Lord Browne : BBC World interview

Jun 23, 2014 • Lord John Browne sits down with BBC World to discuss his new book, "The Glass Closet".

Lord Browne: Coming Out of the Glass Closet

Jun 27, 2014 • Lord John Browne, former BP CEO, explains why business would benefit if it was more welcoming of openly gay employees.

The Glass Closet | Lord John Browne | Talks at Google

Mar 18, 2015 • Arjan Dijk joins Lord Browne, former BP CEO and author of The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out is Good Business for a fireside chat on October 30, 2014.

Lord Browne spent his entire career at BP and served as CEO from 1995 to 2007, transforming it from a medium-sized oil company to a “supermajor”. He resigned when a former boyfriend sold a story to a tabloid newspaper, pulling Lord Browne very publicly out of the closet. He is now the author of The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out is Good for Business, a commentary on LGBT inclusion in the corporate world and the steps companies need to take so that employees feel able to bring their whole selves to work. I met Lord Browne some months ago in London and really think that he has very interesting perspectives and experience (and his book draws from very similar research that Sheryl Sandberg used in her "Lean-In" book).

During the hour long discussion, we’ll have a candid conversation around inclusion and diversity in the workplace. We’ll save the second half of the session for Q&A from the audience.

Lord John Browne | BBC Breakfast Interview | 2014

Lord John Browne talks to the BBC about his new book, "The Glass Closet".

Let Muslim Primary School Teachers Wear Full-face Veil in Class – Rowan Williams

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Former Archbishop of Canterbury says ‘panic’ about the niqab is 'largely misplaced' even if young children cannot see their teacher’s face

There is no need to “panic” about Muslim primary school teachers wearing the full-face veil in class, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, has insisted.

He said concerns that young children would struggle to learn from a woman whose face was covered were “largely misplaced” and that there are other ways to "read” what people are saying.

The former Archbishop’s remarks, in an interview for the Christian think-tank Theos, reopen the debate about the place of the niqab in British public life.

It follows a political storm last year after the then Home Office minster Jeremy Browne called for a national discussion about restrictions in some settings such as schools to prevent young women from having the veil “imposed” on them.

David Cameron rejected the idea of a ban but said he would “back up” schools and courts that ask women to remove veils. » | John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor | Monday, November 10, 2014

Lord Browne Raises Questions Over City 'Homophobia’

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP, has raised the spectre of homophobia in the City and questioned why there are no openly homosexual chief executives running Britain’s biggest companies.

The industrialist, who resigned from the oil giant in 2007 after lying in court to cover up circumstances linked to his sexuality, believes that homosexual men and women may not be being chosen for top jobs at FTSE 100 companies because of their sexuality.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Lord Browne, who is now openly homosexual, said that he believes gay rights should be as high on the agenda as other issues such as gender and race.

His comments, in the wake of the recent campaign to ensure fair representation of women in senior board roles, shine a light on an issue that is rarely discussed in the upper echelons of Britain’s leading companies.

Asked if homophobia exists in the City of London, Lord Browne said: “There appear to be no out gay chief executive officers in the top companies listed on the FTSE.

“This cannot be for want of talent. That leaves two explanations: either LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] candidates are self-selecting away from these positions, or they are not being selected for them.” » | James Quinn, Deputy Sunday Business Editor | Sunday, November 11, 2012

China Suspends Ministerial Meetings with Britain over Dalai Lama Row
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: China has indefinitely suspended minister-level meetings with Britain in protest at David Cameron's decision to meet the Dalai Lama.

Two government ministers have been snubbed on their trips to Beijing in the last month. Lord Green, the Trade and Investment minister, and Jeremy Browne, the Foreign Office minister, saw planned meetings with Chinese ministers either cancelled or palmed off on junior officials.

Lord Green, who was visiting China as the head of a trade mission, was reportedly unable to meet with the Ministry of Commerce or with the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, which sets a course for the country's economy.

"What has happened is that things that are normally handled at ministerial level being downgraded or cancelled," said one diplomatic source.

"In some cases the Chinese have said it was because of the [Prime Minister's] meeting with the Dalai Lama, at other times they said they were sorry but something had come up," he added. » | Malcolm Moore, Beijing | Tuesday, June 12, 2012

BP Blunderer's Golden Goodbye: Hayward Exits with £10m Pension Pot as an American Replaces Him
MAIL ONLINE: The embattled head of BP is on the brink of bailing out today - with a golden parachute to break his fall.

