What, in the name of Jupiter's Jockstrap, is a show of 'mite'?
Is this something to do with bugs and bugging?
Wilson spied on by MI5
Re: Wilson spied on by MI5
If what you say is true Max, then when Mountbatten 'bought it' it was an example of 'what goes around comes around'. He can't have had any legitimate complaints .. it was just business.
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max_tranmere
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Re: Wilson spied on by MI5
Steve, a 'show of mite' is a show of strength, like how someone would show off their mite and power. It means strength.
Re: Wilson spied on by MI5
max_tranmere wrote:
> Steve, a 'show of mite' is a show of strength, like how someone
> would show off their mite and power. It means strength.
'Mite' doesn't mean anything of the sort.
Look it up.
> Steve, a 'show of mite' is a show of strength, like how someone
> would show off their mite and power. It means strength.
'Mite' doesn't mean anything of the sort.
Look it up.
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max_tranmere
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Re: Wilson spied on by MI5
Reggie, have a read of this from Wikipedia. It talks about how Jeremy Thorpe apparently tried to have someone killed and it also looks at rather murky goings-on in the Labour Party at the time, goings on which include Jack Straw who is now the Justice Secretary and formerly the Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary! Thorpe is alledged to have organised for a man to kill a former gay lover of his, as this guy was apparently trying to blackmail him:
FROM WIKIPEDIA
Thorpe was put on trial at Number One Court at the Old Bailey on 8 May 1979. He was charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to murder. One of the chief prosecution witnesses, a man who claimed an inside knowledge of the conspiracy, was former Liberal MP and failed businessman Peter Bessell. He claimed to have been involved in some discussions regarding the conspiracy within the Liberal Party. According to Bessell, who later sold his story to the press, poison had been rejected as a method of assassinating Scott because "it would raise too many questions if he fell dead off a barstool". One alleged plan had been to shoot Scott in Cornwall and dispose of the body down a disused tinmine.[1] .
Bessell agreed to appear as a witness in exchange for immunity from prosecution. His testimony was somewhat undermined, however, when it was found that he had sold his story to The Sunday Telegraph for a fee which would double from ?25,000 to ?50,000 if the prosecution was successful. Thorpe did not testify in the case, but his legal team, led by George Carman QC, argued that although he and Scott had been friends, there had been no sexual element to their relationship. Carman claimed that Scott had nevertheless undertaken a campaign of blackmail against Thorpe, and that although Thorpe and his friends had discussed "frightening" Scott into silence, they had never conspired to kill him.
Summing up the case, Mr Justice Cantley was widely criticised for showing a nakedly pro-establishment bias[2], in which he described Scott as "a crook, an accomplished liar... a fraud". The summing up was at once mercilessly and famously satirised by Peter Cook during his performance at The Secret Policeman's Ball in a piece which has become known as Entirely a Matter for You. In spite of the Judge's direction, the jury were at first split 6-6, but, after 15 hours of deliberation, they finally reached a verdict of Not Guilty. The four defendants were all acquitted on 22 June 1979.
Not long after the end of the trial, Thorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and retired from public life. For the past twenty years, his disease has been at an advanced stage. He did, however, manage to make an appearance at the funeral of Roy Jenkins in 2003.
In 1999, Thorpe published a set of memoirs entitled In My Own Time, in which he described key episodes in his political life. He did not, however, shed any further light on the "Rinkagate" affair. Thorpe has never made any public statements regarding his sexual orientation.
