0:00:09 > 0:00:14She said, "I hear you're thinking of resigning. I order you not to."
0:00:14 > 0:00:17I said, "Prime Minister. To me, it is a matter of honour."
0:00:17 > 0:00:21- ALL:- Bring back Greg! Bring back Greg!
0:00:21 > 0:00:25I didn't sleep much and I suppose I decided then that I would go.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30If you have lost the support of the board, you can't really stay.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36If I had resigned, it would have been a cowardly resignation,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38because I'd done nothing wrong.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Home Secretary, are you going to resign?
0:00:41 > 0:00:42I stepped out of the car
0:00:42 > 0:00:44and I think the only thing I said to him was,
0:00:44 > 0:00:45"I'm going to have to resign."
0:00:45 > 0:00:47Bastard!
0:00:47 > 0:00:49You murderer!
0:00:49 > 0:00:53You see a pile of dead children's bodies in your mind
0:00:53 > 0:00:56because these people wouldn't stop operating on them,
0:00:56 > 0:01:01One of us had to resign and they weren't going to.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Resigning is about honour and dishonour.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15Matters of principle and taste and decency.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21Being caught out and taking responsibility.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24But are there universal truths about resigning?
0:01:24 > 0:01:29Can the experience of those who have taken that giant step and resigned
0:01:29 > 0:01:31teach us some important lessons?
0:01:38 > 0:01:42The catalyst that turns thought about resigning into action
0:01:42 > 0:01:45is usually a crisis.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Major Norman and his section where out-numbered ten to one.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51They were ten yards away from us within about ten minutes.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53We all came to terms very quickly with the fact that we were
0:01:53 > 0:01:56probably going to die in the next half an hour.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00In 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Foreign Office Minister Richard Luce was facing HIS crisis.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08Things deteriorated very, very fast indeed.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10At that point, I made sure that
0:02:10 > 0:02:12I was equipped with my stick.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14I always like a stick when there's a crisis.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16So I was walking around with a stick and everyone said,
0:02:16 > 0:02:17"There must be some problem."
0:02:17 > 0:02:22In Port Stanley, the Governor was surrounded by Argentine soldiers.
0:02:22 > 0:02:23Will you talk to them, sir?
0:02:23 > 0:02:26I'll talk to them but I'm not walking out.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30I'm not surrendering to the bloody Argies, Patrick. Certainly not.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34Richard Luce was already considering resigning.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36The invasion took place on that Friday morning
0:02:36 > 0:02:38and my first instinct was to say,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41"Well, I'm the minister of state with day-to-day responsibility.
0:02:41 > 0:02:42"I should go."
0:02:44 > 0:02:48But not everyone would think the crisis merits resignation.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Another crisis. another matter of life and death.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Bristol Royal Infirmary in the 1990s.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06Too many children were dying after heart operations.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11The mortician pointed to a series of small bodies on slabs
0:03:11 > 0:03:16in the mortuary and said, "When is somebody going to do something about
0:03:16 > 0:03:18"these children dying after cardiac surgery?"
0:03:18 > 0:03:23On his own initiative, Consultant Anaesthetist Dr Stephen Bolsin
0:03:23 > 0:03:25collected evidence pointing to problems
0:03:25 > 0:03:30with the competence of two surgeons.
0:03:30 > 0:03:31The problem was dreadful.
0:03:31 > 0:03:37We discovered, at the end of Mr Dhasmana's series of operations,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40that 9 out of 13 tiny babies had died.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44The acceptable mortality was way under 10%
0:03:44 > 0:03:48and the mortality in Bristol was way over 60%.
0:03:49 > 0:03:55My feeling was that was because people were too arrogant to
0:03:55 > 0:03:59actually stop doing the operations and that the institution was
0:03:59 > 0:04:03completely indifferent to the outcomes.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05Bolsin would go on to take action.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08'It was this doctor's decision to blow the whistle, which turned
0:04:08 > 0:04:10'the public spotlight on Bristol.'