Tony Hayward, who arrived at the company's headquarters in London this morning, will receive a seven-figure payoff and a pension estimated at £584,000 a year.

He will stand down today after three months of abuse left him described as the ‘most hated and clueless man in America’.

The enforced departure of the 53-year-old Briton will top the agenda at a crucial London board meeting today.

He has been widely seen as a ‘dead man walking’ ever since an oil-rig explosion led to the worst-ever environmental disaster in the U.S.

The focus will not be on if he goes but when, and how much it costs. During his 28 years at BP, he has built up a gold-plated £10.8million pension pot which he can start taking at 60.

He is also entitled to a year’s salary, equal to just over £1million.

His departure follows a disastrous series of PR gaffes since 11 died in an explosion on April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico.

One of his most notorious was to admit: ‘I want my life back’, at a time when millions of barrels of oil were gushing into the ocean, wrecking the livelihoods of thousands of Americans.

A few weeks later, his decision to go sailing on his yacht in the Isle of Wight added to suspicions that Mr Hayward was not being suitably contrite. But the level of the fury from America has been extraordinary and relentless despite the fact that BP was not solely responsible for the disaster.

President Obama warned: ‘He wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements.’

Yesterday a BP spokesman insisted that Mr Hayward, whose family have been the victims of crank phone calls, hate mail and death threats, remains the company’s chief executive.

But his departure is inevitable, and will be the second headline-grabbing exit of a BP chief executive in just three years. In 2007, his predecessor Lord Browne dramatically resigned after admitting lying on oath to a High Court judge. >>> Becky Barrow and Daniel Bates | Monday, July 26, 2010

Is Coming Out a Career Killer?
THE GUARDIAN: Former BP chief Lord Browne said this week that despite a shift in attitudes, homophobia is rife — and people in public life are afraid to come out

It hasn't been a great few weeks for those who dare to believe that we are living in enlightened times. It had been looking likely that Dr Jeffrey John, the highly regarded dean of St Albans, who came out in the 1970s and is in a (celibate) civil partnership, would become Britain's first openly gay bishop, but last week his nomination was blocked. There was the teacher in Liverpool who called a pupil "a fat gay boy" and the small but vocal anti-gay protest that tried (but failed) to disrupt the Pride festival in Derby. This week a Tory councillor, Denis Knowles, was cleared of homophobia to the dismay of many who took offence at his description of male Labour activists as being "of the limp-wristed variety". Last week Alastair Campbell revealed on his blog that when he appeared on Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, when questioned about his views on gay rights, said: "I demand the right not to be bummed." Strange that the BBC didn't show that bit.

Meanwhile, some of the rightwing papers got themselves into a state about the "floodgates" being open to gay asylum seekers after last week's landmark ruling that two asylum seekers should have the right to stay in the UK – a story that was given an added dose of hysteria by the bizarre statement from one of the supreme court judges, Lord Rodger, that gay men should have the right "to be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts and drinking exotically coloured cocktails".

So who can be entirely surprised by the piece in yesterday's newspaper by Lord Browne of Madingley, the former BP chief executive who resigned after he was outed in 2007, who wrote that homophobia still thrives in British public life? "Even in today's more tolerant age, there are many lonely people out there still afraid to reveal who they really are for fear of marginalisation and abuse." He highlighted the case of David Laws, the Liberal Democrat MP, who was forced to resign as chief secretary to the Treasury in May after he claimed expenses for accommodation owned by his male partner in order to keep their relationship secret. "[Laws' resignation] suggests that public figures continue to feel they have no choice but to cover up their sexuality," wrote Browne.

Perhaps one of the most revealing things about Lord Mandelson's memoirs, which came out this week, is what they didn't reveal. In an interview in the Times this week, he was asked about his position "as the most powerful gay man in the country", and in the closest he has yet come to acknowledging his sexuality publicly, he said: "I think I'm actually quite a good role model for people who, without any fuss or bother, without any self-consciousness or inverse or other discrimination, are able to make it in politics, to make it in public life … If I've demonstrated that, and provided a role model for that, then I think I've done a service."

