Jeremy Thorpe protected by the establishment to the end

Image: Nick Cohen (Twitter)

The BBC reported the death of Jeremy Thorpe the former leader of the Liberal Party aged 85 today. In his hey day he was a popular politician and led the beginning of what was seen as the revival of the Liberal Party throughout the 1970s.

Then came his downfall...

One male model claiming a homosexual affair (and remember this was the seventies and prejudice was still very widespread), a shot dog and a conspiracy to murder case and his career came to an end.

The actual trial was delayed to enable Thorpe to contest his parliamentary seat.

He lost, badly and intervening in the election was one Auberon Waugh.....

There will be more than enough coverage of the rise and fall of Jeremy Thorpe in tomorrows papers and on-line with which I do not intend to compete, but what really sticks in my memory of the whole sordid affair was the way the establishment rallied around Thorpe.

Peter Cooks biased sketch sums up the way a lot of us saw the outcome of the (cough) trial and is probably still relevant today!