In 2002, questions were asked on the BBC programme Newsnight about Jack Straw's involvement in "Rinkagate", after a tape-recording surfaced of Harold Wilson discussing the scandal and saying: "Look, I saw Jack Straw, he's very worried if he were mentioned in this context, he thinks he'll be finished". [1] According to the diary of Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Social Security, Wilson had asked her to examine Norman Scott's security file to see if it contained any indications that he was working as part of a conspiracy against Thorpe. Straw informed Castle that when he went to examine Scott's file, he found it was missing. The journalist Barrie Penrose has alleged that Straw subsequently leaked information from the file to the media. Straw remains silent on that matter but has denied accusations from Joe Haines, that Wilson asked him to read the files in order to gather information that could be used to smear Thorpe. At the time, the general view, promoted in particular by Private Eye, was that Wilson was using his position and influence to help and protect Thorpe and certainly not to smear him. In a BBC2 documentary on 16 March 2006, Penrose revealed that he pursued or stumbled on the murder allegations in the course of following leads from Harold Wilson, who wanted to prompt an investigation into the role of security services in destabilizing his government. The documentary suggested that Wilson's original perception and intention were to help rather than undermine Thorpe, believing that he was also an intended victim of a right-wing plot by a rogue element in MI5.[2]
WIKIPEDIA ENDS
Jeremy Thorpe is still alive and aged 80. Jack Straw was a bit of a baddie back in the 1970's, but he wouldnt be the only senior Labour figure with a murky past...
FROM WIKIPEDIA
Thorpe was put on trial at Number One Court at the Old Bailey on 8 May 1979. He was charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to murder. One of the chief prosecution witnesses, a man who claimed an inside knowledge of the conspiracy, was former Liberal MP and failed businessman Peter Bessell. He claimed to have been involved in some discussions regarding the conspiracy within the Liberal Party. According to Bessell, who later sold his story to the press, poison had been rejected as a method of assassinating Scott because "it would raise too many questions if he fell dead off a barstool". One alleged plan had been to shoot Scott in Cornwall and dispose of the body down a disused tinmine.[1] .
Bessell agreed to appear as a witness in exchange for immunity from prosecution. His testimony was somewhat undermined, however, when it was found that he had sold his story to The Sunday Telegraph for a fee which would double from ?25,000 to ?50,000 if the prosecution was successful. Thorpe did not testify in the case, but his legal team, led by George Carman QC, argued that although he and Scott had been friends, there had been no sexual element to their relationship. Carman claimed that Scott had nevertheless undertaken a campaign of blackmail against Thorpe, and that although Thorpe and his friends had discussed "frightening" Scott into silence, they had never conspired to kill him.
Summing up the case, Mr Justice Cantley was widely criticised for showing a nakedly pro-establishment bias[2], in which he described Scott as "a crook, an accomplished liar... a fraud". The summing up was at once mercilessly and famously satirised by Peter Cook during his performance at The Secret Policeman's Ball in a piece which has become known as Entirely a Matter for You. In spite of the Judge's direction, the jury were at first split 6-6, but, after 15 hours of deliberation, they finally reached a verdict of Not Guilty. The four defendants were all acquitted on 22 June 1979.
Not long after the end of the trial, Thorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and retired from public life. For the past twenty years, his disease has been at an advanced stage. He did, however, manage to make an appearance at the funeral of Roy Jenkins in 2003.
In 1999, Thorpe published a set of memoirs entitled In My Own Time, in which he described key episodes in his political life. He did not, however, shed any further light on the "Rinkagate" affair. Thorpe has never made any public statements regarding his sexual orientation.
In 2002, questions were asked on the BBC programme Newsnight about Jack Straw's involvement in "Rinkagate", after a tape-recording surfaced of Harold Wilson discussing the scandal and saying: "Look, I saw Jack Straw, he's very worried if he were mentioned in this context, he thinks he'll be finished". [1] According to the diary of Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Social Security, Wilson had asked her to examine Norman Scott's security file to see if it contained any indications that he was working as part of a conspiracy against Thorpe. Straw informed Castle that when he went to examine Scott's file, he found it was missing. The journalist Barrie Penrose has alleged that Straw subsequently leaked information from the file to the media. Straw remains silent on that matter but has denied accusations from Joe Haines, that Wilson asked him to read the files in order to gather information that could be used to smear Thorpe. At the time, the general view, promoted in particular by Private Eye, was that Wilson was using his position and influence to help and protect Thorpe and certainly not to smear him. In a BBC2 documentary on 16 March 2006, Penrose revealed that he pursued or stumbled on the murder allegations in the course of following leads from Harold Wilson, who wanted to prompt an investigation into the role of security services in destabilizing his government. The documentary suggested that Wilson's original perception and intention were to help rather than undermine Thorpe, believing that he was also an intended victim of a right-wing plot by a rogue element in MI5.[2]
WIKIPEDIA ENDS
Jeremy Thorpe is still alive and aged 80. Jack Straw was a bit of a baddie back in the 1970's, but he wouldnt be the only senior Labour figure with a murky past...
