Oh dear, what a shaming day for Fleet Street and the wider media world of telly which takes its cue from tabloidland and squalid tabloid values. I cringed when I realised that William Hague had been forced to issue a humiliating personal statement about his wife's fertility to prove he was not carrying on with a male member of his staff.
How did this come about? Chiefly because the rightwing blogger Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) got it into his head that the foreign secretary's appointment of 25-year-old Chris Myers as a special adviser must have more to it than meets the smutty eye. Some people are just like that.
What gave the story legs – as we say in the trade – was an absurdly undignified photo of Hague walking along the Embankment – near the Foreign Office in Whitehall – in casual gear. It surfaced in the Mail on Sunday, which is like the Daily Mail, but without its sense of delicacy, reticence and moral consistency.
Hague was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, plus a version of that baseball cap that undermined his leadership of the Tory party. Oh yes, and wrap-around shades. It was a ridiculous photo and Hague looked a prat: people his age (49) should not dress as if they are 25 (though occasionally we all do), especially if they are foreign secretary.
Except that Hague wasn't. The photo was a year old, not that the papers that reprinted it pointed that out. I must admit, it made me laugh. I always used to say: "Hague will be better when he's older and has grey hair." But his severing of the Tory links with the European People's party (EPP) struck me as both cynical and foolish – done for internal party tactics – so I went off him. Luckily David Cameron is proving wiser on Europe now he is in office.
Anyway, Guido kept banging away and some of the papers "started digging", as we also say in the trade. Why had Hague been allowed to appoint an inexperienced third special adviser when Dave had (unwisely; he'll learn) capped their number at two per department? What expertise did young Myers have? Better still, was it true that Hague and Myers had shared a room occasionally during the election campaign?
It's all belatedly set out in today's Guardian. But the gossip had been doing the Westminster rounds for most of August and the FO issued a less-than-watertight statement that allowed several papers – I saw it in the Daily Mail and Times yesterday – to run denial stories.
Hague has been a target for lurid gossip for decades, some of the anecdotes damning and specific, but also improbable. Do you see Ffion Hague as the sort of woman who would agree to be a beard for a sort-of-gay husband's ambition?
I don't, but perhaps it's me who's naive. A Yorkshire grandmother, 90-ish, respectable and expensively Tory, told a friend of mine on the phone last night: "I'm sick of these men hiding behind bushes. Why don't they just come out?"
Because they don't have to if they don't want to, grandma. David Laws wanted to stay in the closet so as not to upset his Catholic mum. Fair enough, I say, though he laid himself open to the public funds charge, the ostensible reason for going after Hague too.
So should I have been round the FCO dustbins sniffing the sheets? Well, that depends on what you think is a legitimate matter of public interest.
By and large, I don't think people's sex lives are unless they are public hypocrites, funding their lifestyles improperly from the public purse, or want to put details into the public domain – as many people seem to want to do.
For instance, Tony and Cherie Blair's memoirs both contain a teeny bit more detail about their ongoing enthusiasm for each other than I might have wished. And I'm almost certain the model Jordan, aka Katie Price, cooperates with the tabloids (that's a joke, by the way).
But Hague? If he was indeed having an affair with Chris Myers – or his imaginary sister, Christine – and put him/her on the public payroll, that would be a legitimate target for fearless investigators such as Guido, who is neither as noble nor disinterested as he persuades himself is the case.
Is that likely? Ask yourself. Hague may have spotty judgment – on Europe or in hiring Myers at all. They are obviously chums and the Daily Mail quotes anonymous Tory colleagues today as saying he is "personally naive" and becomes "platonically infatuated" when he likes someone, as he rarely does. That figures; he was a strange lad when I first saw him, lecturing Margaret Thatcher from the podium at the Tory conference at age 16.
But not even Hague would do something so rash and improper – quite lethal to his political career – as hire a lover at the taxpayer's expense. He hired Myers. It must mean it was all innocent. Yes? No?
I know what you're thinking. The latest statement confirms that Hague and Myers occasionally shared a twin room on the campaign trail. It sounds like admirable austerity to me, saving the party cash. Politicians get attacked for extravagance. Now they get hammered for saving money. You just can't win.
All of which has ended up with Hague having to explain how he and Ffion have been trying unsuccessfully to have children for years. We can all see how sad that is for them, as for couples in their situation. But to reveal this to prove you are straight ... oh dear again. How much sadder and more undignified. Not that it proves anything.
