Page 38 - Spanish Insight - November 2019

Brexit, Boris and the three

in a bed Prime Minister

by Gary Miles

Oh Lord. It’s still going on isn’t it. As I write
this the Government does not have an
agreement to the revised Brexit deal. I very
much suspect that by the time you read this
no progress will be have been made. As I said
before I personally don’t care either way but
God am I bored by Brexit.
Boris doesn’t look too downhearted. He has
a glint in his eye. He’s up to something. We
shall see.
Boris seems to be very like Brexit, you either
love him or hate him. I have to confess to a
sneaking regard for the man and I think quite a
few back home have too. After all, one has to
admire a man who is tackling a mammoth task
like Brexit while at the same time reorganizing
his personal life, following the break up of his
marriage, and dealing with the fall out relating
to his relationship with the American business
woman Jennifer Arcuri. By the way, I don’t like
the way the press continues to suffix her name Wellington is Prime Minister. Earlier, he had favourite philanderer, David Lloyd George.
with “former model”. For one thing they are
using the term to imply something derogatory met and fallen in love with Kitty Pakenham The song goes “Lloyd George knew my father”
before being sent to India for 10 years. On
but it was far more likely that he knew your
and for another I wouldn’t be rushing to put his return he decided she had become ugly mother! While troops were up to their necks
her in front of my camera. and was no longer interested in her. He began in muck and bullets during World War I, Lloyd,
Both Boris and Ms Arcuri have refused to a series of affairs including Lady Frances he was enjoying the fruits of liberty left, right
confirm or deny an affair and, frankly, it’s none
of my business. Whether he inappropriately Shelley, Harriet Wilson, Princess Liveven, and centre. According to Lloyd George’s son
his father in the company of a young woman
the Russian Ambassador’s wife, and Harriet
used his influence as the Mayor of London is Arbuthnot. And they’re just the ones we know was “like a Bengal tiger around a gazelle”.
for others to decide. However, for the tabloid about! Shortly after his marriage to Margaret Owen
press in the UK the key thing is did he or Moving on a few years into the 1830s and he impregnated a Mrs J whose silence was
didn’t he?
But as the Prime Minister of the United William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, is Prime secured with a lifetime pension. Then he
fathered a child with his wife’s cousin Kitty
Minister. Historian Boyd Hilton wrote of
Kingdom should we be surprised at his Viscount Melbourne: ”It is irrefutable that Edwards. This was followed by further affairs
philandering? Is it not true that power is a his personal life was problematic. Spanking including the wife of his friend, Timothy
heady aphrodisiac? Is it perhaps the case sessions with aristocratic ladies may have Davies, and Julia Henry.
that Prime Ministers, that most alpha male
of all alpha males, throughout history have been harmless, not so the whippings It is said that on becoming Prime Minister the
administered to orphan girls taken into his
Times sent a reporter to interview him at his
always been partial to a bit of hanky panky? I household as objects of charity.” Melbourne home. The reporter was led to the bedroom
decided to do some digging. had a long running affair with society beauty of Lloyd George to conduct the interview.
Let’s start back in the 1820s where King Caroline Norton which, not surprisingly, What The Times didn’t print was that there
George IV is on the throne and the Duke of
irritated her husband who demanded £1,400 were two women in bed with the great man
in compensation. Melbourne refused to pay throughout the interview.
and the affair continued.
Into the reign of Victoria and the 1850s where
that rascal Lord Palmerston is in charge. He
had affairs with a series of ladies including
Lady Jersey, Princess Dorothy of Lieven
and Lady Emily Cowper (who he eventually
married when her husband died). It is said
that so voracious was his sex life that Queen
Victoria rebuked him publicly for it.
Bowling on a few years to four times Prime
Minister William Gladstone. In his own diaries
he reveals that he enjoyed the company
of London’s prostitutes but filled with guilt
would promptly whip himself as a form of self
punishment for his activities.
I think the difference between the sex lives of
Prime Ministers in days of yore and today is
that, in the past, none of their peccadilloes
were aired in the press. However shocking
they would have been to the general public,
outrage in the press was suppressed.
Whereas today we don’t really care about who
does what, but we do like to get thoroughly
outraged by everything.
I shall end this month with, perhaps, my
38 Spanish Insight November 201938 Spanish Insight November 2019