JONATHAN AITKEN
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: Recently a former British politician spoke in the Strangers Dining Room of the New South Wales Parliament. Jonathan Aitken’s story has been highly publicised. Prime Minister John Major made Aitken Minister of State for Defence Procurement in the hope that his contacts in the Arab world would help promote arms sales. Before long, people were speaking of him as a strong candidate for the Conservative Party leadership. In 1999 there came his folly of accepting Arab hospitality in Paris and Aitken’s brazen gamble to defend his reputation, as he said, with “the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play”. When the case collapsed his wife divorced him. He surrendered any claim to their home, which was apparently bought with his wife’s family’s money.
Earlier that year it turned out that he had fathered a child by Soraya Khashoggi, the former wife of a Saudi arms dealer. The 18-year-old Petrina was a close friend of the 18-year-old twin daughters of his marriage and was said to be confused at the revelation. It is difficult to imagine this man doing much more to let people down. He was on Margaret Thatcher’s inner Cabinet in London and a potential future Prime Minister according to the popular press. But he lied under oath over who paid for his stay in Paris, the total cost of which was one thousand pounds. He committed perjury in doing this and was sent to gaol. He became bankrupt while he was in gaol.
It was while he was in gaol that he found Jesus Christ, who forgave him. He has written his story in two books. In Pride and Perjury he tells the story with frank honesty, interweaving the facts behind the newspaper stories with his own journey. The book is compulsive reading and tells of how God can make a new man from a repentant politician. With the help of steadfast friends, prayer, partners and a close family—despite a divorce— he, like his friend Charles Colston, feels tried and tested by God but ready to face the mystery of a new life. The sequel to this bestseller, which is called Porridge and Passion, describes Aitken’s journey from being sentenced at the Old Bailey through to his incarceration at Belmarsh prison—which is Britain’s most infamous high-security prison. No politician would ever want to end up in a prison like that. The book relates the many dramas he has had along the way to his eventual release and the beginning of a new life with nothing more than a black plastic bag of clothes.
In the sequel Aitken starts his story by being taken down from the courtroom and incarcerated at Her Majesty’s pleasure. He writes frankly of subsequent events. He was visited by the ever-optimistic Lord Longford. He emerges from the jaws of despair a very chastened man. How this old Etonian and former Cabinet Minister, and possible Prime Minister in Mrs Thatcher’s inner circle, managed to establish new relationships and lasting friendships with fellow prisoners, having spent 25 years in the British Parliament, is a fascinating read. So too is his account of the transformation of his life and the influence on the lives of others from his newfound religious belief.
Aitken, on release, was accepted at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, to read theology. He found that the study reconditioned his mind as well is his soul. Aitken has lost none of his charm, fluency and determination, but now those traits are used for greater purpose. He has found a new life with meaning, and the authenticity of his new life drives him on. As I said at the beginning of my speech, Aitken spoke at a luncheon in the New South Wales Parliament on 10 August. Like Chuck Colson, the former White House legal head during the Richard Nixon era who has gone on to become the most influential Christian leader in the United States of America after Billy Graham, Jonathan Aitken, through his support of the Alpha program and Prison Fellowship, is on his way to becoming a Christian leader in the United Kingdom.
As an historian, where would Aitken place himself amongst the British gallery of fallen twentieth century politicians? Horatio Bottomley, the demagogue who went to prison, was small fry, as was John Stonehouse, the former Postmaster-General who faked his suicide to avoid debts. Jeremy Thorpe was disgraced but not convicted. Aitken, the charming sophisticated Etonian, may have to conclude that in the last year of the twentieth century he takes the cake. His changed life is a wonderful testimony to the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. I commend both biographies, which contain many salient lessons for any politician. 15 September 2005.