0:04:11 > 0:04:14But first, he had to resign.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21In the year 2000, Richard Desmond took over Express Newspapers.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25My politics? Well, I suppose I'm a socialist really.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29But in the years that followed, it was concern about the politics
0:04:29 > 0:04:34of his papers that led to a crisis for one of his journalists.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36You may have read some of my other earth-shattering exclusives.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40"Michael Jackson To Attend Jade Goody's Funeral."
0:04:40 > 0:04:42He didn't.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46"Robbie Williams Pops Pill At Heroes Concert."
0:04:46 > 0:04:47He didn't either.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Daily Star journalist Richard Peppiatt
0:04:50 > 0:04:54says he was sick of making up stories.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56This is his resignation letter.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00"Matt Lucas On Suicide Watch." He wasn't.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04"Jordan Turns To Buddha."
0:05:04 > 0:05:06She might have, but I doubt it.
0:05:06 > 0:05:07ALL: E-D-L!
0:05:07 > 0:05:12But Peppiatt's final straw was his concern over the paper's reporting
0:05:12 > 0:05:14of the English Defence League.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17People of Britain, to come and fight for your country!
0:05:17 > 0:05:21The Daily Star seemed to be openly courting the English Defence League.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23They were writing quite positive articles about them.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28All the sort of terminology that had always existed around them.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30Right-wing thugs, extremists,
0:05:30 > 0:05:34was directly told to be removed.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36We were just to refer to them as the EDL,
0:05:36 > 0:05:41as if you were talking about the Lib Dems or the Tories.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44And to me, that was a real wake-up call.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48Richard Peppiatt's was a personal crisis.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54But in 2004, the BBC was plunged into a corporate crisis
0:05:54 > 0:05:55over its journalism.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Until the BBC acknowledge that is a lie I will keep banging on
0:05:59 > 0:06:03and they better issue an apology pretty quick.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05It was condemned by the Hutton report into the death
0:06:05 > 0:06:07of Dr David Kelly.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10On the eve of a crucial governors' meeting,
0:06:10 > 0:06:16its Director General, Greg Dyke, believed he'd survive the furore.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18I never had any intention of resigning.
0:06:18 > 0:06:19I didn't think it would be necessary.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21There was a deal done the night before
0:06:21 > 0:06:25and Gavin Davis, the Chairman, said he was going to go.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28I talked to Pauline Neville-Jones,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31who's one of the other governors, and said,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35"Well, does it help if I offer to resign?" And she said, "Yeah.
0:06:35 > 0:06:36We couldn't let both of you go."
0:06:36 > 0:06:39"Gavin's going to go anyway.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41"Why don't you offer to resign and we'll keep you?"
0:06:43 > 0:06:47The governors denied there was any deal with Dyke.
0:06:47 > 0:06:52Director General was a job he never expected to get in the first place.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54I'm not sure the BBC and I are made for each other, really.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56You know, there's one or two interesting jobs at the BBC,
0:06:56 > 0:06:57but I'm not sure they'd offer them to me.
0:06:57 > 0:06:58Like DG?
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Well, I think Saddam Hussein has more chance of being offered
0:07:01 > 0:07:03it than I have, really.
0:07:03 > 0:07:08Dyke would have to decide whether to fight for his dream job.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17Today, British gays and lesbians who choose to serve in the ranks are
0:07:17 > 0:07:21constantly defending a second front - to keep their sexuality secret.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28I was forced to lie, to myself and to other people, on a daily basis.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34The crisis for military policewoman Caroline Meagher was intensely private.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38In the 1980s, she had to investigate gay and lesbian soldiers,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41who were banned from serving in the armed forces.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45She was told to be suspicious of sporty women with short hair,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48and men who walked funny and spent too long in front of the mirror.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51I could see, sometimes,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54the women looking at me with a question in their eyes
0:07:54 > 0:07:59and I would see that question and feel ashamed.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01Ashamed, I have to say.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05It's because Caroline is a lesbian herself.
