International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day, 8th March 2021, a day where we can: “Celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness against bias, and take action for equality.”

Of course there may be some men reading this who are feeling a little left out - they can put International Men’s Day in the diary, it is 19th November each year.

This year International Women’s Day (IWD) is asking people to choose to challenge #ChooseToChallenge. I think this means that we need to do more than just think about bias and equality, we need to challenge it when we see it, and I think we see it everywhere.

By December 1963 Christine was tired and beaten so she pleaded guilty to perjury and was given a nine month sentence. As it is International Women’s Day I wanted to talk about one of the reasons Christine was so beaten down and why she felt fighting was hopeless. To help illustrate some of the hate being thrown at Christine at the time, some of the ‘bias’ she suffered, I wanted to share how she was being talked about by MPs in the House of Commons.

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21 March 1963

Mrs Barbara Castle:
...the Press is at this moment pursuing the question of where Miss Christine Keeler has gone, the missing "call girl", the vanished witness.

Mr R T Paget:
What do the rumours amount to? They amount to the fact that a Minister is said to be acquainted with an extremely pretty girl. As far as I am concerned, I should have thought that that was a matter for congratulation rather than inquiry.

17 June 1963

Mr Harold Wilson:
Saturday's papers told of an opportunist night club proprietor who had offered Miss Christine Keeler—or should I refer to her as Miss Christine Keeler Ltd. - a night club job at a salary of £5,000 a week, and I say to the Prime Minister that there is something utterly nauseating about a system of society which pays a harlot 25 times as much as it pays its Prime Minister, 250 times as much as it pays its Members of Parliament, and 500 times as much as it pays some of its ministers of religion.

Mr Nigel Birch:
I must say that he (Profumo) never struck me as a man at all like a cloistered monk; and Miss Keeler was a professional prostitute...


...an active, busy man and a professional prostitute.
On his own admission, Profumo had a number of meetings with her, and, if we are to judge by the published statements, she is not a woman who would be intellectually stimulating. Is it really credible that the association had no sexual content? There seems to me to be a certain basic improbability about the proposition that their relationship was purely platonic. What are whores about?

Mr George Wigg:
But today, when it suits the purpose of the Conservative Party, the privilege of this House can be used to describe a woman as a professional prostitute, and, in addition, we have Lord Hailsham, in the security of his great office and having the privilege of using the B.B.C., describing her as a woman of easy virtue.

Mr Charles Loughlin:
On this question of mistresses, surely there is just a subtle difference between a mistress in the accepted term and a dirty little prostitute?

Viscount Lambton:
[Mr Birch] said that she was not a very literary woman. There have been from time to time great literary prostitutes, but I think Miss Keeler was a prostitute who was basically used for prostitution. …....the Secretary of State for War had been in close contact over a period of time with a spy, with a semi-Soviet agent, and with a girl in the prostitution racket.

Mr B T Parkin:
Is no one in the House today going to say a word of compassion for the poor little slut who is at the centre of all this? ...surely we need a little compassion to consider how these wretches get into the state that they do. It was not that she was short of someone to call her "Darling".
It maybe commonplace in certain strata of society.
There are many others like her. How much better it would have been if there had been some older man, a relative, who had been able to say, "Darling, come home; darling, it is not worth it; darling, what are you fighting against?"

Sir Richard Glyn:
[Mr Birch]...said, Mr. Profumo was unlikely to be meeting what he described as a prostitute for social purposes....There were few people in the country and very few people in this House—and I believe that there was no one in the Government —who, on 22nd March of this year, were aware that Miss Keeler could have been properly described in this way.

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There was some strong language used in Parliament, and I think it helps illustrate her worth in their eyes and helps give a flavour of why Christine would chose to plead guilty, if only just to get away from it all.


Christine, who had never been arrested or even in trouble with the police, is assassinated in Parliament. Is it any wonder that a few weeks later Stephen Ward was found guilty of living off the immoral earnings of both Christine and Mandy.


In the spirit of International Women's Day, I call out Parliament for their discriminating treatment of Christine Keeler in 1963.


My wife/partner, Lorraine, was talking about one of her memories of Christine, it was soon after they met, so around 2001 for a short time we all lived together. Lorraine remembered how one night Christine was talking to her about her story and she just said a little mournfully “You know, Loz” - Christine called her Loz - “I should never have gone to prison”.


And she shouldn’t have.


As it is International Women’s Day I should quite rightly take this opportunity to thank the women who are helping in our campaign to pardon Christine Keeler.


Thank you to:

Mum, Chris - for her love, for being my mother, for raising me, for keeping me safe, and for the confidence she gave me through her love.

​Felicity Gerry QC - Our barrister for Christine’s pardon
https://www.felicitygerry.com

Hannah Marsh - Just started on the campaign, marketing and communications consultant
http://www.marshworks.co.uk

Julie Otter - A friend who has always been there for support and inspiration.
https://ocdistilling.com/blogs/news/ocd-brand-story

Fionn Wilson - A passionate supporter of Christine, who wanted to reframe our understanding of her and would go on to curate the ‘Dear Christine’ exhibition
https://www.fionnwilson.co.uk

Kate Trigg - Producer of “The Trials of Christine Keeler,” the drama that gave oxygen to this campaign.

​Amanda Coe - The writer of “The Trials of Christine Keeler,” for the sympathetic telling of her story.

Tanya Gold and Tara Hanks - who have both championed Christine.

Kacey Ainsworth - for her support and kind words.

My Partner - Lorraine, who has supported and pushed me all the way on this campaign and helps me understand the bias and discrimination in Christine’s story.

My Daughter , Daisy, who is on her own journey to change the world and who is so proud of her grandma Chris.