Skeletons in the cupboard

Here's to skeletons in the cupboard.

The nation is divided between those who have a dodgy past, and those who dearly wished they had. But what to do when it catches up with the present?

That's the as-yet unanswered question.

Imagine for a moment that you are Steven Kerr, an occasional Labour supporter and respected trade union official. What do you do when it emerges that you have a track record as a far-right activist? When you are forced to admit that you ran a mail-order firm selling Nazi memorabilia? When David Irving, the disgraced historian with such interesting views of the Holocaust, speaks with some knowledge about your politics and Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine, reveals that a room that should have been used as part of his speaking tour was booked in your name?

You might, as Mr Kerr did, protest that it was all in the past: "Youthful indiscretion." You might say that your former lodger booked the room for Mr Irving using your name without telling you that Mr Irving was to appear there. You might say that you have not spoken to Mr Irving for several years and that your association with your troublesome former lodger is at an end.

This is certainly the sort of thing you would tell your union Unite when it launched its own investigation, which a spokesman confirms is ongoing. It's not guaranteed to get you out of trouble. But good luck.

Guardian Diary