The allegory of a clumsy crime
Luckily for all involved, this story is about an attempted murder instead of a successful one. Jeremy Thorpe was alleged to have hired a hitman to murder his ex-lover, instead of accepting his past as a bisexual man, and advocating for himself by fighting anti-gay legislation. The story came into national headlines, which was the exact opposite of what the alleged murder was designed to accomplish. This is a narrative picture of how clumsy and ineffective people are when they are operating in fear and shame.
The motif of injustice
The motif of injustice occurs when the government is unequipped to execute judgment properly. Without ample evidence, they cannot convict (which is a good thing, but in this case, it might mean erring on the side of injustice). Also, the law itself is heinous and unjust, obviously, because some of the very members of Parliament that instituted the rules were breaking them. Obviously, it is unjust to murder someone in cold blood instead of coming out as bisexual, regardless of what social opinion was.
The anti-story
This story is the symbolic opposite of what LGBT community is all about. Instead of accepting one's self, accepting others, and then living in tolerance and community, this story is the story of the opposite happening. Thorpe represents the real history of disenfranchisement and injustice against the LGBT community. The fact that it was such a big scandal reveals the serious nature of the failure—the government should have made a law that corresponds to human decency, but they didn't. Why? Because individuals in government are subject to poor judgment and fear about their power being taken away.
The symbolic picture of weakness
Fun fact: When Thorpe read this book and responded, he said the book made him seem weak. He is correct; the book does make him seem weak, because it was weakness that prohibited him from admitting the truth about himself when it came time to pass law. To accept one's self is difficult work, no doubt, and perhaps it is no one's place to judge a real human (he isn't a made up character in a novel, but a real human who was acquitted). But murder attempt aside, to stand by as a bisexual person in the government while gay people are being persecuted is weakness in a way. Thorpe represents the failure of the government to do justice for gay people in Britain in the 1970's.
The picture of love
This book has a symbol missing from it. The story is about ex-lovers, but what about the story seems loving? Without having a serious emotional connection, Thorpe's obsessive relationship to power drives him crazy, because he knows that he can't just talk through things with Scott. After all, both men eventually remarried, and to women, and Thorpe had much to lose. Therefore, the picture of love that is missing is open, honest communication and vulnerability. Without those, Thorpe's judgment became paranoid.