0:08:05 > 0:08:06I just felt such a raging
0:08:06 > 0:08:12and overwhelming sense of helplessness, impotence, rage at
0:08:12 > 0:08:18the unfairness of it, the injustice, rage at being involved myself.
0:08:18 > 0:08:24- Having to be a hypocrite It must felt monumental.- I want you to go in at 1700, OK?
0:08:29 > 0:08:31I just think it's ridiculous, what they're claiming for.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36It just seems a very unfair way of spending taxpayers' money, really.
0:08:36 > 0:08:42In 2009, Parliament was engulfed in a scandal over MPs' expenses.
0:08:42 > 0:08:43It seems to be just taking the mick, really.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49One incident was about to bring Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's
0:08:49 > 0:08:51crisis to a head.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53My advisor rang me up and said there's going to be a story in
0:08:53 > 0:08:59the Sunday Express about you having claimed porn films on your expenses.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Smith was on her way to a constituency meeting.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05She asked her husband, Richard, if he knew what had happened.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10We worked out that a receipt for broadband had included on it
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Pay Per View films.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14And two of them had been porn films.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17Richard accepted they were ones he'd watched when I hadn't been there.
0:09:17 > 0:09:23I stepped out of the car and said to him, "I'm going to have to resign."
0:09:23 > 0:09:26I'm really sorry for any embarrassment I have caused Jacqui.
0:09:26 > 0:09:27Quite obviously,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31a claim should never have been made for these films.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33An apology won't be enough.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39When I saw it, I was appalled.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41I was really shocked at what we were being asked to do.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47Early 2003 at GCHQ, the Government communications headquarters.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52Katharine Gun had a crisis of conscience.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56She'd received an e-mail from the US government asking staff
0:09:56 > 0:09:59to bug UN Security Council delegates.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04It was to gather information, which they could use to persuade
0:10:04 > 0:10:10them or blackmail them or bribe them into voting for a resolution
0:10:10 > 0:10:14that would authorise an invasion of Iraq.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18I felt that e-mail required action.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21So the crisis can take many forms,
0:10:21 > 0:10:26but it always points towards making that decision.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Mr Heath's future. Should he go?
0:10:38 > 0:10:43The decision to resign is usually made in the worst of circumstances.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46When pressure is at its most intense.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49He's hopeless. He ain't with the times.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52He's pompous - I know best, leave everything to me.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Prime Minister Ted Heath was under huge pressure
0:10:56 > 0:10:59after fighting an inconclusive election in February 1974.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03- We only see politicians on the goggle box.- He hasn't got the flair.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Ted Heath resigned within days.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16Jacqui Smith was under pressure after the expenses revelations.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18The Home Secretary is to face a parliamentary investigation...
0:11:18 > 0:11:23Jacqui Smith returning to the shared London house...
0:11:23 > 0:11:27I'd wake up after only a few hours and just fret about everything.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29What I was doing to everybody else,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32and what it meant to my family and those that cared about me
0:11:32 > 0:11:37and how I'd get on and if I could do it at all.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40All of those things swilling around in your mind.
0:11:41 > 0:11:49You feel such stress and I'm not an easily-stressed person,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52I'm not an easily depressed person but it begins
0:11:52 > 0:11:58to wear you down when you have to be forever putting a brave face on it.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02The pressure helped make up Jacqui Smith's mind.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07I said to the governors, who also discussed
0:12:07 > 0:12:11whether they should go, I do need your confidence.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15An hour or so later I discovered they'd decided to suggest I leave.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Greg Dyke's gamble backfired.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21The BBC's Governors accepted his offer of resignation.