As I type, John Humphrys is milking the tale with as much thinly-veiled enthusiasm as Radio 4's Today programme can muster. It's the high-minded broadsheet version of tabloid humbug and wouldn't have happened like this even a few years ago, not rehashing the gossip on the BBC or in the broadsheets. Even the FT carries Hague's denial on page one today.
On air, Mirror editor turned Guardian media pundit Roy Greenslade, who disagreed with my contention that the Laws affair was about sexual hounding, not about money, is huffing and puffing about gossip seeping from the blogosphere into the news pages and how difficult it becomes. Hmm.
Today's Daily Mail has turned the tale with characteristic nimbleness from gay sex into one of domestic tragedy: "Our baby agony, by the Hagues." For the broadsheets and the Beeb it's now about Hague's "judgment".
But what about our collective judgment? What about Guido's? When he wrote "one witness told Guido that the room sharing couple's body language at breakfast was eye opening" what was he thinking?
Comments in chronological order (Total 315 comments)
Post a comment2 September 2010 10:06AM
Are straight men no longer allowed to wear sunglasses and laugh in public with another man without being outed?
2 September 2010 10:07AM
It says a hell of a lot about how unreconstructed the Tories are that so many have criticised his judgement in this matter. He shared a hotel room, so what? Are they really so utterly scared of homosexuality that they say his actions were regrettable? Very odd.
But what is maybe odder is the overkill with which Hague has tried to bury the story. Myers resigns then all of the very very personal details about his marriage. To me that says either a) The Tories are so implicitly homophobic such rumours must be crushed at all costs or b) There really is a story there (which doesn't negate option a too incidentally!)
2 September 2010 10:09AM
Well put, i think the only mild saitsfaction i had before i read the personal statement form the Hauges was how staunchly anti-gay Hague had been politcally. Now this appears not to be the case i feel ever so slightly ashamed. And as to what Guido Fawkes was thinking when he wrote this, probably how he could garner more attention now the Labour party is out of power (who effectively made his career) and other ways of further trying to impersonate a dirty scrpaing the "bottom of the barrel of intelligence" morally corrupt version of Ian Hislop like the degenerate Staines is. Pow.
p.s i like Ian Hislop
2 September 2010 10:10AM
"Hague looked a prat"
Michael - oh dear!
2 September 2010 10:12AM
I know what you mean Chessplayer. Sharing twin rooms?! Walking with another man in public - laughing?! By Guido Fawkes' standards, I'm as gay as a handbag full of rainbows.
But then by my standards, he's not a good judge of events.
2 September 2010 10:14AM
Who cares? But let's hope it wipes that nauseating grin off his face.
2 September 2010 10:16AM
Luckily David Cameron is proving wiser on Europe now he is in office..........
but sadly not on the wider world stage
2 September 2010 10:18AM
Still don't get why The Guardian employ a Tory blogger.
2 September 2010 10:19AM
I never imagined I would one day feel sympathy for Billy Buzzcut, and on several counts, to boot.
The difficulty in becoming a father - a given.
That the press can as good as brand him as gay when he's straight - grim. Even after years of squalid journalism that shames the whole country never mind the press itself, this still shocks.
That his judgment is questionable for employing a 25 year old - will someone tell us precisely at what age wisdom and expertise commensurate with advising a government kicks in?
And finally - Michael: Billy actually looks great in a long white tee and a cap! What a thin boy! What would you prefer, tweeds and a Barbour? These days 49 is nowt! Have you seen how fine artists and sculptors dress in their 70s? Why shouldn't a politician in middle age in 2010 have to dress like Ted Heath (the ex-PM, not the bandleader)?
For shame, Michael, stop being so reactionary! People like yourself profoundly affect politicians' choices in terms of image. We've lived with the tyranny of the business suit for long enough in this country. Time we applauded politicians for trying to be human. It might encourage the cynical and disaffected to stop declaiming that politicians are 'not like us.'
Really good piece of writing, though - you've really got your mojo back. Congrats.
RRR
2 September 2010 10:21AM
Mind you, by my standards, "Guido Fawkes" isn't a particularly good human being, for that matter. The latent homophobia in the whole thing is disgusting.
2 September 2010 10:22AM
I don't care much for Hague or his politics but I can't help feeling a tad sorry for him. This is along the lines of the 'when did you stop beating your wife?' question. Impossible to answer and completely beyond his control. All it means is that anyone with any decency will avoid politics like the plague and all we'll get are arseholes instead (if we haven't already). Who's the winner here apart from newspapers' shareholders? Public interest indeed!
2 September 2010 10:24AM
When did you join the fashion police? Maybe a job on a celeb-gos mag might be more suitable.
