The Today Programme has its Hague cake and eats it too

Pot Head

"one of the segments spent several minutes debating whether they should be talking about the matter at all."

Slagging off the Beeb, when you're doing exactly the same thing!

alexsandr

i heard 'BBC political correspondent James Landale, former Daily Telegraph political editor George Jones and journalism professor Roy Greenslade analyse the political fallout over the allegations. ' on the way to work. I kept thinking in what world to thease people live. No-one outside westminster cares 1 hoot about this. At work there is much discussion about the cricket cheating, and a little about Blairs book, but not a whisper about this.
Move on, its irrelevant.

Moriarty

I heard the ever-pleasant Max Clifford at the fag end of the show. Was there ever a worse tempered man? And a "public relations" consultant? Like announcing Zsa Zsa Gabor as a relationships guidance expert.

Greg

This has to be the most boring non-story in the history of politics. If politicians live on another planet, then the media must inhabit a moon not far away.

Vulture

People - perhaps politicialns more than most - are very complex beings.

It is entirely possible that William Hague has both a 'normal' heterosexual relatiponship with his delicious Welsh rarebit of a wife, and rather fancies the young man he so foolishly shared hotel rooms with, and even more idiotically promoted to a post for which he had no discernible qualifications.

What this demonstrates is not that this able and attractive politician is duplicitous and hypocritical, but that he has an alarming lacunae where his judgement should be. He demonstrated the same lack of nous in his relations with Milords Archer
and Ashcroft. It's very sad, but I doubt that Hague's career will survive this third slip-up.

ollie

This is one of the reasons why people with ability shun public office. The media don't have any serious news to report, so they fill the vacuum with a character assassination.

charles hercock

Surely we should lambast Guido for the sleazeball that he is

William Hague's Constituency Chair put it eloquently and succinctly

davidk

Hague will limp on with Cameron's backing, but he's damaged goods now in the party. He's teetering on the edge and more revelations at the weekend (should they come) would accelerate his downfall.

Fiona

I'm not sure it's fair to blame the media for this - or even the blogger.

Hague chose to tell the world about these infertility problems. I think that was unwise, for the obvious reason that it is completely irrelevant. Everyone knows there are many gay men who are married with children, so it doesn't actually deal with the allegation anyway.

If William Hague shared a room with this young man for genuine reasons, such as frugality, then surely he could have pointed to many party apparatchiks he has shared rooms with over the years - not just fit, pretty ones. Surely that would have been a better way to deal with these rumours, if they are untrue?

I can't help but wonder, did his wife always know he was sharing rooms like this, and who with?

To be honest, I would be gobsmacked if a millionaire colleague, a manager or even a friend suggested sharing a room for reasons of frugality. Even it was entirely innocent I would resent the imposition, and think he or she was at the very least a bit barmy. I would certainly never put a junior colleague in such an awkward situation.

I'm not bothered if he's gay, but to have dragged his wife's medical issues into it makes him look more than a little desperate.

Even if the only thing he is guilty of is very poor judgement, that's still a serious issue for someone in such an important position.

RobertE

I was a SpAd. I would never have dreamt of sharing a room with my boss. It would have been inconceivable and improper.

There is certainly more to this story, and it is worthy of analysis on Today. It is not a question of gay or straight - thankfully, few people care. But it is a question of the appropriate use of taxpayer's money to pay someone who was patently unqualified to hold a SpAd position in FCO.

Equally, Hague sets a bad example on cost cutting in the public sector, if he insists on having three SpAds.

les

Unless a seedy journo digs something up, the story is dead.

Robert Eve

The BBC is beyond help.

Richard of York

So far the agenda
1. Blogs pick up the story
2. The media start to sniff around
3. Minister releases statement
4. PM states full suport
5. Sunday papers print evidence
6. Minister tries to ride the storm
7. PM releases another stetement of support
8. Blogs go into overdrive
9. Media hound Minister
10 Kay Burley completes final wounding
11. Minister applies for the chiltern hundreds.
12. Blogs line up next victim.

We are on track No 5 to come.
Northern comedy circuit makes room for the new career move of Northern celebrity.

charles hercock

I am incensed at Guidos self satisfied smug statement of 1144 today

Also Hague will not limp on he is a quality player who may be our next leader

Tiberius

It's like the 50p tax issue for the Tories: damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

I think Hague has done the right thing in making the statement. The follow up discussion can then only be as conversation at 11pm in the pub over the 7th pint.

Without the statement, the story would run longer, as no denial retains the "there must be something in it" feel, which is a worse state of affairs.

Don Quijote

Once again the British obsession with sex.
As "alexsenr" says "Move on itīs irrelevant"

charles hercock

Richard of York

You hit it

The sleazy bloggers are beyond the pale

Boycott Staines

MP's --shun Staines

Block his calls on your mobiles

Ian Walker

Is the Today programme still going? I prefer Chris Moyles to a bunch of champagne lefties swimming round a pond of delusion.

michael

Is anyone STILL interested in Blair's fantasies now?

normanc

'Also Hague will not limp on he is a quality player who may be our next leader'

I just sprayed a mouthful of tea all over my desk.

