Talk:Simon Hughes

message: I've put a citation needed thing after the statement saying that Hughes said on record that he'd like an English Parliament. This is not a common opinion amongst MPs, and it certainly isn't his party's policy, so I think a citation should be added to confirm the accuracy of that statement, or it should be removed altogether.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.242.65.46 (talk) 20:10, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: English Parliament

message: I've added a note that Hughes remains a confirmed bachelor. Given the controversy over the Bermondsey by-election, I've inserted this information in that section, as otherwise the irony might be missed. And to forestall misinterpretation, let me just note that it is a matter of public record that Hughes is in his 50s and has never married, and I'm simply noting this point using a commonly used phrase. Nothing more is implied. WMMartin 18:52, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If "nothing more is implied", why do you believe there is irony that people might miss? I will of course assume good faith on your part, so will clarify that I have removed the sentence "He remains a confirmed batchelor" as people who do not read the talk page will not have the opportunity to have their misinterpretation forestalled. It may be appropriate to comment on Hughes' private life - though I personally doubt that it's especially useful to list things he hasn't done (e.g. get married) - but I do not see it is appropriate to include such comments in a paragraph about the Bermondsey by-election. Valiantis 03:37, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Marital status

message: I've left the helpful new paragraph on Hughes' achievements contributed by the anonymous editor in place, but have restored the deletion of the sentences on the Bermondsey by-election. It is a matter of clear historical record that this election, and the conduct of the candidates and their teams, was controversial. No comment has been made in the article about Hughes' conduct during the election, nor has any fact been adduced which is not readily verifiable by examination of the primary sources ( e.g. newspapers of the time ). It is not appropriate for Wikipedia to include only lists of "my proudest achievements"; rather, we should try, as far as possible, to include all relevant facts - and the fact that Hughes was first elected in a controversial by-election is a fact.WMMartin 19:32, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If we're to be clear about the order of events, then, at least on the basis of what's on the public record, the last two are:  3)  apologised, and then 4) was forced to admit his own homosexual experiences; albeit in fairly rapid succession.  Alai 16:34, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The problem, Alai, is that the apology and the admission are so close in time that it's very difficult to disentangle whether they are two distinct events or one. It's perfectly possible that Hughes decided to apologise, and then, entirely separately, the threat to "expose" him was made, but it's equally possible that he took the decision to apologise after being informed of the threat of exposure, to try to take some of the sting out of the expected accusations of hypocrisy. Since we don't know the order, I didn't split it out in the way that you suggested. I, and many others, were highly confident at the time of the Bermondsey By-Election that Hughes was acting in a grotesquely hypocritical way in pursuit of electoral success, but since this was personal and private information it was impossible to state it in print, nor to insert it directly into Wikipedia even as late as a few weeks ago - it was one of those things that are common knowledge in some circles, but impossible to use. Now that this information is available, though, it is important to make the event's various protagonists' ( and I here specifically do not wish to exclude certain other of the by-election candidates ) unpleasant words and actions as clear as possible. At present Hughes is a candidate for the leadership of one of the UK's leading political parties, and as far as possible we need to get all the facts out in as full and unbiased a way as possible. As of today, Hughes is claiming that his sexuality is difficult to classify, and that he has had heterosexual relationships which have even made him consider (straight) marriage, as well as homosexual experiences, and that this somehow means that he didn't lie when answering "No" to the direct question "Are you gay ?". What private individuals may believe about the truth or otherwise of this cannot be included in Wikipedia: we cannot include hearsay, but must stick to the documented facts.WMMartin 18:55, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The solution is pretty straightforward, and is encapsulated in my point above:  we describe what happened in the public record, and in the order it entered the public record.  If the article were edited to use your "during the period" formulation, that would be making unwarranted and unverifiable implications.  The possibility that off-the-record events were otherwise is pretty clear, but people can figure that out for themselves, or doubtless read it in tomorrow's papers, This isn't the place for currently unverifiable interpretations, even marked as speculative, about verifiable events.  Alai 19:20, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

text: I'm reminded of the tendency of some fairly respectable newspapers, even fairly recently, to print stories on two seemingly unrelated subjects on the front page; the smart reader would work out the link, but it could not be claimed that the newspaper had breached any confidence. ( For example, "Palace Denies Diana Pregnant Again" next to "Prince Charles, pictured here at Badminton with his good friend Camilla Parker-Bowles"... )WMMartin 18:55, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Controversy surrounding Bermondsey by-election

message: His brother Richard died of malaria - one reference at . I haven't added it to the article directly because I wasn't sure if it was relevant enough to go in. --Froggienation 16:06, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Family

message: It says in the box that he is "Right Hon." but his name is not listed on the Privy Council website. Am I missing something? Woblosch (talk) 10:01, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Privy Councillor? 

message: Mr Hughes said the following in Parliament in a debate on 11 Nov 2009 regarding south east London local train service (documented in The Hansard):
The next battle that I fought was about the Jubilee line extension that Mrs. Thatcher's Government wanted. They were in discussions with the people at Canary Wharf about paying for it, but the proposal that was the main runner was for the line to run from Waterloo to London Bridge and then directly to Canary Wharf without stopping anywhere in between. That case required private legislation, and I am happy to say that I blocked it for long enough to achieve what was needed. I later saw a memo that said something like, "If we don't give in to the local MP, we're never going to get this line at all." So I think that the most prized success of my political life has been winning two extra tube stations-one in Southwark and one in Bermondsey-at a cost of £25 million each. They are very valued stations, and it would have been a nonsense to have a tube line extension that did not stop to serve the local business and resident communities, and visitors. Fortunately, we were successful.
Perhaps "most prized success" was just a device to make his point, but it still seems worthy of mention somewhere in this article. Quietbritishjim (talk) 10:07, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  "most prized politcal success" 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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