THE GREY STATE

Consultants

The likes of maritime consultants.

People who drive cars that are fitted with thicker glass and have far higher consumption rates of petrol than similar looking vehicles. They also tend to have extremely advanced driving skills.

Stephen Crouch

Stephen Crouch was killed after being hit by a car while walking his dogs in the Sussex countryside. He had come to public notice through being a peripheral figure in the Adam Werrity scandal that caused Liam Fox to resign as Defence Secretary in 2011. Crouch's Iraq Research Group lobbying had paid 20,000 to Werrity's company and had had access to the minister who oversaw the arms trade was someone who was never directly part of the British state, however, he had clearly developed close links to senior figures within it. His formal income was derived from rather a series of lobbying companies in partnership with a series of former diplomats and intelligence officers. His actual function was more nebulous. Despite his affability and sociability, he was regarded by many of those who were acquainted with him as being an enigma whose principal role lay in the shadows.

As a youth he had developed an intimate knowledge of Turkey and the Middle East. In the early 1990s he was dubbed Lawrence of Kurdistan because of his pro-Kurdish lobbying. M.I.6 felt it necessary to issue a denial that he was one of his officers. Subsequently, he had a degree of involvement and was employed by the Kuwaiti government to locate objects that had been looted during the Iraqi occupation.

Solicitors

See Also: LAWYERS

Lord Goodman

In 1963 Harold Wilson was elected the Leader of the Labour. It was apparent that he would be the next Prime Minister. The solicitor Arnold Goodman started to act as an adviser to him. The following year the Labour Party was re-elected to power.

In 1964 M.I.5 investigated the connection between the bisexual senior Conservative politician Lord Boothby and the gay Kray twins. Goodman probably played a leading role in suppressing interest in the peer's activities.

In 1967 the band The Move sought to promote their single Flowers In The Rain with a cartoon that featured a nude Harold Wilson. The premier consulted Lord Goodman, who referred him to the media solicitor David Freeman (1928-2015). (Brian Epstein had invited Freeman to co-manage The Beatles.)

A suit was launched in the High Court. Quintin Hogg appeared for Wilson. This concluded that all royalties that were generated by the song should be paid to a charity of the politicians. Thereafter, Freeman enjoyed access to No. 10 Downing Street, irrespective of which party was in power.

Freeman persuaded the Glasgow-based barrister Derry Irvine to serve as Lord Chancellor. He did so at the behest of Tony Blair. It had been Freeman who persuaded Irvine to take on as pupils first Cherie Booth and then her future husband Blair.

Location: 90 Fetter Lane, EC4A 1EQ (blue, pink)

Website: www.gdlaw.co.uk

David Backhouse 2024