So the man paid for sex. Yes, a lot of us find that morally dubious, but a high moral standing has never been a necessary qualification for any chief executive of BP.
And yes, he lied under oath. But then, Clinton proved that you can be the most powerful leader in the world and get away with that.
So when Lord Browne is described as “disgraced”, the word is essentially being used in its traditional meaning, viz. “homosexual”.
To some extent it’s a self-imposed disgrace – he’s the one who resigned, when he could have done a George Michael-style chat with Richard and Judy and got it all out into the open. But I’d say it’s a fairly safe bet that if it had been a classy call girl rather than a rent boy exposing him, he’d probably still have his job.
Sigh. Browne may not be doing two years’ hard labour, but a lot of things haven’t changed since Oscar Wilde’s day. Elton John aside, everyone hates gays.
