The news that Lord Browne of BP has resigned over lying to a court about his relationship with a man strikes me as rather an honourable thing to do. Certainly it is in direct contrast to the attempts of Paul Wolfowitz to hang on to his position at the World Bank despite all the evidence against him.
I agree with Matthew Parris’ analysis in The Times today:
"What this story is really about is the awkardness of gay sex in the business world and our general fascination with the lives of the rich and (in Lord Browne’s case) slightly famous"
It is entirely understandable that Lord Browne would have started out in the closet – after all, he joined BP in 1966, when homosexuality was punishable under British law. And as Parris, I think rightly, says:
"When he was a young man, just starting, there is no way he would have made it to the top as an openly gay junior executive. The choice was between celibacy and a discretion bordering on deception. As the years rolled on and attitudes began to shift, it was too late for him to shift with them, disavowing impressions he had allowed to arise at the start".
Choosing to be openly gay in the business world runs risk to be subject to the effect that has been dubbed "the Pink Plateau" – the Guardian has a background story about its effect and its prevalence, still, in the oil industry. The mask that Lord Browne has worn over the years has cost him dearly – literally over 15 million pounds. And, perhaps it’s just me, but in Mr. Justice Eady’s judgement, I caught something of a lip-smacking revulsion of homosexuality in the words he chose. Also not entirely unexpected, I suppose. Some parts of society move more slowly than others. But now that the mask is off, once again I think Parris is right when he says:
For all the misery Lord Browne will be enduring over the next few weeks, there will come a morning before the year is out when he awakes with a sudden sense that a Damoclean sword that has hung over him for so long, has vanished. His torment this morning will not be entirely unmixed with relief.
Update: Having now read Mr. Justice Eady’s judgement in full, I can accept that I would be off the mark from characterising it as purely "lip-smacking revulsion of homosexuality". It is altogether much more subtle than that. Nonetheless, I would argue that Lord Browne has been made an example of, and perhaps in harsher terms than might apply to other mortals. The mask has a cost.
Update 2: This Guardian leader is a good summary of what I believe to be a fair stance on the matter. As for the Mail newspaper, words almost cannot express my loathing of its twisted values. As Wilde said, we may be all in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars. I might add that clearly the Mail is not, and has its snout shoved firmly down into an open sewer, but that would be an insult to pigs everywhere.
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