Mandelson, Browne and Laws are all from a generation who grew up at a time when it was illegal to be gay, which may explain their reticence. But the last 10 years have seen a huge shift in attitudes, and a raft of legislative changes have brought greater equality for gay people: the introduction of civil partnerships; the right to serve in the military; to adopt; for lesbians to have IVF and for same-sex couples to be named on a child's birth certificate. There have been new laws against discrimination at work and in public services, the abolition of section 28 and the age of consent brought into line with that for heterosexuals. >>> Emine Saner | Saturday, July 17, 2010

Additional reporting by Patrick Kingsley

THE GUARDIAN: Being Outed Is a Blessing >>> John Browne | Thursday, July 15, 2010

Well, Well, Well!
The Conservatives have asked the former boss of BP, Lord Browne, a business ambassador for Gordon Brown, to be a Whitehall watchdog. [Source: Mail Online]

This is the same Lord Browne who had to step down as head of BP for very personal reasons. Interesting times!

MI6 Agent Joined Disgraced BP Boss in Secret Meetings with Gaddafi
Lord Brown and Gaddafi. Photos: Mail On Sunday
This is the same Lord Brown who struck up a 'close friendship' with Peter Mandelson's then partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva from Brazil. Peter Mandelson has been flitting about the world to attend parties of the rich and famous (and sometimes infamous). It is known that he had at least two meetings with Seif ul-Islam before the deal to release Megraho was struck.

It is difficult to tell precisely, of course, without being privy to far more detail; but can't it be said that there appears to be here at least one common thread on the British side? – ©Mark

MAIL ON SUNDAY: New questions about the extent of the Government’s involvement in the trade deals that led to the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, were raised last night with the revelation that an MI6 agent flew to Libya with former BP boss Lord Browne for two cloak-and-dagger meetings with Colonel Gaddafi.

Jeff Chevalier, the ex-lover of Lord Browne, has told The Mail on Sunday that Browne was ‘shocked’ when the agent made a reference to his relationship with Mr Chevalier, indicating the authorities knew about their liaison, which was a closely guarded secret.

Mr Chevalier said Lord Browne also referred to Mark Allen, the MI6 counter-terrorism chief at the centre of the secret talks between Libya and Britain, who now works for BP.

But he did not know if Allen was the agent who accompanied the peer to Libya.

Lord Browne’s secret missions started shortly after international sanctions were lifted on Libya in 2003, prompting an ‘oil rush’ by companies keen to win lucrative contracts – and with the Government lobbying hard on BP’s behalf.

Although Gaddafi agreed to hand over Megrahi for trial as part of negotiations to lift sanctions, oil industry insiders claim BP’s attempts to win business were hampered by objections to the Lockerbie bomber’s detention.

Mr Chevalier, who spent four years in a relationship with Lord Browne, recalled that the BP boss made his first trip to Libya accompanied by the unnamed MI6 agent. >>> Glen Owen | Sunday, August 30, 2009

Related:

A sad end to an illustrious career: Lord John Browne could face charges of perjury >>> BBC | Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Gay Soap Opera >>> Friday, June 01, 2007

Watch BBC video: BP chief executive resigns >>>

So the Politicians Have Let It Come to This: The Royal Navy Can No Longer Fight a Major War!
"We have come all the way from Lord Nelson to a part-time defence secretary, with the consequence that the Royal Navy now finds itself in the most degenerated state in which it has ever been. Labour has done what none of this countries' enemies have been able to do: bring the Navy to its knees." - Liam Fox, the shadow Tory defence secretary

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The Royal Navy can no longer fight a major war because of years of under­funding and cutbacks, a leaked Whitehall report has revealed.

With an "under-resourced" fleet composed of "ageing and operationally defective ships", the Navy would struggle even to repeat its role in the Iraq war and is now "far more vulnerable to unexpected shocks", the top-level Ministry of Defence document says.

The report was ordered by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, who had intended to use it to "counter criticism" on the state of the Navy in the media and from opposition parties.

But in a damning conclusion, the report states: "The current material state of the fleet is not good; the Royal Navy would be challenged to mount a medium-scale operation in accordance with current policy against a technologically capable adversary." A medium-scale operation is similar to the naval involvement in the Iraq War.

The document adds that the Navy is too "thinly stretched", its fighting capability is being "eroded" and the fleet's ability to influence events at the strategic level is "under threat". Navy would struggle to fight a war – report >>>

Mark Alexander

Gay Soap Opera

Photo of Reinaldo Avila da Silva courtesy of THE DAILY MAIL

THIS IS LONDON: Former BP chief executive Lord Browne has struck up a 'close friendship' with Peter Mandelson's partner, Brazilian Reinaldo Avila da Silva, it has been revealed.

