I remember the gay-baiting student Liam Fox as active in the banning of a Gay Society at Glasgow University Union in the early 1980’s. As President of Dundee University Students Association, which at the time had close ties with our Glasgow counterparts in the Scottish campaign against the NUS, I tried to change their mind, and that was my first memory of the odious little bigot.
Being sick in bed this weekend and paying little attention to the news, I had presumed that Fox’s “ex-flatmate” Adam Werritty was of his own age, a flatmate from students days or impecunious early employment. I also presumed that Werritty had been Fox’s best man back in a similar period. I am surprised to find that the 40 year old Fox picked up the 24 year old Werritty at a meeting in Edinburgh Unversity only ten years ago, shortly after that Werritty moved into his flat, and after they had known each other just four years, Werrity was apparently Liam’s closest buddy on earth and became his best man.
Fox accommodated Werritty in taxpayer funded accommodation and around the best man period was funding him on his MPs expenses – before the “Atlantic Bridge” fake charity wheeze. Fox was found by the expenses scandal investigation to have “overclaimed” over £20,000 in mortgage payments and was forced to pay it back. It is unclear why Fox was not prosecuted. He also charged mobile phone bills of over £17,000 to the taxpayer. There must now be an investigation of how many of those calls were to Adam Werritty.
The fact that when Liam Fox was shadow health secretary, Werritty ran a health consultancy, and when Fox became defence secretary, Werritty became a defence consultant, tells you all that you need to know about this relationship. Tory attempts to fog the big picture by focusing on what exactly was discussed at individual meetings are irrelevant. I commend this Telegraph article by James Kirkup, who deserves a prize for best use of the phrase “by coincidence”.
Concerning as all this is, I’m even more worried by the policies on drones advanced while Liam Fox is at the Ministry of Defence. See http://thefriend.org/article/playstation-warfare/ for the clearest brief account I’ve read (and apologies to anyone who minds that it’s in a Quaker publication). Given that drones are being manufactured and marketed in Britain, as well as on the verge of being operated from Britain, I think this is even more urgent than political corruption – and the potential use of the Mantis drone, which can attack without human intervention, is a particularly dangerous development of aerial warfare.
Corruption in the government? Plus ca change. Whither democracy – even the Lib Dems are just clones now.
Toby Helm, political editor Observer on Twitter yesterday,
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Liam fox likes to boast about his friendship with the barclay bros. Not doing him much good as DT goes for the jugular tonight.
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9 Oct
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What is so dusgusting is that this pair who were living on the hog’s back on the taxpayers’ funding, staying in first class hotels and the like. are involved in the procurement and use of weaponry that kills, destroys and maims. Liam Fox is a war criminal. He is a medical doctor and unbelievably once said I will do no harm.
Rupert Neate of the Guardian co-wrote this piece. I saw him on TV yesterday and was impressed. I think he has a lot more to tell us about Fox.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/10/liam-fox-battles-to-save-career
Kathz, why should anyone mind that your link is from the Quaker magazine? Quakers are well known for their peace testimony and their work for peace and reconciliation. More Quakers required!
http://www.quaker.org.uk/taking-action-drones
Kathz,
My daughter goes to a Quaker school.
This is the Hippocratic Oath, classic and modern versions, which Dr Fox once swore to uphold. Before he entered Parliament he was a GP in Beaconsfield. His wife Dr Jesme Baird works (worked) for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. They were both medical students at Glasgow University.
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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html
Off topic but please sign. We are in the last chance saloon. Once the NHS as we know it has been destroyed, it can never be recreated. Going, going, gone. All we have in this illusory democracy are words. The majority are complacent and will not realize the situation until they need help.
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Urgent 38 Degrees petition to stop the NHS vandalism/theft. http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/nhs-message-to-the-lords#petition
Some of the chaos and horror created by Dr Fox and his NATO cronies in Libya.
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http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/10/gaddafi-loyalists-cornered-in-sirte-rebels/
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[…]The bodies of another four NTC fighters were recovered from the city’s Ibn Sina hospital following its capture from Gaddafi’s forces.
The hospital’s upper floors were blasted after a massive firefight broke out late on Sunday, with intense machinegun and rocket fire.
“It’s chaotic,” said Red Cross spokeswoman Dibeh Fakhr, as medics wheeled patients out on beds and shells rocked the area.
