Aged 91... he was responsible for legalising homosexuality between consenting adults (over 21 at the time, mind you) in 1967... it took until 2 days after my arrest in 2000 before the ECHR forced the British government to equalise the ages of consent for both genders.
Until then, barmy Britain considered men less able to decide who to love than women.

Barking mad. Alice in fucking Wonderland.

We're still a homophobic nation. And we still believe a 15 year old ought to know right from wrong when it comes to valuing human life but not human love.

Interesting Mail obit, as homophobic as they dare be.

As opposed to the Guardian.

A while back Tom Robinson on the radio said about the over 21 law that it wasn't actually legal.

Can't remember the exact reason but it remained illegal (Unlawful?) but could be ignored or something equally bizarre.

Leo Abse came from an era when people joined Parliament as a sign of public service rather than today -as a stepping stone on the career path to somewhere else-while you plunder the public purse and make shonky deals with private enterprise.

Parliaments then had decent men in all the parties.

I read that when Lord Wolfenden was preparing his report-he asked his son if he could kindly desist from wearing make-up in public !
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do you mean the Tom Robinson ?

I can remember being in Trafalgar Square with thousands of others as the band sang "Sing If You're Glad To Be Gay"..what mad times !

where is he now ?

veritas wrote:

do you mean the Tom Robinson ?

I can remember being in Trafalgar Square with thousands of others as the band sang "Sing If You're Glad To Be Gay"..what mad times !

where is he now ?

Tom Robinson is still writing and recording at his leisure and also broadcasts on Radio 2. He's also married with a wife and kids!
I bet no-one at Trafalgar Square that day would have predicted any of that!

Yes, the Tom Robinson.

IRC it was a two part series on Radio 4 about the gay scene. Another IRC - there had been prosecutions of consenting males over 21, the the rest I don't IRC or otherwise.

Regarding some golden-age of decent Parliamentarians I recommend Trollope's Palliser novels. We haven't introduced any new customs

And Tom has a powerful BBC6 radio show too.

So Tom Robinson is married with kids! well good on him. Was he gay ? Funny isn't it-I went along to that gathering with my girlfiend (later my wife). I think we maybe thought we were being rather outrageous supprting a "gay' song-afterall most of our friends were gay or lesbian. So now I know here Tom is.

Leo Abse-I've alway thought of Leo as a similar peson to Manny Shinwell..do you remember Manny ?. He epitomised to me the real worth of pariamentary service-a person deidcated to their constiuency. He later ended up in the House of Lords as Lord Shinwell and lived to be about 100. They dont make polticians like Manmy anymore-an advocate that every side of politics respected.