The peer, who was forced to resign from the oil giant last month after lying to a court about his relationship with rent boy Jeff Chevalier, has socialised a deux with Reinaldo.

The disclosure of the close links between multi-millionaire Lord Browne and Reinaldo follows reports that 53-year-old Mr Mandelson has become close to Italian fashion designer Marco Coretti.

A well-placed source, who is in contact with both Lord Browne, 59, and Reinaldo, who is 25 years his junior, said: "Reinaldo has seen John a couple of times. They are close friends and know each other well." Mandelson’s Partner Linked with Lord Browne (more)

Mark Alexander

Tout n’est pas rose pour les gays: “Les gays ont des difficultés à progresser dans une structure hiérarchique traditionnelle…”, souligne Ben Summerskill de Stonewall
LE MONDE: Peu regardante sur l'origine des richesses qu'elle gère à bon escient, la City a toujours été une "vieille dame permissive". En revanche, la première place financière européenne se montre stricte en matière de moeurs, en particulier sur l'homosexualité. Dans la haute finance, le gay n'est pas toujours rose. La mésaventure survenue à Lord Browne, contraint de quitter le 1er mai la direction générale du géant des hydrocarbures BP après la révélation par la presse tabloïde d'une liaison avec un prostitué, souligne la persistance de l'homophobie ordinaire dans la vie britannique des affaires.

Les penchants de M. Browne étaient certes connus du microcosme industriel. La presse présentait le patron de la troisième compagnie pétrolière au monde comme "un célibataire endurci", façon de dire sans le dire qu'il était gay. Mais l'intéressé avait choisi de ne jamais parler de sa vie privée aux médias. S'il avait avoué son homosexualité, Lord Browne n'aurait jamais pu gagner l'ultime marche du piédestal de la multinationale. En effet, rares sont les patrons britanniques à avoir franchi le pas en avouant leur orientation sexuelle. Ceux qui en ont eu le courage étaient en fin de carrière, comme le président fondateur de la compagnie aérienne BMI, Michael Bishop, ou étaient des entrepreneurs, à l'instar de Lord Alli, le magnat de l'audiovisuel. Homophobie ordinaire à la City, par Marc Roche (encore)

Mark Alexander

Endemic Corruption at the Top in Business and Politics, and the Unfairness of the System
Never in the history of the world has so much been earned by so few; and never in the history of the world has there been so much corruption.

Nowadays, we hear about corruption at the top all the time; indeed, almost on a daily basis, we hear some new titbit about the goings on of this CEO or that, or this politician or that. Political appointments are handed out based on nepotism and cronyism. Fat salaries are paid to people who have little experience, and sometimes even little understanding, of the positions to which they have been appointed.

We hear about this sort of thing all the time: one day it’s the slush fund that BAE is alleged to have set up, the next, it’s the enormous salary raise awarded to one’s fancy woman, yet another, we hear about the extraordinarily extravagant lifestyle of the gay head of Head of British Petroleum (BP), Lord John Browne, the socialist peer, who, it has been alleged, ran that oil company as though it had been his private enterprise, and who financed an extravagant gay lifestyle beyond any normal person’s wildest dreams: private jets to take the gay couple to the place or country of their whim and choosing; three-thousand-pound bottles of claret for lunches; trips to the Salzburg festivals; and so on and so forth. All, of course, on company expenses. Lord John Browne took the term ’gay lifestyle’ and gave it its full meaning! Pity he didn’t think of giving the term its full meaning out of his own pocket. Indeed, so gay was his lifestyle that his gay French-Canadian lover, Jeff Chevalier, couldn’t keep up with Lord Browne and is said to have had to go into therapy!

The evidence coming to light about the goings on at the World Bank apropos of the shenanigans of Paul Wolfowitz paints a depressing picture of corruption at the very top, in places one would hope would be corruption-free. Fat salary increases to one’s bed partner should surely be left to one's colleagues to decide; further, where such vested interests lie, they should be handed out by those other people on the basis of merit, and merit alone.

