Sunday 29 June 2008

148: Keith Hampson 4 - "The Gays"


by Michael Heath in “Private Eye” 18 May 1984

Part of the operating assumptions of Heath’s “The Gays” is that heterosexuals never appear. It is a wholly insular gay world. Which, if you were based in one of the big cities by the early 80s was a not wholly untrue possibility if you really wished. So for comic purposes, if there’s one gay MP in this new ghetto then there must be many more. A few of the MPs serving at this time would later come out, or a larger number suffer rather embossing scandals of their own. The Division bell, as also referenced in this piece about Driberg, is the bell rung in the vicinity of Parliament, and nearby premises often frequented by MPs, to indicate that a vote is shortly to be cast and they need to return to the main chamber.

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