Aids isn’t prejudiced —- nor are the British people

I was surprised to hear about Chris Smith. His revelation in last Sunday’s papers that he had been HIV-positive for the past 17 years was news to many of his friends. Sombre, I suppose, but in a loose-tongued age it is satisfying to find a really well-kept secret, and one salutes Chris (as I saluted Edwina Currie a couple of years ago) for guarding a significant story so well.

Though the reasoning puzzles me a little, I also salute his motives in bringing this into the open now. Chris Smith has been a rare thing in New Labour politics: a mild, kindly, good man who seems to have the elements of his life in some kind of proportion. And he is right: there was absolutely no need to inform the Prime Minister; no more than for the PM to disclose his heart problems to Chris Smith; perhaps less. Nobody who dealt with this secretary of state for culture, media and sport ever noticed any failure of energy or intellect.