Jeremy Thorpe

But the Lib Dems, you know, ever since nineteen fifty-nine when [chuckling] th-the year after I was born, nearly always, they've had a charismatic leader.

You know, Jo Grimmond, uh, Jeremy Thorpe, Paddy Ashdown, uh, right up to, to Tim Farron.

And with very few exceptions, they've always had one member of the parliamentary party you can put into that category.

And, uh, I don't think you can put Ed Davey into that category.

His co-author was fellow KC Geoffrey Robertson, with whom Andrew Nicol also founded the internationally renowned Doughty Street Chambers.

They worked together on a series of precedent-setting cases, including one where they defended journalists from the New Statesman who were held in contempt of court for interviewing jurors in the infamous trial of Jeremy Thorpe, the MP charged with conspiring to murder his former male lover.

I have always maintained that I was innocent of the charges brought against me and the verdict of the jury... after a prolonged and careful investigation by them, I regard as totally fair, just and a complete vindication.

A couple of journalists had interviewed the jurors after they acquitted Thorpe, and they explained that they all thought Thorpe was guilty, but they had to obey the judge's instructions.

So...

We can't find out any longer that that misbehaviour happens.

Wasn't it the case during that new statesman, Jeremy Thorpe, Jura trial, that the young Andrew Nicol got in trouble for wearing the wrong shoes?

Yes, it was extraordinary that he was reported to the Bar Council for wearing brown shoes.

Okay.

Well, since we've done the green death, I recommend you watch TV production called A Very English Scandal, written by Russell T. Davis and directed by Stephen Frizz, starring Ben Whishaw as Norman Scott and Hugh Grant as would-be Prime Minister Jeremy Thorpe, who was in the parallel universe of Doctor Who.

is the Prime Minister, but in our universe was an attempted murderer who tried to kill Benoit Shaw.

Spoilers.

McQueen writes for Private Eye, so he's very well informed.

The first book is set in 1976, during the last days of Harold Wilson's premiership, and features Jeremy Thorpe.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, well, you know, we've referenced both Wilson and Thorpe in books.

Hi, Ed and George.

My question is, what if the coalition talks between Heath and Thorpe after the February 1974 election hadn't fallen through? What would that have looked like, and would it have lasted? And what would that have meant for Thatcher's leadership prospects?

Now, are you an expert on 1974?

Um, well, more than some and less than others.

Anyway, I think, so Heath ca- We, we're going a long way from Lauren's question.

Yeah.

This is all a bit like a [laughs] Until 1975, when the Jeremy Thorpe scandal breaks.

Oh, of course.

We're in Yes Minister now.

Yeah, but not only that, uh, the Prime Minister, Jeremy, is Je- it means is the Prime Minister in this universe is Jeremy Thorpe.

Is that the Green Party?

Um, he was ...

Uh, in the aftermath of several invasions of London in the late 1960s, the 1970 election produces a hung parliament.

Conflicting Tory and socialist policies towards the alien menace drive away many voters towards liberals and fringe parties.

In this atmosphere, a coalition government, led by Jeremy Thorpe, governs Britain in the early 1970s.

However, the alien invasions continue, and with the power crisis caused by the collapse of Global Chemicals, the government's involvement in the Axonite scandal, the Doors of Axos, and the Operation Golden Age fiasco, which included high-ranking figures in the p- in the conspiracy, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, the government falls in early 1973, bringing the Labour Party, with Shirley Williams as leader, back to power.