CHRIS GETTING OUT OF BILL’S GOVERNMENT

OTHER THAN IRRITATING US with his accent, absurd phrasing and dubious pronunciation of the definite article, hapless William Hague has not made much of a mark on British politics despite serving as the leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party for a short while. Indeed, I must confess I had dismissed him as a possible candidate for news interest as soon as he resigned from his leadership post after a dismal period trying to show Conservatives that he was a youthful future leader rather than a balding, middle-aged, has-been whose brightest days were when he was a teenage Thatcherite.

HOW WRONG I WAS. Just when we all thought we had seen the end of the mispronounced “the” (as in “Thee future of thee world in thee next century will be…” etc.), it returned with a vengeance in the mouth of the current Condem Foreign Secretary. And just when we all thought it would be kept to the occasional speeches on matters of business abroad, Mr Hague has shown how fully committed to being a ConDem with a capital CD he is by doing what so many of his fellows seem to do and getting himself involved in a smutty, sex-based scandal.

OF COURSE, IN THE XXI CENTURY no one in their right mind (which one should not automatically extend to people who vote Liberal Democrat) would ever dream of criticising a government minister for being homosexual, but fingers and tongues will always wag if a minister is doing something which even he or she finds shameful. And if this is paid for by the tax-payer then the knives will be sharpened at the Telegraph, the Express and the Mail.

THUS BOYISH CHRISTOPHER MYERS, Mr Hague’s travelling companion and aide-de-camp in hotels on three continents over recent months, had to be sacrificed and leave his job in order to save Hague’s political future. Which even today looked in doubt again after the drivel he has been writing on his “twitter” machine about the “big lie” told about him. He has “nailed the gay rumours”, he tells us. All of us at Sunday Morning wish him well when he is soon shuffled off for medical attention.