Thursday 9 October 2008

Kevan Jones

Well, is he or isn't he?

The Evening Standard seems to have removed the suggestion from its website, leaving up only the fact that he has been a critic of Forces perks and expenses.

But it has always been common knowledge around here. Can they just not cope with this sort of thing in London?

16 comments:

  1. Is he or isn't he what?

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  2. I'm not sure that we can say it, under Mandy's Rule.

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  3. I've no idea what you're talking about. I don't know what Mandy's Rule is either. It wouldn't surprise me if you'd just made it up.

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  4. It has always been common knowledge (not necessarily the same thing as the truth, of course) here in the North East that Kevan Jones - a bachelor with a very liberal record on social policy, so there is no suggestion of living a lie or anything like that - was homosexually inclined.

    Well, maybe he is and maybe he isn't. But he has never denied it here. Why should he, after all?

    Yet suddenly, as soon as it appears in the Evening Standard, there is a rush to denial. Are people just that much less urbane in London? It really would appear so.

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  5. Maybe it's (a) untrue (as you acknowledge may be the case); and (b) never been printed before.

    How do you know about it being withdrawn by the Standard, anyway?

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  6. Iain Dale blogged about it, I looked it up, it had gone.

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  7. Just had a look at Iain Dale's post on this. He wasn't as coy as you. Reading his piece, I could understand what the point was. Reading yours, not a clue. I don't think you've added a great deal here.

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  8. Well, a certain local knowledge, I feel.

    A lot of people hate him, but none on this ground, which is regarded in an entirely matter-of-fact way.

    But not in London, clearly.

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  9. It's amazing what London people think the NE is like. They all said that Nick Brown would be de-selected when he turned out to be gay. Like anyone who'd ever met him could have been in any doubt.

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  10. I know.

    Well, the beam turns out to be in their own eye. We take these rumours, and more than rumours, in our stride. It's in London that they cause a problem.

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  11. How do you know that "it's in London that they cause a problem"? Surely "it's when lies are printed in newspapers that they're a problem".

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  12. There is talk of revisting the Jason Donovan case over this. I mean, I ask you!

    I say again that Kevan Jones has never been married (unless I am very much mistaken; and he certainly isn't now) and has a consistent record of voting in support of the homosexualist agenda.

    For good or ill, Donovan probably wouldn't have won in this day and age, and I very much doubt that Jones will if he goes through with it. False this may be. But defamatory? Is he actually saying that?

    How very metropolitan. I hope that a weekend in his far more sophisticated constituency of North Durham will calm him down.

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  13. "There is talk of revisting the Jason Donovan case over this. I mean, I ask you!"

    Iain Dale's blog post (your only source for this story, so far as I can tell) is very clear that Jones himself has no interest in pursuing a libel case, and is "laughing it off". Your "There is talk" line ought to be qualified with this important fact.

    "I say again that Kevan Jones has never been married (unless I am very much mistaken; and he certainly isn't now) and has a consistent record of voting in support of the homosexualist agenda."

    Grow up. Not being married and being gay are entirely distinct things. Voting for improvements to gay rights (which I assume is what you mean by "support of the homosexualist agenda") is something Jones has in common with the vast majority of the PLP, along with the majority of Lib Dem MPs and a significant number of Conservatives. This is very much to his credit and theirs, but the idea that it tells us anything about his and their sexuality is ludicrous.

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  14. I never said that it did. I said that it makes it neither here nor there whether or not he is homosexually inclined.

    Or so one would have thought. And so one does think here in postively louche County Durham. But not in Tehran-on-Thames, clearly.

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  15. The front page of his website even says "kevanjonesmp.org - enter"

    !

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  16. Or is that "Enter At Own Risk"?

    I'm glad to see that we've found the level.

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