Politics and Sex

Politics and Sex have always been a heady mix. I still recall the great scandal of the 1960’s which, it was claimed, rocked the foundations of western society to their very core. John Profumo, by all accounts a gracious and charming man serving as the British Conservative Government’s Minister of War (this very designation being a product of the Cold War, but subsequently altered in line with later ideological priorities to Minister for Defence) was exposed as using the services of the same call girl, Christine Keeler, as a Russian named Eugene Ivanov, a naval attaché and spy. What state secrets might the Minister of War have whispered into Christine Keeler’s ear, which she may have subsequently whispered into Eugene’s ear? Profumo, having lied to Parliament about his relationship with Keeler, exited in disgrace, the butt of many anecdotes, and as I recall, the subject of an hilarious radio skit performed by Peter Sellers, Joan Collins and Anthony Newley, in which, to the background of opening and closing doors, frantic entrances and hurried escapes, Profumo and Eugene end up in bed together whispering directly into one another’s ears. Profumo incidentally, would late in life earn a degree of rehabilitation and win public recognition for his tireless voluntary work amongst the poor communities of East London.

A few years later, I would become parish priest in a very deprived area of South London which was solidly Labour in its politics. Our Member of Parliament was a conservatively-minded Labour politician named Robert Mellish who would serve in Parliament for thirty-seven years. Mellish was very much a local institution, known affectionately as ‘Our Bob’ and regarded as having the interests of the poor of Bermondsey at heart. Such was his influence and authority in the community that it was often sufficient to curb anti-social behaviour by threatening to report the matter to Our Bob. However, a decade after I left that parish the Bermondsey constituency was to become the battleground for another issue of sexuality and politics.

In 1983, disenchanted by the leftist lurch of the Labour Party under the leadership of Michael Foot, and having as it turned out being recruited by the Conservative Government to the Board of the London Dockland Development Corporation, Our Bob resigned thus forcing a bye-election. To the shock and horror of many of its constituents, the local Labour party selected Australian born Peter Tatchell, a young local activist who also happened to be gay, as its candidate. This prompted the most openly homophobic political campaigning in British history, with male supporters of the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes, sporting badges saying ‘I’ve been kissed by Peter Tatchell’ and their electioneering pamphlets describing the Liberals as ‘the straight choice’ or asking ‘Which queen are you going to vote for?’ this latter sporting photographs of Queen Elizabeth and a made-to-look effeminate Tatchell. In an unprecedented reversal the huge Labour majority became instead a Liberal victory, which has turned out to be something rather permanent as Simon Hughes remains Bermondsey’s Member of Parliament to this day. And one of the great ironies of this piece of history is that Bob Mellish who actively campaigned against the Party’s candidate Tatchell because he way gay, and was a married man with a family of four, was later outed as bisexual and having himself pursued gay relationships.

Why drag up this piece of history today? Because the Liberal Party which these days call themselves the Liberal Democrats, are currently in the throes of selecting a new party leader and one of the leading candidates is Simon Hughes of Bermondsey. Indeed, many people considered him, on the basis of his exemplary parliamentary career and personal qualities, the front runner. But the Bermondsey campaign of 1983, has returned to haunt Simon Hughes and diminish his chances of securing the leadership. This turnaround was prompted by revelations that another of the candidates in the leadership stakes, Mark Oaten, married man, had been visiting a Rent Boy. When this news became public, Oaten withdraw his candidacy. Meanwhile it has long been rumoured that the unmarried Hughes is also gay, but until recently he has never publicly addressed that issue, claiming that politicians’ private lives must remain private. However, with the inevitable press references to his party’s tactics in the 1983 Bermondsey campaign, and the withdrawal of Oaten, he was placed on the spot, and in replying to questions from the press corps, he was initially equivocal in his responses, but later confessed to being bisexual and having had relationships with both women and men. Little wonder his ratings began to plummet.

So it was that last week, another piece of the jigsaw that has been described by one senior Labour politician as the ‘most wretched and hateful’ of political campaigns, fell into place. In Bermondsey in 1983 the gay labour candidate Peter Tatchell was pilloried both by the outgoing bisexual Labour stalwart Bob Mellish, and by the incoming admittedly bisexual and probably gay Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes. Well, well, isn’t political life full of sexual surprises!

And lest you should think that sexual shenanigans in politics are the preserve of the British, there was last week news of an equally bizarre public announcement from the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who is gearing up for a general election in April. Arch-conservative and ally of Tony Blair, Berlusconi is frequently criticised for his intentional use of sexual innuendo and his recounting of sexist jokes. All this is ignored by the Italian Right because the Prime Minister is a staunch defender of ‘family rights’ and an equally staunch opponent of so called ‘gay marriage’, stances which endear him to the Roman Catholic community. At a political rally in Sardinia Berlusconi was blessed by TV preacher Father Massimiliano Pusceddu. In a grand political gesture the Prime Minister in return publicly promised ‘two and a half months of complete sexual abstinence until April 9’. This may not prove too difficult a task for a man about to turn seventy, but this piece of religious cynicism will no doubt capture a few extra votes. Personally I would regard it as a significant political act were he to abandon his intemperate sexual innuendo and sexism permanently, rather than forego sex for two months.