Tuesday 26 January 2016

Impossible To Disassociate

Jason Beattie writes:

Conservatives are today mourning the passing of Cecil Parkinson.

They have paid tribute to his political skills, not least steering Margaret Thatcher to her 1983 election victory, and hailed him as a “good Conservative”.

One Tory MP called him a “witty, honourable and staunch friend”. Others noted he was a “wonderful member of the Parliamentary Golf Society”. 

The son of a railway worker who won a scholarship to grammar school and went on to found his own business, Parkinson was definitely what Thatcher called “one of us”.

But just like Thatcher, Parkinson divided opinion.

He came from the era when the Tories ran the country with an almost snarling disdain. And for some, it is impossible to disassociate his time in office with his personal conduct. 

Parkinson was not the first politician, and will not be the last, to have an affair.

What singled him out was not that he fathered a child with his secretary Sara Keays but the way he treated his daughter Flora and her mother afterwards.

According to Sara, he tried to persuade her to abort the baby.

After she refused he then applied for and won a court injunction that forbade Flora from speaking publicly until she was 18 or doing anything that might identify her. 

This meant she was never photographed alongside her classmates or allowed to take part in school activities in case it led to her identification. She was even left off the school’s board of scholastic achievements.

We should also remember that as a result of a brain tumour Flora had severe learning disabilities.

Fourteen years ago, Flora turned 18 and broke her silence about the father she had never met. “I would like to see him,” she told the Daily Mail.

“If he loved me, he would want to see me and be in my everyday life.” There were no birthday cards or Christmas presents. 

“I think my father has behaved very badly towards me. I feel jealous that my mother has known him but I haven’t, and jealous of other people who go on holiday with their fathers, when I don’t,” Flora said. 

Her mother said Parkinson’s refusal to see his daughter was “the one promise to me that he has kept”.

Parkinson served twice as Tory Party Chairman and as Secretary of State for Business. His record in office speaks for itself.

As does the way he treated Sara and Flora.

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