Jeremy Thorpe RIP

Jeremy Thorpe, former leader of the Liberal Party, has died at the age of 85.

Regardless of what you thought of his opinions, he was a politician of enormous talents, charisma and stature.

He was brought down by a series of allegations of which, when they were put to a court, he was acquitted on all charges. Yet these unproven allegations were sufficient to destroy his parliamentary career.

A quarter of a century after Thorpe ceased to be MP for North Devon I had occasion to speak to some of the officers of the Conservative Association in the constituency. I was told that at that time  Jeremy Thorpe was still one of the most respected and influential figures in that community.

We like to believe that we operate in Britain on  the principle that a man (or woman) is innocent until proven guilty. I wonder if what happened to Jeremy Thorpe demonstrates that we do not understand that principle as well as we think we do.

The usual rules for Obit posts apply to comments on this article.

Rest in Peace

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