Younger readers will not recognise the reference; it was from a love letter from the Leader of the Liberal Party Jeremy Thorpe, revealed in court during his trial for Attempted Murder in 1979. He had allegedly tried to kill his gay boyfriend, groom Norman Scott, and was acquitted on this day.
Well, it kept us well entertained in 1979; Mrs Thatcher had just moved into Number Ten, and the court revelations about dog-shooting, pillow-biting and Thorpe's hidden life were the sprinkles on the Sundae. Auberon Waugh stood in Thorpe's constituency under the banner 'A better deal for your dog', 'Scott of the arse antics' became a breakfast time villain and there was even a single. How dreary is Nick Clegg in comparison to the flamboyant and Mercurial Thorpe. Parliament is surely a less colourful place.
5 comments:
"Scot of the arse antic"
That made me laugh!
Wish I'd been paying attention at the time.
The best was Peter Cook as a judge intoning on the subject of being a "self-confessed player of the pink oboe"
... and a man who, by his own admission, chews pillows.
Thorpe was as colourful as a skid mark on a pair of nappies!
I thought Thorpe was a thoroughly miserable queer. I used to work with a chap who was gay (not queer) and he was "Mister Gay about London" and was very much fun to be with; colourful, well known, and well liked. Absolutely not a miserable looking queer.
Don't much care for Clegg either!
Coney Island
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