Whatever else Oaten did or didn’t do the one thing he did was fail the hypocrisy test by playing on the ‘good family man’ image to bolster his leadership campaign, which is why he was right to step down from the Lib Dem front bench. As far as his future as an MP goes, this shouldn’t affect him – after all its not as if he has a poor voting record on sexuality/equality issues, which would mark him out as a total hypocrite, as certainly some heavily closeted – and largely Tory MPs – have had in the past.

But then politics is rough old game and he will certainly be aware that Tories are likely to go for him pretty directly at the next general election in the hope that a little bigotry might turn his Winchester seat into a winnable target. What is unclear – and none of our business really – is how all this will impact on his family and through them on him.If they can get through this – which is by no means certain – he may well not wish to reopen current wounds by taking on a rough election campaign where this whole incident is bound, one way or another, to be brought into it.

Owen replies: I don’t agree that Mr Oaten’s portrayal of himself as a "good family man" (and he may well be a good family man, notwithstanding his sexual activities) entitles us to take a prurient interest in his sex life.  This seems to me a blanket excuse for us to be interested in his private life.  As I said earlier, it would be a little different if he were associated with a strong political campaign about sexual values; but he isn’t.

Owen replies: I don’t see the need to "let him sort his life out".  What he does or does not do in his life is his business. Sod the media – it is about time that the politicians just braved it out.  The public, and then the media, would soon forget why they ever cared about politicians’ sex lives.