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max_tranmere
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Re: Wilson spied on by MI5
Reggie it might be more helpful to read from a bit before in the Wikipedia entry, so I have included a fore-runner to what I just cut and pasted....
FROM WIKIPEDIA
Homosexuality scandal
Persistent rumours about Thorpe's sexuality dogged his political career, particularly in relation to an alleged homosexual affair with Norman Scott, a former male model. Scott met Thorpe in 1961 while working as a stable lad, and claimed that he had a homosexual relationship with Thorpe between 1961 and 1963, at a time when homosexual acts were still illegal in Britain. Scott's airing of these claims led to an inquiry within the Liberal Party in 1971, which exonerated Thorpe. Scott, however, continued to make the allegations.
In October 1975, while walking a friend's female Great Dane (called "Rinka") on Exmoor, Scott was confronted by Andrew "Gino" Newton, a former airline pilot, who was armed with a gun. Newton shot and killed the dog, which had been lent to Scott for protection, then pointed the gun at Scott, but it apparently failed to go off. The subsequent scandal embroiled Thorpe and is now referred to by some as "Rinkagate" but this term was not used at the time.
Newton was convicted of the offence in March 1976. Scott once again used his Court appearance to air his claims of a relationship with Thorpe, alleging that the latter had threatened to kill him if he spoke about their affair. Scott also sold letters to the press which he claimed to be love letters from Thorpe; one of these included the memorable line "Bunnies can and will go to France", which supposedly showed Thorpe using his 'pet-name' for Scott in connection with a promise to find Scott a well-paid job in France. The scandal led to Thorpe resigning as leader of the Liberal Party on 9 May 1976. He was replaced temporarily by his predecessor, the former Leader Jo Grimond and then on a permanent basis by David Steel.
Upon his release from prison in April 1977, Andrew Newton revived the scandal by claiming that he had been hired as a hit-man to kill Norman Scott. On 4 August 1978, Thorpe was accused along with David Holmes (deputy Treasurer of the Liberal Party), George Deakin (a night club owner) and John Le Mesurier (a carpet tycoon, neither the Dad's Army actor nor the well-known GB athletics coach of the 1950s/60s) of conspiracy to murder. Thorpe was also separately accused of inciting Holmes to murder Scott.
Thorpe's political career could not withstand the scandal, and he lost his parliamentary seat in the general election of 1979. His trial had been scheduled to take place a week before polling day, but he successfully applied for a fortnight's delay to fight the election, and then stood trial a week after losing his seat.
At the election, journalist Auberon Waugh tried to stand as leader of the Dog Lovers' Party, but this was ruled facetious. After the acquittal, a punk group, Rex Barker and the Ricochets, produced a 45 rpm record, Jeremy Is Innocent. It consisted of the refrain "Jeremy, Jeremy" punctuated by samples of gunfire and a barking dog.
[edit] After 1979 General Election
Thorpe was put on trial at Number One Court at the Old Bailey on 8 May 1979. He was charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to murder. One of the chief prosecution witnesses, a man who claimed an inside knowledge of the conspiracy, was former Liberal MP and failed businessman Peter Bessell. He claimed to have been involved in some discussions regarding the conspiracy within the Liberal Party. According to Bessell, who later sold his story to the press, poison had been rejected as a method of assassinating Scott because "it would raise too many questions if he fell dead off a barstool". One alleged plan had been to shoot Scott in Cornwall and dispose of the body down a disused tinmine.[1] .
Bessell agreed to appear as a witness in exchange for immunity from prosecution. His testimony was somewhat undermined, however, when it was found that he had sold his story to The Sunday Telegraph for a fee which would double from ?25,000 to ?50,000 if the prosecution was successful. Thorpe did not testify in the case, but his legal team, led by George Carman QC, argued that although he and Scott had been friends, there had been no sexual element to their relationship. Carman claimed that Scott had nevertheless undertaken a campaign of blackmail against Thorpe, and that although Thorpe and his friends had discussed "frightening" Scott into silence, they had never conspired to kill him.
