It seems sad, but Lib Dem Treasury chief, David Laws, has had a stroke of bad luck - after securing an impressive coalition position, he's been outed in a rightwing paper as gay, in connection to financial dealings that saw him claiming his friend (who lived with him) as a non-partner - ambiguous terrain no doubt. It is to be hoped he can clear his name. To lose a smart hardworking centre-right Lib Dem with such a healthy link to business would be a blow to a government trying to be transparent, if tough.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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