Well, I am surprised. I thought for a while that Matt Hancock, seen above with a new hairstyle and Gina Coladangelo, would try to stay in office. After all, Boris had forgiven him (no surprise there) and besides, what else could he do? Perhaps we should all be glad that he was forced to resign by media pressure, "concerned" Tory MPs and the justified condemnation of his proclivities by a cross-section of the public. It is a rebuttal of the Boris doctrine that you can brass it out, whatever your misdemeanour.
The hypocrisy of this man is indeed breathtaking, but we know this already. As The Sun, who published the photo and the video of Matt and Gina kissing, says:
"On 6 May, when the incident took place, Covid restrictions remained in place across the UK.In England, indoor gatherings for work purposes were permitted but only if "reasonably necessary".
As has been noted, this points out the truth of the adage that there is one rule for Tory politicians and another for the rest of us. Even Piers Morgan has vilified Hancock for his hypocrisy. But this adage applies in other situations, not just pandemic strictures on association. Had these two been teachers, they would have faced disciplinary action for inappropriate behaviour - whether in the privacy of an empty classroom or not. In a church school, the fact that they were both married, and thus engaged in an adulterous relationship, would have led to parental and church pressure for their immediate resignations. In fact, one head of a school in Preston, who had a number of adulterous affairs, one David Ratcliff, was forced out back in 2001. The Guardian commented at the time:
"David Ratcliff, resigned from Broughton-in-Amounderness Church of England primary school last week after confessing to the infidelities in a letter to staff, parents and the board of governors".As for Matt and Gina, my sympathies are for their families. Both of them have three children, and I can only hope these children, together with Hancock's wife and Coladangelo's husband, are left in peace. I also feel sorry for the whistleblower who leaked the photo and the story to The Sun. It's a safe bet that the establishment will pursue him or her with ruthless tenacity. As for Hancock, he appears to be talking about a future return to the ministerial arena. Personally, when the next general election comes, his rival candidates for election as MP should have a high old time campaigning against him, and I'd love to take part.
Now, as we know, sex scandals involving politicians - straight and gay - are nothing new. In fact, some people trace it back as far as Henry 8th and Ann Boleyn. Sticking to modern times, I can still remember the Profumo Affair, John Major's ludicrous "Back to Basics" campaign, which was not only ignored by his MPs, such as Tim Yeo and Steven Milligan, but by Major himself, having an affair with Edwina Currie. On the Labour side, John Prescott had a 2-year affair in the noughties with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple, who, according to The Sun (again):
" Temple claimed they would have sex in his Whitehall office, at a hotel while his wife was downstairs, and at his grace and favour flat in Admiralty Arch paid for by the taxpayer."Then there was David Mellor's dalliance with Antonia de Sanchez. The list goes on, but History has some astounding examples of how the so-called "great and good" have flouted conventional morality, some of which put Hancock's little affair firmly into the shade. Here are just four:
Lord Palmerston, (1754 - 1865), twice prime minister, was accused of attempted rape of one of Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting when staying at Windsor Castle in 1839. He claimed that he had walked into the girl's room by accident - a claim that did not bear scrutiny, as he tried to barricade the door. The young lady was saved only by lusty screaming. In fact, Prince Albert said:
" "He would have consummated his fiendish scheme by violence had not the miraculous efforts of his victim, and such assistance as was attracted by her screams, saved her".
This did not seem to inhibit Palmerston's career, either in politics or the bedroom. Palmerston was cited in an adultery case at the age of 78. He is said to have died at the age of 80, having sex with a maid on a billiard table.
Herbert Henry Asquith (1852 - 1928) was PM from 1908 to 1916. The Daily Mail describes him as a "world-class" groper. He certainly worked for that title:
"Winston Churchill’s wife Clemmie complained that Asquith was always trying to look down her dress, while the socialite Lady Ottoline Morrell reported that he would ‘take a lady’s hand as she sat beside him on the sofa and make her feel his erected instrument under his trousers’."It's a shame that there were no whistleblowers around at the time to boot this creep out of office. But times were different then. Asquith was regarded as an ineffectual war leader. His replacement was an even greater womaniser...
...David Lloyd George (1863 - 1945) the last Liberal prime minister. The Mail comments:
"Even at the time, David Lloyd George’s penchant for the ladies was very well known, earning him the nickname ‘the Goat’. As one of his own aides put it, the brilliant Welsh orator was ‘mental on matters of sex. In his view, a man and a woman could not possibly be friends without sexual intercourse"."He carried on for decades with his secretary, Frances Stevenson, whom he forced to have at least two abortions. And there were many more women — so many that nobody has ever produced a definitive count. He even slept with his son Dick’s troubled wife, Roberta, and this when he was well into his 60s.
And lastly, from an LGBT perspective...
Robert, Baron Boothby (1900 - 86), aka Lord Boothby, is our only LGBT candidate here - though there are many more. The broadcaster, Ludovic Kennedy, was a relative and said that Boothby's bi-sexuality was well known to his family. It was covered up effectively in his lifetime. He had an indiscreet relationship with Harold Macmillan's wife which never got into the papers; he said that she reminded him of a caddy he'd seduced on a golf course. It seems that he was the true father of Sarah Macmillan, who took her own life in 1970. He had an intimate homosexual connection to the London underworld , where, says the Mail:
"...Boothby had affairs with male East End gangsters, including the cat burglar Leslie Holt. This brought him into the orbit of the Krays, who used to arrange orgies for him and allegedly supplied him with compliant young men."Nick Hancock hardly fits in to this pantheon - although Boris might. In spite of this, we should all guard against Hancock's possible return to public life. Haven't we suffered enough?