Summing up the case, Mr Justice Cantley was widely criticised for showing a nakedly pro-establishment bias[2], in which he described Scott as "a crook, an accomplished liar... a fraud". The summing up was at once mercilessly and famously satirised by Peter Cook during his performance at The Secret Policeman's Ball in a piece which has become known as Entirely a Matter for You. In spite of the Judge's direction, the jury were at first split 6-6, but, after 15 hours of deliberation, they finally reached a verdict of Not Guilty. The four defendants were all acquitted on 22 June 1979.
Not long after the end of the trial, Thorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and retired from public life. For the past twenty years, his disease has been at an advanced stage. He did, however, manage to make an appearance at the funeral of Roy Jenkins in 2003.
In 1999, Thorpe published a set of memoirs entitled In My Own Time, in which he described key episodes in his political life. He did not, however, shed any further light on the "Rinkagate" affair. Thorpe has never made any public statements regarding his sexual orientation.
In 2002, questions were asked on the BBC programme Newsnight about Jack Straw's involvement in "Rinkagate", after a tape-recording surfaced of Harold Wilson discussing the scandal and saying: "Look, I saw Jack Straw, he's very worried if he were mentioned in this context, he thinks he'll be finished". [1] According to the diary of Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Social Security, Wilson had asked her to examine Norman Scott's security file to see if it contained any indications that he was working as part of a conspiracy against Thorpe. Straw informed Castle that when he went to examine Scott's file, he found it was missing. The journalist Barrie Penrose has alleged that Straw subsequently leaked information from the file to the media. Straw remains silent on that matter but has denied accusations from Joe Haines, that Wilson asked him to read the files in order to gather information that could be used to smear Thorpe. At the time, the general view, promoted in particular by Private Eye, was that Wilson was using his position and influence to help and protect Thorpe and certainly not to smear him. In a BBC2 documentary on 16 March 2006, Penrose revealed that he pursued or stumbled on the murder allegations in the course of following leads from Harold Wilson, who wanted to prompt an investigation into the role of security services in destabilizing his government. The documentary suggested that Wilson's original perception and intention were to help rather than undermine Thorpe, believing that he was also an intended victim of a right-wing plot by a rogue element in MI5.[2]
FROM WIKIPEDIA
Homosexuality scandal
Persistent rumours about Thorpe's sexuality dogged his political career, particularly in relation to an alleged homosexual affair with Norman Scott, a former male model. Scott met Thorpe in 1961 while working as a stable lad, and claimed that he had a homosexual relationship with Thorpe between 1961 and 1963, at a time when homosexual acts were still illegal in Britain. Scott's airing of these claims led to an inquiry within the Liberal Party in 1971, which exonerated Thorpe. Scott, however, continued to make the allegations.
In October 1975, while walking a friend's female Great Dane (called "Rinka") on Exmoor, Scott was confronted by Andrew "Gino" Newton, a former airline pilot, who was armed with a gun. Newton shot and killed the dog, which had been lent to Scott for protection, then pointed the gun at Scott, but it apparently failed to go off. The subsequent scandal embroiled Thorpe and is now referred to by some as "Rinkagate" but this term was not used at the time.
Newton was convicted of the offence in March 1976. Scott once again used his Court appearance to air his claims of a relationship with Thorpe, alleging that the latter had threatened to kill him if he spoke about their affair. Scott also sold letters to the press which he claimed to be love letters from Thorpe; one of these included the memorable line "Bunnies can and will go to France", which supposedly showed Thorpe using his 'pet-name' for Scott in connection with a promise to find Scott a well-paid job in France. The scandal led to Thorpe resigning as leader of the Liberal Party on 9 May 1976. He was replaced temporarily by his predecessor, the former Leader Jo Grimond and then on a permanent basis by David Steel.
Upon his release from prison in April 1977, Andrew Newton revived the scandal by claiming that he had been hired as a hit-man to kill Norman Scott. On 4 August 1978, Thorpe was accused along with David Holmes (deputy Treasurer of the Liberal Party), George Deakin (a night club owner) and John Le Mesurier (a carpet tycoon, neither the Dad's Army actor nor the well-known GB athletics coach of the 1950s/60s) of conspiracy to murder. Thorpe was also separately accused of inciting Holmes to murder Scott.