Jayu

I have absolutely no sympathy for Hague, even more so after being reminded of this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/224534.stm

what type of man would try to bolster his manliness, and non-gayness by trying to shift the blame for any doubt, onto his wife, by questioning her womanliness? All rather distasteful, I feel.

Jayu

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/224534.stm

charles hercock

normanc

You clearly need some education in quality politicians

Marcus Cotswell

And criticising the BBC for trying to have its cake and eat it, enables the Speccie to get its two penn'orth in ... Seems like rank hypocrisy to me.

salieri

Waring & Gillow
Used to share the same pillow.
This was not from bonhomie -
Merely economy.

lescam

I wonder what Fionn Hague feels about having her personal problems splashed all over the press.

As someone said previously, trying to imply that a "normal" marriage automatically means that the male is not gay, won't work. Plenty of gay men have had apparently normal marriages. In the past, Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West were happily married and really loved each other, but both were gay with outside "interests". So William Hague has proved nothing one way or the other, by attempting to prove his macho credentials. Assuming the rumours are not true, he would have been a great deal wiser to have said nothing, as royalty usually does, and not provide the gossip mongers with a comment of any kind.

Liz Brown

Oh for goodness sake - let's move on. Frankly, I could care less

old fogey

In your listing of over excited Today contributors, you failed to mention the most excitable and quietly obnoxious of them all; that Smith fellow ( either Norman or Gordon--either name would fit) who works himself up into a fine lather of pompous summation and censorious superiority at about 6.35 most mornings. I'd rather be a pimp for a dockside whorehouse than take the BBC's shilling; there is something so seedy about the corporation these days.

Rob

The reason I presume Hague felt the need to raise his and Ffion's problems having children is not, I suspect, to elicit sympathy or to 'blame' his wife, but to counter two factors that may have been encouraging speculation: a suspicion that the Hagues' lack of children indicated that theirs was a sham marriage, or concerns (reported by a increasingly smug yet increasingly tortuous Guido) that Ffion's absence from Hague's side at public events meant that their marriage was in trouble. Hague's statement has addressed these concerns.

What Hague has yet to explain is why he needed this allegedly under-qualified spad when he has already filled his quota of two with two very able and experienced advisers. But then spad appointments are a rather contingent affair - some Ministers want trusted aides, some want subject specialists, some want effective spin doctors, some merely want a friend they can unload and sound off to. There's no formal qualifications, it's really down to who minister want and trust and I don't see anything in Hague's appointment of Myers out of the ordinary. Did Hague go through a competitive process with a strictly defined set of criteria? No, no Minister does, that's not how it works. Some may say it should be, I'm not sure that would be any better - and it could be a lot messier - but the fact is, Hague has done exactly what Ministers have done for decades and it in no way casts doubt on his judgment.

Tankus

Badly handled by Hague , but at least he hasn't forced Ffion to the ultimate indignity of facing the press pack ..
(a la Blair and the conman farce and David Mellors family as well as the wife dragged in front of the family gate in support of chelsea football team )
Bercow on TV last night insinuated that Hagues statement had the touch of a ruthless spad all over it trying to close the story down hard, with a total disregard to the emotional pain inflicted in an attempt to control the direction of the press .

I agree with her ......

Hague should not have put himself in this position (bad judgement ) and should have left Ffion totally out of it

Rhoda Klapp

Gayness is nowadays a perfectly legal way of life, universally approved if not recommended. Why is an allegation of it considered to be a smear, or even actionable?

Must we carry on this doulbe standard?

Now, hinting you are some kind of euro-sceptic and then going completely native when you get a sniff of office, THAT is something to be ashamed of.

George Laird

Dear All

I think that William Hague’s statement was a mistake.

Hague should have thought of his wife, she is the priority.

Rather than kill the story it has fanned it up.

As to Myers getting a Spad job, much is said about his lack of experience and qualifications.

However Gordon Brown appointed Jack McConnell to a FCO role without interview, qualifications and experience.

The Government is staffed by experienced and qualified people and look at the state of Britain.

Myers shouldn’t have resigned and Hague shouldn’t have released this statement.

This is a chip paper wrapper story were certain people in bloggerland were throwing mud to see if it sticks and claims a victim.

And got three!

Hague should have exercised better judgement for the sake of his wife, no one else.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Baron

Rhoda Klapp @ 4.48 sums up the alleged affair and the caliber of the man in the centre of it nicely in just four short sentences.

nuff said, let’s move on.

peggy cumbers

My sympathies lie with Ffion Hague, who has been badly let down by her husband telling us all about their very private problems. Who cares if he is gay ; it isn't an issue and there are far more important crises to tackle both at home and abroad.

Richard of York

I wonder how tolerent and supportive Speccies would be if this was D Miliband we were talking about?

Just asking!

ian boyd

such things could surely only vivify the limp persona of the Millibland

Geoff M

I note that Hague, the faux-EUsceptic and Turkey-welcomer, is planning to get out of the hell that he and his class have created in the UK.

Not for him the immigrant-swamped UK. No, he will emigrate to a ranch in Montana.

Thanks for everything, William.