bunch.

Makes a leader with a drink problem seem less of an issue all of a sudden.

kittyfish · 26/01/2006 10:52

Fantastic idea - not called Caligula for nothing I see.

Caligula · 26/01/2006 10:58

Lady S - that's exactly what I was thinking the ohter day. To have dumped CK because of an illness he was battling, suddenly looks like a really divvy thing to have done.

Marina · 26/01/2006 11:21

I've always quite liked Ming
but agree that all politicians are pretty much as bad as each other on the hypocrisy and deviousness fronts...
Miss people like Mo Mowlam and Clare Short a lot in politics these days

Aloha · 26/01/2006 11:25

Caligula, I think the problem was that there was a hell of a lot of drinking and very little 'battling' going on. He was falling over at public parties during the period when he was supposed to have given up drink. Even hacks are now admitting they covered up for him over and over again when he was absolutely incapable through drink.
Still, it's the alternative Celebrity Big Brother now, isn't it?

Aloha · 26/01/2006 11:29

I think one of the tabloids has got hold of something on Hughes - like his habit of calling gay chatlines - someone has snitched on him. There is no way he would have said this otherwise.

KenningtonKitty · 26/01/2006 12:14

Guess all the back-stabbing MP's who went after Charles Kennedy are regretting it now that they have other issues come to the surface and their party is looking truly "alternative".

Also, there was an item on Popbitch a few weeks ago concerning a gay lib-dem Candidate which I suspect may have had something to do with it all coming out now - so ahead of their time !

tortoiseshell · 26/01/2006 12:17

I don't give a toss if he is gay. I do give a toss if he lies about it. Hadn't heard about the Peter Tatchell thing, that sounds just horrible.

PeachyClair · 26/01/2006 12:24

'I would like to say to all LibDems out there that you have really cheered up my January. '

Glad I've helped MI

Yep- I'm one of them a fully paid up (albeit student rate of £3) member.

Do I care if someone is gay? No, not at all. If he'd lied about something else I would be angry but I think you have a choice of when to reveal your own sexuality, some people take a long term to come to terms with it and that is personal.

Not sure who I'm voting for, although sure who I am not IYSWIM. But I don't think sexuality is an issue at all. Different with Mark Oaten, he was married with kids and prepared to put their happiness at risk.

I reckon someone somewhere must be scared of the Lib Dems if they warrant this much attention. not surprising though, when the alternatives are tory-masquerading-as-labour and labour-masquerading-as-tory. Great to know there's an alternative.

Caligula · 26/01/2006 13:12

But I really don't understand how Simon Hughes managed to keep this "secret". I don't have any connection with politics, journalism, etc., but I thought he was an out gay, I really did.

It's interesting how the media will keep secrets about people for years, until they decide that the time has come to out them. The CK thing for example. I forgot to put CK in the BB house, he should be there as well of course.

ruty · 26/01/2006 13:20

just because someone doesn't appear to have lied about something before they get hold of power is no guarantee they won't start lying afterwards look at Tony Blair!

Aloha · 26/01/2006 13:22

There are certainly living up to their name atm.
Someone's going to find Ming's secret stash of satsumas soon.

Marina · 26/01/2006 13:31

I think they may choose when to swoop, Caligula, which could be interpreted as colluding with criminal activity if they KNOW someone is involved with, e.g. underage rent boys.
I worked some years ago in health advocacy and it brought my pressure group into contact with a number of MPs. One was a low-key gay man, not in the closet but a new backbencher and therefore of little interest. It was no secret that his boyfriend was in his early 20s, only just over the age of consent for gay men at the time.
The media, knowing all this, only outed this MP as gay about a year later when he signed an EDM in support of a new pressure group specifically highlighting CHILDREN and this health issue. The coverage was heavily angled to suggest he was a paedophile, because of the media issue, because his boyfriend was 22 or so, and because he had campaigned against the closure of a youth club in his constituency.
I have no axe to grind here really - he wasn't a friend or anything, not my political beliefs at all - but he was a good MP with a commitment to youth and health issues and he left Parliament at the next election.
Another, very senior MP, much better known, was also super-keen to sign the EDM and get involved, and, I heard from a very reliable Parliamentary source at the time, DID pay boys for sex on regular basis. As far as I know he has never been outed.
My source, not British, was really, really shocked at how differently the two men were treated by the UK press.

Aloha · 26/01/2006 13:33

They definitely keep stories on hold for years.

puddle · 26/01/2006 13:46

Wasn't the timing of the NoW story on Mark Oaten because Murdoch was in town and the editor wanted to impress him?

puddle · 26/01/2006 13:46

Wasn't the timing of the NoW story on Mark Oaten because Murdoch was in town and the editor wanted to impress him?

alicatsg · 26/01/2006 13:52

re the CK and alcohol thing - has it struck anyone else as bizarre that we're totally accepting about George Bush as Pres of US/Warrior in Chief (and boy what a great example of how drink kills of brain cells) but not CK as leader of a minority party with minimal influence in the UK?

(I live in fear that Limpet Opie (spelling?) will stand as leader...)

Aloha · 26/01/2006 13:54

Well, some of us aren't that accepting of Bush in any way! However, the difference was that Bush HAD given up drinking and done the 12 steps etc etc, while CK was still necking it by the gallon. However, it is apparently common knowledge in US media and political circles that Dubya is back on the booze in a big way.

Swipe left for the next trending thread