Then we have all those millions which are said to have been laundered in Switzerland to pay members of the royal family of Saudi Arabia in return for contracts and extensions of contracts pertaining to the Al-Yamamah contract which Mrs Thatcher initiated many years ago. It was a very large contract even then; now it is colossal. Funny that the name of the contract - Al-Yamamah- has such a whiter than white name; for in Arabic, the name means ‘the dove’. Doves, as we all know, have such a pure, often white, connotation. There seems to be little white and pure about the goings on behind the scenes between BAE and the Saudi government. Anyone would think that those already fabulously wealthy Saudi princes needed even more money!

The funny thing is that there are hundreds and hundreds (maybe even thousands and thousands) of ex-employees of BAE who have been treated shabbily. BAE is famous for its bad treatment of any employee who happens to fall foul of their autocratic management style. How many innocent ex-employees of BAE have had their careers washed up because of BAE, I wonder? How many lives has BAE destroyed? How many sacrificial lambs have there been since the inception of this so-called Al-Yamamah contract? One can only hazard a guess.

Then we have the Bush-Saudi connection. The relationship between these two parties seems most unhealthy to me and to many I know. Bush keeps harping on about terrorism and the need to win the war against it. Have you noticed, though, that he avoids calling that same terrorism by its proper name: Islamic terrorism? One can only wonder why.

The sad thing about the ‘war on terror’ is that Bush is all for beating it on the one hand, but on the other is allowing the Saudis to pump untold millions, nay billions, into the US to finance the propagation of Wahhabi Islam, known to be the most pernicious brand of Islam around. On this score, Bush speaks with bifurcated tongue. So Islam-friendly have his policies been over the time he has been in office that Islam has grown in the States like never before. Doesn’t the president realise that Islam is out to destroy the US constitution? Does he not realise that Islam and democracy are totally and utterly incompatible? Does he not realise that Islam is as much a political system as it is a religious one? Can Mr Bush really be that naïve? Or is there something else going on behind the scenes which we, the ordinary people, just don’t get to hear about?

Then we have the vast inequalities of wealth created here in the United Kingdom by no less than a so-called socialist government under Tony Blair’s watch. It has recently been reported that the top echelons of society have seen their riches increase threefold in the past decade! And they call that socialism! That’s ‘Champagne socialism’ if ever I saw it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am no friend of socialism. Socialism is one of the worst forms of government ever dreamed up by any political thinkers. But nor am I in favour of a form of unbridled capitalism which treats people unfairly. It cannot be right for foreigners to be allowed to come to this country and not be taxed on their earnings from abroad, when ordinary people, you the voters, have to be taxed on any small amount of money you might be able to earn from that self-same source.

In London, there are many who have to slave away for a full week for as little as £400, and often less, whereas there are the fat cats who earn upwards of £46,000 in that very same week!

If the corruption I have referred to is allowed to continue, then we should not be surprised if one of these days the people will turn on the people who govern them. Nor should we be surprised if the pendulum will swing in the favour of socialism in the years to come. Even the very best of parties come to an end, sometime. Our politicians should be aware that people’s tolerance is not infinite. It used to be said that poverty was the breeding ground of communism. In those days, they were speaking of absolute poverty, of course. But I should like to add that relative poverty could also one day become the breeding ground of communism. We should all be aware that this is a distinct possibility. Fairness still counts for something. No sensible person wants to live in a political system that treats the rich differently from the poor. Any country that legislates so much in favour of the rich at the expense of the poor is heading for political turmoil. Those odious systems of government – socialism and communism – are not dead; they are simply lying dormant. And in some countries, most notably in Venezuela, we can see extreme socialism beginning to raise its ugly head even as I write this.

Capitalism is by far the best political system around; though it is far from perfect. The greatest weakness in capitalism is that it plays to man’s greedy nature. In years gone by, this wasn’t such a problem, since in years gone by, the influence of the Church and Christianity were far greater: they acted as a counterbalance to man’s greed, and checked people’s lack of principle, thereby keeping corruption, nepotism, and cronyism in check. Alas, in today’s increasingly secular world, there are few such checks and balances. The Western capitalist world has become a ‘free for all’: you take what you can, when you can.

Corruption, nepotism, cronyism, unbridled greed – these are the sad realities of life in the twenty-first century.

©Mark Alexander

The Excesses of Lord John Browne and Why Your Petrol Costs So Much!

