How did I meet Jeff? Umm - I think it was....

Well looks like the Brits have picked off another of the aristocracy.
Not the real aristocracy type, but the purchased one. The deposed is Lord Browne - head of BP.

And his firing has a lavender twist.

Seems like Lord Browne liked boys and had a long term relationship with a man named Jeff whom he met through an escort agency. Lord Browne did not tell everyone that Jeff was a hooker (the man turned BP into a global powerhouse - he knows when to be factually inaccurate) rather that they met under benign circumstances (the gym).

So they dated and then the hooker got the boot after loading up on Prada and living the high life and wound up in Toronto. Seems like Lord Browne failed to see the vindictive streak in Jeff - to the BP head's own detriment.

The hooker, bitter and stuck in Canada, now decides he is going to try to get some "severance" from Lord Browne - who says "no ma'am". Then he starts whining publicly and whips up some story that BP money had been used "inappropriately" BY THE HOOKER to start some ring tone business. BP looked at the matter and found it to be inconsequential.

However Lord Browne was having some of his own problems at work - and this is were his adversaries drove in the knife. The reason for Lord Browne's dismissal was that he lied about how he met Jeff. Oh yes, the hooker came clean when the other extortive activities didn't produce any cash. So the hooker was "forced" to sell the story to the tabloids.

When I was reading this in the WSJ, a couple of flags went up.

First of all - all involved say that this has nothing to do with Lord Browne being gay. It was, by all accounts, an open but not discussed secret. But the whole case seems to hinge on the dirty laundry of the head of BP who was not dating another homo from the upper class, rather some hooker.

Second of all - there was a lot of ink wasted on the fact that Lord Browne lied. And the sanctimonious pronouncements that "little white lies" will not be tolerated. Ummmm - I thought to myself when I read this: "Are straight people obligated to discuss how they met? Is anybody obligated to discuss that?".

I mean, do we expect people to be accurate about how they met? If Lord Browne, head of BP, introduces Jeff as a hooker - isn't that social suicide? And whose business is it anyways?

Sounds to me like there were some enemies made along the way and now they are taking their revenge. And using the gay card. Not overtly mind you - that would be vulgar. But the homophobia is wrapped in the language of trust and presented as if Lord Browne has failed because he lied. The other, smaller part is clearly a class issue - that the upper class frowns upon meaningful interactions with the commoners.

Bubba always talks about how it is not the sin that is the problem, it is the cover-up. But in this case, why would anyone expect Lord Browne to have been honest? Or more to the point - accurate? How close to reality do you have to be in your professional life?

That is an unacceptable shifting of the bar. And now society thinks is acceptable to impose its punishment for the non-crime of a gay CEO cannot (apparently) having a relationship with those of the lower classes. For shame Britain.

It is unfortunate that Lord Browne will now have to fade into oblivion as the closet case who was banging a hooker.