Thorpe's political career could not withstand the scandal, and he lost his parliamentary seat in the general election of 1979. His trial had been scheduled to take place a week before polling day, but he successfully applied for a fortnight's delay to fight the election, and then stood trial a week after losing his seat.
At the election, journalist Auberon Waugh tried to stand as leader of the Dog Lovers' Party, but this was ruled facetious. After the acquittal, a punk group, Rex Barker and the Ricochets, produced a 45 rpm record, Jeremy Is Innocent. It consisted of the refrain "Jeremy, Jeremy" punctuated by samples of gunfire and a barking dog.
[edit] After 1979 General Election
Thorpe was put on trial at Number One Court at the Old Bailey on 8 May 1979. He was charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to murder. One of the chief prosecution witnesses, a man who claimed an inside knowledge of the conspiracy, was former Liberal MP and failed businessman Peter Bessell. He claimed to have been involved in some discussions regarding the conspiracy within the Liberal Party. According to Bessell, who later sold his story to the press, poison had been rejected as a method of assassinating Scott because "it would raise too many questions if he fell dead off a barstool". One alleged plan had been to shoot Scott in Cornwall and dispose of the body down a disused tinmine.[1] .
Bessell agreed to appear as a witness in exchange for immunity from prosecution. His testimony was somewhat undermined, however, when it was found that he had sold his story to The Sunday Telegraph for a fee which would double from ?25,000 to ?50,000 if the prosecution was successful. Thorpe did not testify in the case, but his legal team, led by George Carman QC, argued that although he and Scott had been friends, there had been no sexual element to their relationship. Carman claimed that Scott had nevertheless undertaken a campaign of blackmail against Thorpe, and that although Thorpe and his friends had discussed "frightening" Scott into silence, they had never conspired to kill him.
Summing up the case, Mr Justice Cantley was widely criticised for showing a nakedly pro-establishment bias[2], in which he described Scott as "a crook, an accomplished liar... a fraud". The summing up was at once mercilessly and famously satirised by Peter Cook during his performance at The Secret Policeman's Ball in a piece which has become known as Entirely a Matter for You. In spite of the Judge's direction, the jury were at first split 6-6, but, after 15 hours of deliberation, they finally reached a verdict of Not Guilty. The four defendants were all acquitted on 22 June 1979.
Not long after the end of the trial, Thorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and retired from public life. For the past twenty years, his disease has been at an advanced stage. He did, however, manage to make an appearance at the funeral of Roy Jenkins in 2003.
In 1999, Thorpe published a set of memoirs entitled In My Own Time, in which he described key episodes in his political life. He did not, however, shed any further light on the "Rinkagate" affair. Thorpe has never made any public statements regarding his sexual orientation.
In 2002, questions were asked on the BBC programme Newsnight about Jack Straw's involvement in "Rinkagate", after a tape-recording surfaced of Harold Wilson discussing the scandal and saying: "Look, I saw Jack Straw, he's very worried if he were mentioned in this context, he thinks he'll be finished". [1] According to the diary of Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Social Security, Wilson had asked her to examine Norman Scott's security file to see if it contained any indications that he was working as part of a conspiracy against Thorpe. Straw informed Castle that when he went to examine Scott's file, he found it was missing. The journalist Barrie Penrose has alleged that Straw subsequently leaked information from the file to the media. Straw remains silent on that matter but has denied accusations from Joe Haines, that Wilson asked him to read the files in order to gather information that could be used to smear Thorpe. At the time, the general view, promoted in particular by Private Eye, was that Wilson was using his position and influence to help and protect Thorpe and certainly not to smear him. In a BBC2 documentary on 16 March 2006, Penrose revealed that he pursued or stumbled on the murder allegations in the course of following leads from Harold Wilson, who wanted to prompt an investigation into the role of security services in destabilizing his government. The documentary suggested that Wilson's original perception and intention were to help rather than undermine Thorpe, believing that he was also an intended victim of a right-wing plot by a rogue element in MI5.[2]