H. Montgomery Hyde
Jeff Dudgeon joined me on the programme this morning to talk about H. Montgomery Hyde, the Ulster Unionst MP for North Belfast who led the movement for homosexual law reform within Parliament in the 1950s and paid for his efforts with the loss of his political career. Jeff recently presented a paper on Hyde at a conference in King's College, London, marking the 50th anniversary of the Wolfenden Report. Hyde's story is quite remarkable. You can listen again here.
Comments
Truly astonishing stuff. I had no idea that an Ulster Unionist MP was so liberal and progressive in the 50s. Changed days! Then again, the constituency destroyed his career so maybe not much has changed. Interested to hear that Paisely was part of that deselection.
See here for part [i] of Jeff's paper given at Wolfenden50 conference (28-30 June), King’s College London, on 30 June 2007.
https://upstartpublishing.com/2007/07/15/h-montgomery-hyde-the-ulster-unionist-mp-part-i/
one nice quote
As to religion, Hyde wrote, “For a time, I admit I was greatly attracted to the Roman church, especially the ritual, so much more appealing to my aesthetic sense than the dull Protestant services. But already at Queen’s I was beginning to have doubts about all religious beliefs.” [iii] This lack of religious belief enabled Hyde to break from many related conformities. In the House of Commons, he always affirmed, instead of taking the oath but this, he said, was never noticed back home.
What ever happened to this kind of liberal unionism? Jeff Dudgeon has done us all a favour by reminding us of one of the least celebrated figures in the UK's civil rights history. I hope Hyde soon gets the credit he deserves.
This is what you get since yesterday when you try to hear Sunday Sequence from your link.
"We are experiencing severe technical problems, and regret that many programmes are unavailable. We are working to restore normal service. See station websites for alternative links."
Pathetic. BBC really needs an entire organizational makeover, the IT department included.
Congratulations to Jeff Dudgeon for the paper. Jeff deserves a lot more recognition himself after what he did for Northern Ireland and civil rights
It may SAY that Mark, but I have yet to find any choice that doesn't play!!
Despite your constant sniping at the BBC, I'm glad to tell you that the British public appreciate the ad free, public service and diverse programming it provides.
https://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,,2076408,00.html
Well done Jeff. Great article. Important that people remember this man.
Freethinker, here's what it says today;
"We are currently experiencing technical problems with listen again streams on the BBC Radio Player."
"We regret that many programmes are not available. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible."
I had problems in the past with Real Player and I've eliminated it from my computer. I'm not downloading it again. I know many other people who feel the same way. BTW, I'm getting far fewer "comment submission error" messages than I used to on BBC's web site. Perhaps BBC took my advice and finally outsourced work on solving some of their IT problems...to India.
Freethinker- Don't assume to speak on behalf of "the British public" with regard to what they think of the BBC.
During a survey conducted as part of the BBC Charter Review a couple of years ago and acknowledged by the Charter Review Green Paper in 2005, a “significant” percentage of those surveyed strongly opposed the license fee. 58% want to be able to choose whether to receive BBC services or not. 48% suggested alternative funding models based on either subscription, advertising or sponsorships. An amazingly high dissatisfaction rate too: only 46% believe the license fee offers “fairly good” value for money.
Hope you’re keeping well Jeff many years have passed since I sat in your class at Dunlambert S.S. when you were my form teacher. I listen with interest whenever you contribute to Sunday Sequence.