A convoy of nine vehicles, including four large trucks, waited outside to ferry the patients out of the war zone.
“This is not a functioning hospital. The patients need evacuation because the wards have all been hit. There were three doctors here last week, but yesterday there was just one.”
The wounded were still on beds in the corridors, all of them men of fighting age whom the NTC fighters accuse of being Gaddafi’s loyalists — something they denied.
“They think I was with the Gaddafi fighters but it was just an accident,” said Abdullah Mohammed Faraj, a 24-year-old with a stump for a right arm.
Beside him an NTC fighter said: “Tell the truth. Be a soldier. Be a man.”
[…]
Hippocratic Oath:
In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.
Wait, Liam Fox is a war criminal? What? Really?
The Telegraph has removed the article you linked to, Craig.
I don’t particularly care whether Fox and Werrity were having a sexual relationship. It isn’t the career killer it once was even if Fox has campaigned against homosexuality in the past. In a way it would be worse if Fox were able to plead the David Laws defence to explain why Werrity was at his side so often.
http://botzarelli.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/oh-for-fox-sake/
An interesting insight into Atlantic Bridge’s charitable operations, and the philanthropic activities of Mr Fox…
http://www.stephennewton.com/atlantic-bridge-travel-club/
More discussion/analysis of the Fox business is here:
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=33314
Anon, the Telegraph link is working OK for me. Anyone else?
Thank-you Kathz for the drone link. My friends here know ‘drones’ or UAV’s are my pet hate. I have researched their design for a year now while using my expertise to offer a credible way to overcome their built-in anti-jamming properties. Drones are not wire-guided and rely on ground to air and satellite communications as well as GPS, both of which are an inherent weakness.
Friends in 38 degrees are thankfully tackling the NHS reform – thanks Mary for the heads-up. Agent Cameron will destroy out NHS by allowing lucrative parts to be grabbed by private enterprise leaving the resource costly rest in the gutter to decompose and a collection of individual organisations, some NHS, some private, some voluntary – competing to death with each other. Unless…
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http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/senior-doctors-revolt-against-health-reforms-2368608.html
http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2011/10/liam-fox-not-fit-for-purpose.html has some detail on one of Werrity’s deals.
Martin Salter MP Reading sued Fox for libel in 2005 and was awarded £60,000 in damages. A hefty bill for Fox and two others when adding in the legal fees?
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1486119/MP-awarded-libel-damages-over-bullying-claim.html
Yes, Telegraph link working again.
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Good to see the Telegraph hasn’t dropped its enthusiasm for fox hunting.
I can’t find this article under the published URL but I can find it here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/conservative-mps-expenses/8817267/Liam-Fox-and-Adam-Werritty-an-unlikely-friendship.html
So justice is finally catching up with him.
Liam Fox (pictured) the rightwing contender for the Conservative Party leadership has spoken for the first time about rumours of his gay past.
In an interview for the London Evening Standard he claimed that his impending marriage to Jesme Baird should mean an end to any gossip about his private life. However, he refused to deny that he might have had a gay relationship in the past.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-134.html/
I presume Fox has not been prosecuted because his presence is coveted by some shady MoD characters?
@mark_golding
Have you considered …..
Britain is to spend 135 million pounds ($213 million) to double the size of its fleet of Reaper UAVs, Prime Minister David Cameron said during a Dec. 7 visit to British troops fighting in Afghanistan.
http://ezli007.blogspot.com/2010_12_08_archive.html
Shlomo Zabludowicz set up a firm called Soltam, which is today owned by the top Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit.
Even though Fitzsimons and Akehurst hail from a Labor background, Zabludowicz is a generous contributor to the rival Conservatives, led by Prime Minister David Cameron. It is de rigueur for that party’s members of parliament to join the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFOI) and take part in its trips to the Middle East. One such junket – in February this year – included a visit to Elbit’s headquarters. A briefing note prepared by the CFOI underscored how Elbit “provides the British armed forces with the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that play such a crucial role in intelligence-collection.”
http://uruknet.info/?p=m80742&hd=&size=1&l=e
Britain is to spend 135 million pounds ($213 million) to double the size of its fleet of Reaper UAVs, Prime Minister David Cameron said during a Dec. 7 visit to British troops fighting in Afghanistan.
http://ezli007.blogspot.com/2010_12_08_archive.html