DBWI: Jeremy Thorpe dies

I assume we've all seen this on the BBC website?

"Former Liberal Party leader and Home Secretary Jeremy Thorpe has died aged 85 after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease, his son Rupert has announced.

He was elected leader of the Liberals in 1967, promising to turn the party into a radical pioneering force. The Liberals, and his, chance came after the 1974 election in which he joined with Ted Heath to form a working Conservative-Liberal minority government. Thorpe accepted the position of Home Secretary and attempted to drive through a radical liberal agenda during his time in office.

But his political career ended when his life was engulfed in scandal and he faced trial on charges of conspiracy and incitement to murder.

He stepped down as leader in 1976 to fight the charges and Heath's government fell as the Liberals split away from the Tories.

Though cleared in 1979, he was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease a short while later and never returned to public life."

RIP Jeremy Thorpe.
 
Last edited:
OOC: This is a DBQI, right? You might want to put that in the title.

IC: That whole coalition is one of those things that, if it didn't happen, this website would say was near-ASB. While the coalition and Thorpes' scandal wrecked the Liberals and kept the Tories out of power for a decade it did a lot of good stuff: Devolution to Scotland and that EEC referendum.

Plus, the Liberals wouldn't be the coalition party they are today without Thorpe.

That said, Thorpe was an unpleasant person to meet and conspired to murder someone.
 
Top