Hague Statement. Overkill?

This blog has refrained from discussing the incident with William Hague. Indeed, the fact that this blogger was a contemporary of Chris Myers at Durham University, has perhaps meant it sensible that it has not made any remarks.

The sexuality or otherwise of politicians, married or not, in the case of Crispin Blunt, are for themselves to deal with.

It is sad though that some politicians still feel unable to accept themselves. There is always a nagging thought around those that do 'come out' late that if you could have concealed a truth for so long, what does that say about you, and about the transparency of your character. The best policy is to be open about who you are, and just get on with it as if it wasn't an issue. Obviously, it is not always as easy as that, but the general sentiment remains.

However, there is no denying that multi-millionaire William Hague showed poor judgment in even “occasionally” sharing a hotel room with his 25-year-old special adviser Chris Myers. This was an employee, who was subsequently offered a job working in Hague's office in Whitehall. William is not a poor man and probably could afford a few single rooms if he so chose.

Yet in this bloggers view Hague showed even poorer judgment, in what must be categorised as the oddest press statement in modern political history. Clearly Coulson had not been involved as the press statement was made very briefly after a lunch meeting, with that ever so competent, George Osborne. It was so extraordinary because the rumours on his sexuality were not mainstream and were never going to be thus. A statement denying he was gay and revealing very personal details of his wife's miscarriages was a perhaps step too far, almost you could say, overkill.

The press have gone on overdrive and now most of the general public are at least aware that there is smoke in the general vicinity of the foreign office. The fire is yet to be found but the chasers are now out there.

The statement was unbearably sad but it proved nothing. This blogger has very little desire to find out about the sexual activities of the Foreign Secretary or indeed what he may or may not have been getting up to behind Hague's privately paid for hotel door on more then one occasion. Nor incidentally did it want to know what goes on between his marital sheets, but it was unbelievably naive of him not to foresee that it would provoke groundless speculation about his private life.

And if nothing untoward happened, why did Myers feel so suddenly that he had to leave his job?

The politics of 'room sharing' has always been a fraught business. Tories are shameless when it comes to sexual infidelity, Tory MP David Ashby resigned in 1994 as a parliamentary private secretary after it was revealed that he had holidayed with a close male friend in France — sharing the same room and the same bed. Ashby claimed there were no homosexual connotations: he was seeking to save money, had often shared rooms with parliamentary colleagues and accused his detractors of having “dirty minds”.

“We went to two hotels. In the first one we managed to find twin beds and at the second one we didn't. It doesn't make any bloody difference. It was much cheaper, it halved the price.”

Ashby subsequently sued a newspaper for saying he was gay but, unfortunately for him, his own estranged wife gave evidence against him and he lost the case.

Austerity may be an admirable motive for room sharing but you can end up paying much too high a price if it results in you besmirching your reputation and/or losing your job. In the end, it is just not worth it.

Appreciate that on the campaign trail it is sometimes, for the sake of no available rooms, be forced to share a room. By why always Chris Myers and why was it always paid for on a private tab. Why did the other associates of Hague always stay elsewhere. Did he share a room with anyone else. If he did, who? If he did not, why only Myers? The endless questions around this continue to swirl.

His denial that he has not had any gay relationships with a man must be taken on face value. However dalliances in a bedroom is not a relationship and just because you have a wife means, well as Crispin Blunt will tell you, not as much as you would think.

The smoke has only got thicker after the press statement. He has made it mainstream for the tabloids.

As an aside; in the interests of austerity and promoting cross-party harmony, perhaps Lib-Dem and Conservative MPs should be encouraged to share rooms during the forthcoming conference season.

On second thoughts. I don't think they would make good bed fellows. One would be restless and marginalised whilst the more dominant partner would steal all the pillows.