The Sara Keays-Parkinson affair
Stranger's London Extra
A bit of history is needed here. Two years ago, right at the time of the Conservative Party Conference, a big scandal hit the government. The newspapers announced that Miss Sara Keays, who was at that time secretary to Mr Cecil Parkinson, the then Conservative Party Chairman and Secretary of State for Trade, was expecting a child from her boss. This was such a scandal that in the end Mr Parkinson had to resign from the government.
There were a lot of undercurrent rumblings, like some of the newspapers intimated that Mr Parkinson was the son of a railwayman (ie. a worker) and Miss Keays' father was a retired colonel. The implication was, how dare such a lowly-born man upset such a highly-born young lady.
Anyway, Miss Keays was so upset that she gave a long and detailed statement to The Times about how she had been having an affair with Mr Parkinson (married with two children) for 12 years and how he had promised to leave his wife and marry her and had now gone back on his promise, etc. etc. etc.
A God Almighty row ensued and everybody was said to be so shocked that Mr Parkinson was forced to resign from the government. In these British Isles, a married man is not supposed to have an affair, and if he does, the woman should not get pregnant, and if she does, should not have the baby, and if she will, the matter should not reach the public.
Mr Parkinson went and it was reported that his lawyers and Miss Keays' lawyers (in civilised society, when a man and a woman are having an affair, their quarrels are settled by lawyers) had agreed that he should pay a certain amount of money to Miss Keays.
Everybody thought that that was the end of the matter, except of course that when Miss Keays had the baby a few months later, her photograph and that of the baby girl were on all the front pages of the newspapers.
Two years later, The Mirror newspaper is reputed to have paid about £150,000 to Miss Keays for the privilege of serialising her account of the 12-year affair she had with Mr Parkinson. She is reported to have kept detailed diary and tape-recorded accounts of all the events in her 12-year association with her lover.
Serious political commentators and journalists have been analysing the impact of these revelations on the Conservative Party, the Government, Mr Parkinson and Mrs Thatcher.
You would forgive a stranger who is entirely baffled by it all. This is a society where it is quite acceptable to have two, three, four or any number of divorces, where people go all the way to the House of Lords to get legal permission to marry their mother-in- law, where homosexuals get married such things are not considered scandalous here.
Copies of the incriminating photographs were sent to Accra where they were shown to the Head of State - at the time a General. He took one look and another and burst out laughing to the total consternation of the foreign diplomat who had brought them.
There is a lot being made of the fact that Mr Parkinson apparently told Miss Keays a lot about the inner workings of government. A Member of Parliament has actually gone on record as calling for the prosecution of Mr Parkinson for divulging cabinet secrets to Miss Keays. And yet the woman was his secretary, who would, even if they were not having an affair, have access to all his papers and know everything about what goes on at the meetings Mr Parkinson attended. She still could have written a book about her memoirs as somebody very close to the centre of power.
For strangers who do not know that there are in the Cabinet currently, men who had left their first wives and married their secretaries, it is all very baffling, but then the British are a race apart.
Obviously, if Mr Parkinson had left his wife and married his mistress of 12 years, he might have conceivably remained in Government, and there wouldn't be a scandal.
Which leads me to recall a story that is told about a former Ghanaian Head of State. (Names are being withheld to spare the sensibilities of living personalities.) There was a Ghanaian Foreign Service Officer serving in an Eastern bloc country. His host government were anxious to get him to serve them and tried many approaches without success. As a last resort they tried the time-tested method and planted a beautiful girl on him and as in a Le Carre book, took photographs of him in many compromising positions. When even the threat of exposing the photographs did not turn the Ghanaian diplomat their way, they decided to take extreme action and get him recalled.
Copies of the incriminating photographs were thus sent to Accra where they were shown to the Head of State at the time, a general. He took one look, and another, and burst out laughing to the consternation of the foreign diplomat who had brought them.
"Mr so-and-so, he is a rascal! I did not know he was so good! Fantastic! I ought to get him to tell me about some of the positions he tried with the girl, he must have been a great hit in the town and among the girls!" and many more words to that effect.
In other words, he told the would-be blackmailers that their photographs were at best a source of amusement. I cannot swear to this bit, but it is said that his career has since then risen and risen. The matter was supposed to be of interest only to his wife, who was persuaded by the Head of State to see the funny side...
It did not affect his career, he could not be blackmailed, the foreign diplomats went about with egg all over their faces, and the public certainly was not interested or at least, those members of the Ghanaian press who heard of the incident did not think it of the slightest interest to the public. I shudder to think what would have happened to a British public official in his position