Seasick Steve is 69
2 September 2010 10:25AM
wet1989
"p.s i like Ian Hislop"
Do you mean like 'like' him, or should we read more into this statement?
2 September 2010 10:26AM
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2 September 2010 10:27AM
I suppose his statement took some guts, but I wish he'd had even more guts and told everyone just to p*ss off and mind their own business, re his private and sex life.
And regarding that photo - I've seen far more ridiculous holiday shots of politicians, including of the previous prime minister, as I recall, strolling along a beach wearing a sports jacket.
btw I hate the bloody tories, in case you're wondering.
2 September 2010 10:28AM
has Guido Fawkes ever shared a room with a mate?
****.
2 September 2010 10:28AM
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2 September 2010 10:29AM
It was just a misunderstanding, a mistake, a cock-up.
2 September 2010 10:30AM
Can we launch a website dissecting Paul Staines' "private" life.
2 September 2010 10:32AM
mmmm... I don't think anyone's sexuality matters or needs to be public knowledge, but integrity and honesty in public life do matter. The Tories have made great hay out of the expenses scandal, etc, and I think the real issue here as with Laws is not whether or not Hague is secretly gay, but whether or not he has been secretly gay on the public's dime. This young man used to be his driver, and is now a special adviser (allegedly...), so while government departments are being told to cut 25% of their staff I think it is reasonable to question how he got the job. The Tories love to rake muck when it suits them, so I'm afraid they can't complain when it happens to them.
2 September 2010 10:32AM
This whole ridonkulous hoo ha shows that the UK still has to far to gon on LGBT issues, and on sex and sexuality in general.
So Hague occasionally shared a room with a male political aide. So he occasionally wears a t-shirt and sun-glasses and some baseball cap and takes a walk with a male political aide while smiling.
Big freaking deal.
How the hell is that "bad judgment"? And it required the utterly disgusting invasion of privacy clarification about Ffion Hague's health problems?
It really is disgusting that Hague's private life is somehow major news, but people getting their phones hacked into by the NoTW, with the main culprit being employed now by the PM, is ignored.
Whatever Hague's relations with Myers are, whatever they are with his wife, they really are no one's business, other than of those 3 people.
2 September 2010 10:33AM
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2 September 2010 10:33AM
Staines hardly sounds whiter than white himself.
2 September 2010 10:34AM
The only Question that needs to be answered is why he employed someone who is not qualified to do the job as foreign office advisor and pay him £30,000 per year.
His sexuality means nothing to me.
However, I find that divulging his wife's problems in having a baby, quiet shameful.
These are distressing maters particularly to his wife, and should not be used to show his masculinity.
Therefore Hague is guilty on two accounts.
1 His judgement on employing someone who is unsuitable for the job, and too someone he has obviously a close attachment too.
2 His decision to to use his wife's problems in carrying a baby full term, losing a child at any stage is distressing, and should remain a private matter.
Unfortunately Hague as a track record on showing how manly he his
Remember his 18 pints a day boast when he became party leader.
2 September 2010 10:35AM
There wasn't much too this until Hague released his statement. That's turned a non story into a massive one. Where's Max Clifford when you need him eh?
2 September 2010 10:35AM
... William Hague had been forced to issue a humiliating personal statement about his wife's fertility to prove he was not carrying on with a male member of his staff...
Whilst privacy is important, dishonesty is more important. Fertility, or infertility, and marriage are not guarantees of heterosexuality. The attitude of politicians towards sexuality is often hypocritical: this makes their own sexuality fair game. If they didn't invoke heterosexual family values, playing to prejudice and ignorance, then their own sexuality wouldn't be terribly significant, would it?
2 September 2010 10:36AM
Another no news day in Fleet Street?
2 September 2010 10:38AM
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2 September 2010 10:39AM
Couldn't agree more with the article. The whole thing seems, to quote Stephen Fry from a different context, "greasy, miserable, British and pathetic".
2 September 2010 10:40AM
Scubadoc wrote: "The attitude of politicians towards sexuality is often hypocritical: this makes their own sexuality fair game."
>>
Used to be true, but few politicians these days express opinions about sexuality and I'm not aware of Hague having done so. Just a flimsy excuse for much-raking. The story is not about hypocrisy, or judgement, or public funds: it's about Fleet Street's lurid, schoolboy fascination with what people get up to in bed.
2 September 2010 10:42AM
I'm sure that Yorkshire millionaire William Hague will be the first to agree that there's nowt so queer as folk.
Eythenkew!
2 September 2010 10:43AM
I actually find the 'judgment' argument the most depressing one. Hague sharing a room with Myers showed bad judgment because 'questions were bound to be asked,' etc.