Photo of Lord John Browne courtesy of Google Images

THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: At the time it all seemed too much - too plainly far-fetched - for Jeff Chevalier to take in. But here he was, a 25-year-old once-penniless Canadian male prostitute, sitting down to dinner with the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

And the two men were liberally helping themselves from a £3,000 bottle of claret.

The wine was the personal choice of Lord Browne of Madingley - the boss of British Petroleum, Britain's most senior businessman and host of the dinner party in question.

"Mr Blair didn't know what it was but he absolutely loved it," Mr Chevalier recalls. "It was a 1983 French claret."

Lord Browne had originally met Mr Chevalier through a male escort agency; now the pair were partners.

The tycoon had installed the young Canadian in his £5million Chelsea apartment and was showing him off to the cream of London society.

The cosy dinner for Tony Blair in the summer of 2005 came amid a seemingly endless merry-go-round of dinners, lunches, soirees and parties that Mr Chevalier was summoned to by his tycoon lover, 34 years his senior.

He was flaunted before business and political contacts, diplomats and artists; there were holidays in private compounds in Barbados and opera in Salzburg and Venice (enjoyed alongside Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in their private box).

In Venice, Mr Chevalier would find himself chinking glasses with Elton John and Jude Law.

Travel would routinely be by private jet - which the businessman appeared to regard as a private plaything.

Today [May 6, 2007], in an exclusive interview in The Mail on Sunday, Jeff Chevalier gives a stunning account of the extravagance of life at the top of BP. The true story about Lord Browne – by ex-rent boy lover (Read on) By Dennis Rice

Mark Alexander

A sad end to an illustrious career: Lord John Browne could face charges of perjury

Photo of Jeff Chevalier courtesy of The Sun

BBC: Former BP chief Lord John Browne may now face charges of perjury amid allegations that he lied to a court about a gay partner, reports say.

Lord Browne quit on Tuesday after the Mail on Sunday won a court battle to print details of his private life.

He also apologised that legal statements he made about a relationship with Jeff Chevalier were "untruthful".

The newspaper said it would be handing its "evidence" against him to the Attorney General for investigation.

The newspaper said it would be handing its "evidence" against him to the Attorney General for investigation.

However, the judge in the High Court case said that he would not be referring the matter as he believed that disclosure in the judgement of Lord Browne's behaviour was "probably sufficient punishment". ’Perjury’ threat for ex-BP boss (Read on)

WATCH BBC VIDEO: BP chief executive resigns

BUSINESS TELEGRAPH (Comment): How Browne's white lie overshadowed a golden career by Tom Stevenson

THE SUN: BP millionaire quits over fibs by Andrew Porter

BBC: Being gay in the world of big business

BBC: Does the UK have a ‘pink plateau’? by Anthony Reuben

Mark Alexander

The Outing of Lord Browne
Lord Browne, chief executive of petroleum giant BP, and one of Britain's most successful businessmen, has resigned after he was exposed as having lied about his private life.

He had been expected to stand down shortly, following shareholder dissatisfaction with his performance and a series of disasters - including an oil spill in Alaska and the tragic Texas refinery fire which resulted in 15 deaths - but what prompted Lord Browne's sudden resignation was the revelation that he lied in court about how he met his former male partner - a lie he has now acknowledged and for which he has apologised.

The way the two men met cannot be revealed, because of a ban imposed by the Court of Appeal in March. Suffice to say that they met in a perfectly legal manner, even though Lord Browne apparently found it embarrassing and did not want it to become public knowledge.

In marked contrast to the vicious homophobia directed against gay public figures in the 1980s, it was not Lord Browne's same-sex relationship that forced him to step down, nor BP's recent tarnished environmental and safety record. It was his dishonesty and his attempted cover-up that forced him out. Down and out in the City

Out in the macho world of oil

Mark Alexander

A Gay Story with No ‘Gay’ Ending

Photo courtesy of Times Online

YAHOO NEWS: BP chief executive Lord Browne has resigned following a court's decision to lift a legal injunction preventing the media reporting details of his relationship with a gay lover.

The firm, which said it accepted Lord Browne's resignation with the "deepest regret", said the chief executive would lose his entitlement to a leaving package worth £3.5m and a potential £12m in shares. BP Chief Resigns Over Gay Lover Story (Read on)

THE TELEGRAPH: Lord Browne resigns after revelations he lied in court about gay lover by Joshua Rozenberg

THE TELEGRAPH: Lord Browne of Madingley's resignation statement

Mark Alexander