A Most Un-English Way Of Doing Things

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He waited patiently for his turn. Looking around at faces both familiar and unfamiliar he ruminated on his luck. "Why do I always pick the wrong ones" was his thought "Am I predisposed to select the unsuitable types"

The last one was the most unsuitable of them all. At first he seemed malleable enough, kind, gentle and wholly suitable. But that quickly changed. Needy, unstable and prone to histrionics. All because of a stupid card. He should have just handed the damn thing over but that would have meant he taking responsibility and that would never have worked.

The money helped for a while but he became more demanding. He began to talk to anyone that would listen. Yes, the enquiry stopped things for a while but he soon came back with more vitriol than ever.

He had to be dealt with. It was easy to do. Lure him out and then one blast from the gun straight between the eyes and that was it. Oh there was the bloody dog as well. Still no matter, the gun didn't jam

"Order, order. Statement from the Department of European Affairs. Jeremy Thorpe..."
 

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MAIN CABINET POSITIONS 1976
Prime Minister: Harold Wilson
European Affairs Secretary: Jeremy Thorpe
Foreign Secretary: Jim Callaghan
Home Secretary: Tony Crosland
Chancellor Denis Healy
 

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"When I'm asked how the coalition government of 1974-1979 survived so long I have to answer that I simply don't know. I've come up with theories but none of them come anywhere near scratching the surface. Let me make this clear. It was an open secret in politics that Jeremy Thorpe was homosexual and made considerable efforts to keep that facet away from the public. But it is a fallacy to say that Rupert Thorpe was not his son.

Thorpe was known to prefer what was know then as "trade". Working class men from the shipyards and coalfields. Those who could not say that they were gay for fear of reprisals. Thorpe meeting Norman Scott (or Josiffe as he was then) in 1961 was a colossal mistake. Scott was a very fragile man in terms of mental health and was very needy. It's logical to assume that that neediness coupled with Thorpe's undoubted callousness led to the events of 1976 on Bodmin Moor"

(John Cole, As It Seemed To Me, 1995)
 

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Interviewer: Why was the information about Thorpe hidden away for so long?

Chapman Pincher: It was deemed to be the right thing to do. Homosexuality was still illegal in the 1960's and many of a more conservative and christian view, religion played a bigger role in the country then it does now believed it was a sin against God.

I: Did you ever see the file on Thorpe?

CP: No, I didn't. From what I understand the file was kept in a huge iron safe, the kind you see in cowboy movies in the office of Roger Hollis, Martin Furnival Jones and Michael Hanley who were the directors-general of MI5 between 1956 and 1979.

I: You mentioned Michael Hanley there. He was director general in the 1970's. Is it true he had a very testy relationship with Wilson?

CP: Yes, he did. Hanley was very much a right winger and certainly loathed the idea of a socialist government....

(Secret History, Channel 4, 1996)
 
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