SHARED OPINION
Now it can be told the shameful secret of Lord Tebbit
FRANK JOHNSON
Iwill say what I want to say. I had some homosexual experiences as a young per- son.' But Lord Tebbit's response to them, as reported in the Sunday Times, was what I call news. That paper last Sunday described Lord Tebbit as 'a vocal critic of the permis- sive society' and 'a critic of Portillo two years ago, when he called for tolerance of alternative lifestyles'. Then came the sensa- tion: 'Yesterday, however, he gave Portillo his full backing and said society had changed so much of late that he can easily imagine a man with a gay past being elected prime minister.'
The Sunday Times's revelations about Lord Tebbit raised the question: can we easily imagine a man with a homophobic past being elected prime minister? There was a time when many of us suspected that that man might be Lord Tebbit himself. I make no accusation about his past but it would be unsurprising if Lord Tebbit, all these years later, answering an interviewer's blunt question, after initial hesitation, and an `er' and an 'um', suddenly blurted out: 'I will say what I want to say. I had some homophobic experiences as a young per- son.' If he did, I hope I would be the first to defend him.
I would point out that one had to consid- er the hothouse world into which the young Tebbit was thrust once he left his grammar school. He was in the RAF, then he was an airline pilot. In both callings, homophobia was, and perhaps still is, rampant. All those camp male cabin crew would be enough to arouse a bit of homophobia in any impres- sionable young airline pilot, such as Lord Tebbit once was. It was in the days before Sir Ian McKellen. It was common for young men to experiment with homophobia. Most grew out of it. Some went on to form promiscuous gay relationships just like any- one else.
The young Tebbit was not to know that by 1999 it would be so dangerous for any- one in public life to admit, no matter how young they were, that they ever got up to homophobia. Will all this harm Lord Teb- bit's career? I hope, and believe, that it will not. Much depends on whether any of his previous acquaintances will crawl out of the woodwork and tell the tabloids that Lord Tebbit was homophobic more recently than he now lets on. Then he really would be in trouble. There is also perhaps a political threat to him. In his coming out — so to speak — for Mr Portillo some of the homo- phobic Tory Right will accuse Lord Tebbit of betrayal. Be that as it may. The broader significance of last Sunday's revelations about him is that they suggest that he understands the balance of forces under which Britons now live.
I have long argued, and these events con- cerning Mr Portillo and Lord Tebbit con- firm, that we live under Jenko- Thatcherism. We are ruled by Lady Thatch- er's philosophy on economics and by Lord Jenkins of Hillhead's on sex. Margaret Thatcher as prime minister presided over a free market in goods, services and labour. Mr Roy Jenkins as home secretary presided over a free market in sex. He also stood for liberalism on such matters as abolition of capital punishment and censorship, both of which causes are included in the Jenko half of Jenko-Thatcherism.
The 1980s' Norman Tebbit was as identi- fied with the economic free market as any politician other than Mrs Thatcher herself. The 1960s' Roy Jenkins was identified with the sexual free market more than any other politician was. For long, Mr Tebbit disap- proved of Mr Jenkins's sexual liberalism. Some of us seem to remember that only a few years ago Mr Tebbit denounced Mr Jenkins for a speech claiming that we now lived in a civilised society rather than a per- missive society. Mr Jenkins, for his part, disapproved of Mr Tebbit's economic liber- alism. He want more state intervention in the economy, though the now defunct Social Democratic Party of which he was first leader was vague about how much. Suffice to say that the SDP intended us to infer that in Mr Tebbit's economics there was not enough. Today Lord Tebbit has won on eco- nomics, and Lord Jenkins has won on sex. A majority of the electorate seems to have decided that, apart from in health and edu- cation, it wants a free market. Some suspect and hope that a majority will want a free market in health and education, too, once the argument is well put to it, just as once the argument was well put to it — it wanted a free market in the economy. But a majority also seems to want freedom in their own, and other people's, private lives. The evidence for this comes only from opinion polls, focus groups and anecdote. But what other evidence is there?
The proof that public opinion is as I describe it is in the attitude of those who live and die by public opinion: the politi- cians. Mr Blair, the most prominent manip- ulator and beneficiary of public opinion, is a Jenko-Thatcherite. So is Mr Hague. So are most other leading politicians includ- ing, especially since the general election, Mr Portillo. Probably Lord Tebbit is not one entirely. We can imagine that he still has reservations about some of the Jenko half. But his belief, if the Sunday Times reported him correctly, that 'society had changed so much of late' sounds as if he might be half way to that half.
Lord Jenkins seems to have accepted the Thatcherism half since he does not often advocate incomes policies and such like these days. So, if all-important politicians in both main parties are now Jenko- Thatcherites, what is there left for them to disagree about? There is only one subject: Europe. But we may suspect that they are more in agreement on that subject privately than publicly. Not that Lord Tebbit is likely to join in that agreement. Mr Portillo, how- ever, is another matter.
When I looked again at that Sunday Times report, to check that quotation of Lord Tebbit, the eye strayed to a short news item tacked on to the end: group sex among gay men was to be legalised as part of 'an initiative intended to equalise the law for homosexuals and heterosexuals'. Legall- sation of gay group sex? We Jenko- Thatcherites have nothing against that, of course. But surely Lord Tebbit would draw the line there. His many admirers who felt let down by his liberalism on Mr Portillo 's past will hope that in legalised gay group sex he will find something new, as it were, to involve himself.
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