Tony Blair's statement about 'being seen to be whiter than white' has become a ludicrous albatross. It now seems that a politician can be criticised by the press for doing something which the press could wrongly construe as unethical.
2 September 2010 10:44AM
yours is a banjaxed society, in thrall to the tabloids, feeding off each other and there is no going back.
How depressing!
2 September 2010 10:44AM
Two men sharing a room!!!....Oh dear....Grow up this is pathetic
2 September 2010 10:45AM
This is not about gay or not but about how a driver got a £30k job for which he had no experience !!
Add to that this misjudgements over Ashcroft, etc. and is Hague really the right person for such a responsible role ? And the answer has to be definitely NOT.
Think of all those far better suited and qualified for that £30k job but Hague wanted to give this guy a "payback" at the public expense (Hague paid nothing - we paid for somebody with no experience and no qualifications !! when there are far better people for the job - just they were not Hague's mates).
That decision makes Hague unsuited to public office and he should have already gone (but he is one of Cameron's mates and so in Cameron's eyes deserves payback at the public expense).
2 September 2010 10:46AM
Hmmm quite apart from the 'lurid' (or not so lurid, just a bit sad) details of the story, who's out to get Hague? It seems frankly astonishing that this pretty much non-story wasn't quashed early on by 'friends and colleagues' and papers told early on the risks of running with this gossip before excruciating statements and a resignation became necessary. Surely the Tory press machine isn't that inept? Or did certain people ensure that the rumours kept going round and gave those who might jump on it something concrete to go on (The fact it's his 3rd SpAd, on 30k a year, with questionable qualifications etc.) and unleash the innuendo into the news.
2 September 2010 10:49AM
Michael White doen't like men in their 40s wearing baseball caps and shades.
Fine.
People have prejudices, don't they?
2 September 2010 10:49AM
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2 September 2010 10:50AM
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2 September 2010 10:56AM
I don't think David Cameron looks great in surfing gear. ( Okay might have the excuse that he was actually going surfing.)
Surely this means he's not fit to lead the country> Or is it alright to pose for unappetising holiday snaps, if you've succeeded in fathering children?
It's all very confusing....
2 September 2010 10:57AM
As someone with similar fertility issues, I feel huge sympathy for WH's supposedly unnecessary personal statement.
If you fail to follow society's expectations by producing children x years after marriage, people around you (colleagues etc) tend to fill the "gaps" with judgements about the individuals involved or marriage, i.e. someone's too selfish, unmat/paternal, into their career, the marriage is in trouble etc.
This speculation on top of the heartache of fertility problems is persecuting and many before and after WIlliam Hague will lose their calm exterior and scream "it's not fair"...
2 September 2010 10:57AM
lse2002
Has Guido fox ever shared a room with a mate?
No. he hasn't got any
2 September 2010 10:58AM
My new favourite phrase...
Very convenient that this leads all the papers on the day that Andy Coulson is exposed as the lying liar everyone thought he was...
2 September 2010 11:00AM
It is a shaming day for the Guardian newspaper. Look at the prominence this story has been given by this newspaper compared to the Times, telegraph and Independent. Far more coverage here, with more nudge nudge stuff, than anywhere else. (The online version has at last bumped this down from being the lead story).
Awful prurience from this newspaper. is the editor on holiday? if not it is shocking.
I expect an apology.
2 September 2010 11:00AM
On the contrary...
2 September 2010 11:02AM
The rumours about WH's orientation have been around since the late 90s, fuelled by stories of him enjoying a good grapple with the lads in his judo kit. The thing is that even if he is a left-footer, it is not news, but highlights the fact that journalism ain't wot it used to be.
We live in increasingly stupid times...
2 September 2010 11:03AM
Jackie Smith paid her husband to be her 'adviser' while he sat at home watching porn on the telly.
2 September 2010 11:05AM
I, too, now just find myself wondering what Hague is allowed to wear. I suppose a Foreign Secretary, or prospective one, should only be permitted to wear a striped seersucker jacket and Panama hat, or something. Maybe he would be allowed to wear a collarless shirt once in a while, in private, as long as it had holes for collar studs in case of emergencies.
Oh dear, Michael. I fear that you may be mention out loud the sort of ideas about what amounts to "proper" clothing that we would normally only expect from people as old as you but far less wise.
2 September 2010 11:06AM
I've shared twin rooms on holiday and it does not matter who I have sex with either.
I'm going to share a room next month in New York with a married father of 3 whose mistresses I have met. The only action will be my snoring.
2 September 2010 11:09AM
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