Out On A Limb

‘BACK on home soil, another figure has emerged blinking and spluttering into the media glare after spending most of his life in a closet.

Alan Duncan became the first MP to admit he was short

”Alan Duncan, the Tory party’s Middle East spokesman, last night confirmed what has long been an open secret at Westminster by admitting he is gay,” reports the Telegraph.

”He becomes the first Conservative MP openly to declare his homosexuality.”

But eagle-eyed observers have been picking up on the signs for years and the Telegraph, for one, was not fooled for a second.

”From his address in Gayfere Street, to his tightly tailored suits, bitchy wit, expensive tan and retinue of young assistants, Mr Duncan has cultivated an image that left no one who knows him guessing about his sexual orientation.”

It was in an interview with the Times that Mr Duncan first made the declaration.

”People can see you’re short, but are you also gay?” asks the paper. ”The answer is ‘yes’, an absolutely honest, unequivocal and straightforward ‘yes’,” he replies.

He disagrees with the Tory view on homosexuality, which ”has always been ‘we don’t mind, but we don’t say”’.

He also claims that ”the only way to behave these days, particularly if you’re a politician, is to be absolutely honest and upfront, however inconvenient that may be at first” – another respect in which he strays from party policy.

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Posted: 29th, July 2002 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink