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To me, family values are simple.
If you have a child, you are responsible. Full stop. If you can’t look after the child directly (mums, as well as dads), then you find the best way you can. But you make sure one way or another that you’re there for them, and theat they know you’re there for them.
Cecil Parkinson, Thatcher’s top Tory who died yesterday, campaigned hard for family vaules, but he seems to have a different approach.
His illegitimate daughter, Flora, does not exist for him. Excised from school photographs, barred from class theatrical productions and left off the list of scholastic achievements displayed on her college noticeboard, Flora was forced, by law, to remain invisible. .
When she turned 18 in 2002, she could speak.
Of Cecil Parkinson, the father she never met, she said sadly: “I would like to see him. If he loved me, he would want to see me and be in my everyday life.” Of her hopes for a relationship with him, her requests have been modest: “I would like to go to the cinema with him and have some fun.”
Flora was left with severe disabilities after an operation to remove a brain tumour 14 years ago and also has Asperger’s syndrome – a form of autism. She was born after a 12 year secret affair between Parkinson and his personal secretary, Sara Keays. Whe the affair was exposed, parkinson was forced to resign, thwarting his (and Thatcher’s) hopes of becoming PM.
Parkinson, Sara insists, had tried to persuade her to abort her baby, but she refused. Shortly after her birth, Flora developed serious health problems and Parkinson applied for and won a court injunction that was almost unprecedented in British law.
It forbade anyone, including Sara, from speaking of Flora publicly or doing almost anything that could lead to her identity being revealed. It prevented even Flora talking of her life.
So far-reaching were its powers that Flora’s schools have had to go to extreme lengths to conceal her identity – thus she has never been photographed alongside her classmates or been allowed to take part in any school activity.
It has meant, too, that her health problems have never been fully revealed. Though a lively, outgoing young woman, her surgery has left her with serious social and learning difficulties. The price that Flora has paid has been high.
She said: “I feel I have been ignored until now and I hate that. It has not been fair.”
When Flora celebrated her coming of age, she did so with just a trace of hope. As she opened her birthday cards, she knew that there was little chance that, this year, for the first time, her father would acknowledge her birthday.
from an article in the Telegraph by Olga Craig, published shortly after Flora’s 18th birthday.
Even so, she hoped. There was no card and no present.She said in an interview with the Daily Mail at the time: “Mummy told me not to expect a card but I do feel a bit sad about it. I would like to see him and talk to him.”
She added: “I think my father has behaved very badly towards me. I feel jealous that my mother has known him but I haven’t, and jealous of other people who go on holiday with their fathers, when I don’t.”
Her mother had no such expectation that Parkinson would contact their daughter. Eighteen years ago, he told her he would never see their child. “It has been,” said Sara, “the one promise to me that he has kept, I am afraid.”
I realise this thread is about him and his politics/power, but I felt the need to sidetrack it a bit.
Quoted Skep:
To me, family values are simple
” If you have a child, you are responsible. Full stop”.
Got to disagree on this.
If one has a child out of choice (wedlock or not), I agree Skep, but if your partner pleads you to abort the child and you refuse, I must disagree.
I don’t find it right that a child should be forced upon a person (be it male or female), more so if it’s within a casual relationship/affair.
Unfortunately unwanted pregnancies do happen and abortion is legal thankfully.He was obviously a hypocrite ( due to his politics), but she’s to blame as much as he is for the outcome.
Having an affair and falling pregnant with/by a married man who apparently campaigned pro family values?
What was she thinking ?
Was she in it for the money? Maybe, maybe not.
Witnessed this scenario plenty of times .
At the end of the day it always backfires.
I realise this thread is about him and his politics/power, but I felt the need to sidetrack it a bit.
Quoted Skep:
To me, family values are simple
” If you have a child, you are responsible. Full stop”.
Got to disagree on this.
If one has a child out of choice (wedlock or not), I agree Skep, but if your partner pleads you to abort the child and you refuse, I must disagree.
I don’t find it right that a child should be forced upon a person (be it male or female), more so if it’s within a casual relationship/affair.
Unfortunately unwanted pregnancies do happen and abortion is legal thankfully.He was obviously a hypocrite ( due to his politics), but she’s to blame as much as he is for the outcome.
