Lord Browne gay quotas: This is the worst form of social engineering

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Lord Browne gay quotas: This is the worst form of social engineering

June 1st, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Andrew Pierce

PUBLISHED:

09:59 EST, 31 May 2012

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UPDATED:

10:49 EST, 31 May 2012

Lord Browne, former BP chief executive, might have been a more accomplished businessman if he had come out of the closer sooner

When he was chief executive of BP Lord Browne of Madingley, often described as Tony Blair’s favourite businessman, was one of the most influential men on the planet.

In 2005 he was asked by the Financial Times if he was gay. He replied ‘you have got the wrong man there’. The journalists knew that he was lying. His sexuality was an open secret in certain circles.

Browne, in his speech at Arup this week to launch the company’s Connect Out gay networking organisation, revealed he had lived in the closet for so long was because of his mother Paula. Mrs Browne regularly accompanied her son to BP social events to the evident bemusement of some of his colleagues.

David Laws, who resigned as Chief Secretary to the Treasury over his expenses fiddle, also cited his aged mother for hiding his sexuality. Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem MP, came up with something similar.

Does anyone really think their mothers hadn’t worked it out for themselves? I told my Roman Catholic mother, to whom I was equally devoted, in 1983 long before homosexuality had become a fashionable cause.

My sexuality was not a problem for my parents who would have loved me equally whether I was straight or gay. But Browne, in his speech, went further.

‘My mother, whom I dearly loved, rejected any discussion of my sexuality, as many parents do. With her background of being persecuted she was sure that the same would happen to me. After all, that is what she had seen in Auschwitz.’

Praise: Former Wales rugby player Gareth Thomas received widespread support when he admitted publicly that he was gay in 2009

I was in the audience to hear Browne’s speech. No one argued with his extraordinary reasoning. But afterwards many people agreed that he could and should have persuaded his mother that living a lie was making him unhappy and, I’m afraid to say, a laughing stock among his senior colleagues.

Of course people are entitled to be private about their sexuality. But people who are in exalted positions such as Lord Browne have a duty to be honest.

It would have made it so much easier for other gay men and lesbians to come out in industry if he had done the right thing. Now Johnny come lately Browne is demanding quotas for gays in the boardroom, which is the worse form of social engineering.

If Browne had come out voluntarily he would have received a similar positive reaction to the international rugby player Gareth Thomas who came out in 2009. Sadly, Mrs Browne died 12 years ago.

But still Browne continued to live a lie. He was eventually forced out of the closet in 2007 when he was exposed as having lied in court documents over his lover, a male escort, who he trying to block from selling his story of their life together to a Sunday newspaper.

It caused his resignation from BP. A great career ended in ruins because his refusal to publicly acknowledge his sexuality meant he was reduced to consorting with a male escort who by definition was only interested in the money.

Browne never revealed the truth about the manner of his outing in his speech the other day. The humiliation clearly still runs deep. He says he now feels liberated and more relaxed. I’m glad he does. But I’m still troubled by Browne’s apparent conversion to talking publicly about his homophobia in the boardroom.

During questions at the end I asked him if he would take the same route, and cover-up his sexuality if he had his time again and if that was the only way to ensure he could rise to become Britain’s most successful businessman. His answer spoke volumes about his priorities in life. ‘That is a difficult question,’ he said. ‘I don’t know the answer.’

What an incredibly sad response. Being true to himself, and honest with his friends and family, would have made Lord Browne a more confident and relaxed person and perhaps an even more accomplished businessman.