I don't think there has been anything quite like it since the then leader of the Liberal Party, Jeremy Thorpe, was outed by his lover Norman Scott in a courtroom tirade which included - absurd but fascinating - allegations of conspiracy to murder. But, this morning Mr Justice Eady knocked Kate Moss from the front pages of the tabloids with a decision to withdraw an injunction against publication of allegations, made by male escort Jeff Chevalier, against none one less grand than Lord Browne of Madingley, chief executive of Britain's largest company and frequently eulogised as the greatest businessman of the current generation.
Browne's entry in Wikipedia rather amusingly, and without the slightest evidence of intended irony, tells us he is 'a bachelor and lists fine cigars, antique furniture and the arts among his interests'. It reads like the kind of euphemism that used to be common when homosexuality was illegal, which was of course as recently as when Browne began in business, and when Thorpe had an affair with Scott.
Pursuing Browne for perjury seems harsh. It is difficult to see what was so important about whether he met Chevalier through an escort agency or while exercising in Battersea Park that he felt he needed to lie about it. I dare say he deserves to lose his job, and with it the £16m he would have picked up in salary and bonuses between now and when he retires in July, not to mention most of his reputation. It hardly seems worth a criminal prosecution.