Having an affair and falling pregnant with/by a married man who apparently campaigned pro family values?
What was she thinking ?
Was she in it for the money? Maybe, maybe not.
Witnessed this scenario plenty of times .
At the end of the day it always backfires.
OMG what a bloody attitude Blossom .
Abortion is NOT a method of birth control !!!
Why is it always assumed that the “man” was tricked into fathering a child.
Parkinson was married at the end of the day (as so often they are) .
Stick something on the end of it is the simple answer … was he worried about the consequence of his actions at the time ? I doubt it very much.
Parkinsons actions are nothing less than appaling . At the end of the day it is NEVER the childs fault.
Of course the child in this case feels hurt & rejected .. a pretty normal reaction I would of thought.Sarah Keyes lived with her mistake quietly & got on with it. So the suggestion of her having an underlying motive is ridiculous.
Family values my a **e …. Parkinson thought he could have his cake & eat it & rather than take the responsibilty & stick something on the end of it he chose to walk away.
Typical British politicans answer to everything innit do as I say not as I do ! Hypocrites all of em.
You’re right, abortion isn’t a method of birth control, but to be used in extreme cases.
Not assuming it’s always the man’s fault in being tricked into fathering the child, just saying that before falling pregnant one should actually connect their brain and realise who they’re having intercourse/the relationship with in the first place and act upon the possible consequences of it.
Sticking something on the end of it would help, but possessing half a brain would, also.
She’s as responsible as he is for what goes into her (she wasn’t raped or was she? )Well if she didn’t have an underlying motive she was plain irresponsible.
She had all the time in the world to realise who she was dealing with.
Not a mistake after a 12 yr old affair – sorry
He possibly did think he could have his cake and eat it …. but truth is, she allowed him to for 12 yrs, until things went wrong.Of course it’s not the poor child’s fault, it’s always the parents.
Politicians are the same world over tbh…just sayin.
Sometimes the woman does trick the man. It has been known.
And that can mean deep upset for the man, as well (so can a woman’s decision to abort without the man’s consent).
But even if the man has been tricked (it has been known for the woman to claim she’s on the pill in order to have a child, for example), there is a child in the world, and it’s criminal in my mind to just ignore the chid’s existence.
A man may well not want to have anything to do with the woman – in the case of being tricked, who could blame him if that was his decision?
But that doesn’t mean that the child has to grow up coming to terms with the fact that the father doesn’t love him/her.
In the case of Parkinson, who had campaigned on the importance of family values – no excuse. Sara Keays has not been quiet – she claimed he had promised to marry her. Maybe so, maybe not. She may or may not have tricked him. Impossible to know. I can’t judge her, and won’t.
But Parkinson, who chose to stay with his wife, had a duty to stick with the child in some way.
Just my opinion.
Sometimes the woman does trick the man. It has been known.
And that can mean deep upset for the man, as well (so can a woman’s decision to abort without the man’s consent).
But even if the man has been tricked (it has been known for the woman to claim she’s on the pill in order to have a child, for example), there is a child in the world, and it’s criminal in my mind to just ignore the chid’s existence.
A man may well not want to have anything to do with the woman – in the case of being tricked, who could blame him if that was his decision?
But that doesn’t mean that the child has to grow up coming to terms with the fact that the father doesn’t love him/her.
In the case of Parkinson, who had campaigned on the importance of family values – no excuse. Sara Keays has not been quiet – she claimed he had promised to marry her. Maybe so, maybe not. She may or may not have tricked him. Impossible to know. I can’t judge her, and won’t.
But Parkinson, who chose to stay with his wife, had a duty to stick with the child in some way.
Just my opinion.
My point is simply ….. if you are going to indulge in carnal pleasure & you dont want to run the risk of being trapped (as us females are buggars for it NOT) take responsibility & use a bloody condom … simple !!!
Yes I know they can fail too but its about damage limitation !!
Poor girl in this case has enough troubles … she well shot of he excuse of a father.
Absolutely disgusting state of affairs. What people in power get away with. Heartless bastad.
He’s dead now doesn’t really matter
Jimmy Saville is also dead…..it still matters
Only to learn lessons from
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