What is the worst thing that has emerged from the great William Hague room-sharing scandal in your view?
a] The press intrusion and general web inspired gossip mongering about his private life.
b] Hague's public statement in which he revealed that his wife had experienced numerous miscarriages, thereby violating the privacy of someone not actually in public office.
c] Hague giving a 30K per year public sector job to a mate in preference to other far more qualified candidates.
d] The near 50 year-old Hague wearing that ridiculous skin-tight white shirt and baseball cap in the now infamous photograph.
e] The fact that Hague is a millionaire and was too tight to stump up for his own hotel room rather than share.
Personally, I would opt for D since the new government are supposed to be culling government spending and this looks suspiciously like a nice little earner has been created for Hague's mate.
As for all the gay rumours doing the rounds, whatever Mr. Hague does in his private life is up to him and should not be of concern to anyone else.
The problem is, of course, that having made great hay from all the Labour sex and corruption stories, and they had plenty of them too, that the Tories are now going to cop a bucket-load over this one.....
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Comments
Did I hear the sound of a super injunction being served!.....
Thank god for a free press eh!........ but not in the UK
f) He's a Tory and a Tory boy to boot, and so therefore his pain is our pleasure.
Paying this advisor £30k of public money was his real mistake, especialy given that the Tory Party are in the process of slashing and burning the public budget it does seem more than a tad hypocritical to then reward a staffer with a good job that we are aying for. He was employed as a political advisor - if he's so important to William Hague then the Tory Party can pay his wages and they can set an example for future governments.
Although there is a whiff of an arranged marriage about the deal with Ffion - just as Michael Portillo had a loyal and dutifil wife in his constituency while he was shacked up in central London with another Tory MP. But where is the "public interest" in this story? Unless a public figure is being exposed for their hypocrisy, say in this case if WH was openly condemning homosexuality or refusing to support gay rights whilst being privately gay themselves, then what business is it of ours?
Fair enough, Hague did campaign against the repeal of Section 28 when he was Tory leader and in the past has been anti gay civil unions or marriage so he is well open to the charge of rank hypocrisy.
There have long been rumours that his wife was a "beard" but then again there was always lots of innuendo put about concerning Ken Livingstone's sexuality and that all turned out to be complete bollocks.
I am not sure that Hague would be stupid enough to conduct a gay affair in this manner, he is certainly extremely bright and aware of the dangers, but then again we are all human and sometimes behave irrationally.
I thought his public statement was a disaster, he went way over the top by dragging his poor wife's private medical concerns into it and should have been brief and to the point. Just deny it and denounce the rumour mongers and then say "I will be making no further statements on this matter." Job done.
Milesbatch
What a terrible world we live in, full of suspicion and innuendo. It is a shame, but next time Mr Hague needs to share a room with one of his special advisers he would be well advised not to book him in but take him round the back entrance. Perhaps that is what his special adviser advised him.
In a time when expenses are flavour of the month ,top and tailing in a seedy hotel single bed is very applaudable.
He's got the tax payers best interests at heart. ;-)
By the way all of the above a - f. And I am not sure he should be advised to take anybody round the back entrance.
That he is gay or bisexual without a jot of evidence other than he shared a room with this fella.
If you have facts that prove it then produce them.
The second point is does it bloody mater
People on here get holier than thou about x factor dumming down the nation well in my opinion this sort of journalism
Is worse
Who actually cares and why surely there are more important things going on in the world
Only if your sole interest is in the gay sex angle.
I am more concerned that Hague gave his unqualified friend a nice 30,000 government job at the same time that his government are about to make huge cuts to the public service and people - including some folk on here - are going to lose their jobs.
I am equally appalled that he would bring up his wife's medical history and run of miscarriages in the public domain in order to save his career, that is a gross invasion of her privacy and totally unjustifiable.
Ironic really that his first public meeting after the scandal broke was with the Foreign Minister of Germany who is .....openly gay!!!
Get Gok in girlfriend. . . .
Seems a tad OTT OA given that WH says she approved the statement.
Not interested in his private life but if he has appointed someone on anything other than merit - that is clearly wrong - not sure if it is enough for him to need to resign.
All those saddos who buy newspapers, buy trashy magazines like Now and read any gossip like blogs on the internet.
If you lot did'nt crave this tripe they would'nt print it.
Oooh polititian up to no good.......possibly, maybe......
Shock, horror, wheres the news in that?
A tad unjust. Who of the posters have shown that they 'crave this tripe'? It's a main news item on the Beeb, could hardly avoid it. Ormiston raised political questions which included the behaviour of the press and salacious internet rubbish.
On the evidence submitted, I guess I too must be gay & cheating on my partner- afterall, I shared with a mate on a stag weekend in Barcelona.
Should I issue a press statement?
if the story was solely about this fella getting a job in which he was not qualified then the press wouldnt have run with it,
we all know the angle they are pushin g to make it news worthy.
all they will be doing now is trying to prove the man is gay.
i think the bit about his wife was a cheap attempt at trying to gain public support from the conservitive supporting folks who would have been appaled at the sugestion about william hague being gay but i believe that all the spin that comes from government is aimed to dumm down the nation.
yes
Good luck to him and his wife with the baby making.
Although if he does swing both ways I suggest he leaves the country.
Hmmmmm, I wonder how much choice she was given in that? "Do you mind if I tell everyone about your numerous miscarriages, darling? It might rather help in proving I am not gay and save my job as Foreign Secretary."
True enough, the gay angle is what is driving the story but it also opened the door to the fact that Myers got given a public service job for which he was wholly unqualified merely on the say so of Hague - that is very poor when Cameron/Hague ran so hard on the "Cronysim of New Labour" and are supposedly on a big cost-cutting drive in the civil service.
I actually like Hague a lot, I don't share his political views but he does appear to be a decent guy and have a very good sense of humour but he has put himself in this mess by his own stupidity because, put simply, senior cabinet/shadow cabinet ministers - and a former Conservative Party leader no less - should not be sharing rooms with gay employees half their age because it leaves them wide open to these sort of stories.
What is also very clear is that there are some very powerful people from within his own party who don't like Hague and who are now back-grounding against him and who clearly put some of this information in the public domain. Hague has some worrying enemies on his own side of politics.
What NLA says.
The miscarriage information was uncomfortable but I guess it was a case of answering all the possible questions/innuendo's that would arise ie "If you're so happily married why no kids?" Who knows if he consulted with his wife. If he did and they both agreed no issue for me.
Multiple miscarriages when a baby is deeply yearned for plays total havoc with a woman's mind. It gets taken over by all things baby and the woman is exceptionally vulnerable and her judgements can be badly affected. Hague shows absolutely no sense of understanding this or his wife's needs and to help save his skin ( and I have sympathy for him in that his skin shouldn't have needed saving), he made use of his wife's personal tragedies. In his public position, he would be fully aware of the monsters that the press can unleash and should have protected her, not thrown her into the lion pit.
The slurs are saying that not only was her husband was unfaithful but that their marriage is a sham and she is a "beard". Often the lack of children is given as a nudge, nudge "proof" of this.
And this is a man's point of view I know but miscarriages will hurt the father as well. Not as much perhaps and in a different way but still hurt.
I think he deliberately gave answers to all the possible questions upfront to try and kill the story once and for all. But our shitty press won't let it rest and our shitty public buy the papers. Maybe we get the press we deserve.
Who knows or cares whether he's gay. But creating an extra government post - he already has the two standard special advisers - from public money for his underqualified mate is foolish at best.
If the evidence is out there he's finished, regardless of his ability. You have to assume he isn't that daft.