0:12:23 > 0:12:29I got home on my own. I didn't get in until two o'clock in the morning.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Now he had to decide whether to stand by the offer to resign
0:12:32 > 0:12:35he never wanted to be taken seriously in the first place.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40I remember I didn't sleep much. And I suppose I decided then I'd go.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46That if you've lost the support of the board, you can't really stay.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48It's not worth it, too much aggro.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53At six o'clock, now it's the BBC's Director-General who goes.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Greg Dyke resigns after the Hutton Report,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58he wants the BBC's future protected.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03With the departure of Gavin and myself
0:13:03 > 0:13:05and the apology I issued on behalf of the BBC yesterday,
0:13:05 > 0:13:10I hope a line can now be drawn under this whole episode.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13I was sacked by a bunch of gutless governors.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15I think they lost their nerve.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17I couldn't quite work out what they'd apologised for.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22They believed, because of my relationship with the Government,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24that if I stayed on as Director-General, I wouldn't
0:13:24 > 0:13:28be able to negotiate a decent Charter renewal.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32My argument to that is that wasn't their job that day.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37Their job was to defend the journalistic integrity of the BBC.
0:13:37 > 0:13:43Be fair, but don't let anyone pressurise you.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47What do we want? Return the Dyke! When do we want it? Now!
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Greg Dyke's own staff tried to get his decision reversed.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54I don't want to go but if you screw up, you have to go.
0:13:54 > 0:14:00Dyke would go on to regret his decision.
0:14:00 > 0:14:06At Bristol Royal Infirmary, the pressure on Stephen Bolsin
0:14:06 > 0:14:06was mounting.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10He was given a warning by the hospital.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15If I continued to raise concerns then my career in Bristol
0:14:15 > 0:14:16would be threatened.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18And that was a very serious threat.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23The stress lead me to become depressed in my job because I
0:14:23 > 0:14:28couldn't impact the continuing and incessant deaths of these children.
0:14:28 > 0:14:34I think it lead to tensions between Maggie, my wife and myself because
0:14:34 > 0:14:39she was saying you've grown into someone who isn't the man I married.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44- Have you declared war on the BBC? - Go away!
0:14:47 > 0:14:52Despite being cleared by the Hutton Inquiry, Alastair Campbell was
0:14:52 > 0:14:55also feeling the pressure to resign, but closer to home.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59I was doing a job that Fiona, my partner, had not wanted me to do
0:14:59 > 0:15:02in the first place, doing it in a situation where
0:15:02 > 0:15:06the major issue was Iraq and the policy that she totally opposed.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09You spend all day defending the policy.
0:15:09 > 0:15:10You go home and you thought,
0:15:10 > 0:15:12"Oh, God, I've got to have the bloody argument again!"
0:15:12 > 0:15:18Campbell wanted to resign, but Tony Blair asked him to stay on.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23- The pressure began to build. - Towards the end it, got very, very difficult.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26You know, but I was definitely reaching a point where I thought,
0:15:26 > 0:15:29"If I'm not careful, I push this too far,
0:15:29 > 0:15:34"push it much further, you know, I end up without a family."
0:15:34 > 0:15:39The only time I nearly lost it was when we had demonstrations
0:15:39 > 0:15:44outside the house and I remember once my daughter, who was about nine,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48coming back from school with friends and people giving her
0:15:48 > 0:15:55pictures of kids who had been gassed by Saddam at Halabja and saying,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58"Can you ask your dad why he is doing this?"
0:15:58 > 0:16:07Now, that was the only time when I sort of thought I might just go out and lamp somebody, but I didn't.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09That would have been a resignation issue?
0:16:09 > 0:16:13It might have been, it might not have been. John Prescott got away with it!
0:16:13 > 0:16:15HE LAUGHS
0:16:18 > 0:16:21At GCHQ, Katharine Gun agonised over the secret e-mail
0:16:21 > 0:16:24and eventually passed it to a journalist.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29On a visit to her newsagent's, she was shocked.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34There it was, splashed across the front pages, "Dirty tricks."
0:16:34 > 0:16:38Well, I was just trembling as soon as I picked it up, I was trembling.
0:16:38 > 0:16:45It was only as an investigation was launched that Katharine realised she couldn't stay in her job.
0:16:45 > 0:16:51By the Wednesday, I just couldn't keep it in any longer and I felt
0:16:51 > 0:16:57I couldn't lead a duplicitous existence and I told my line manager.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01I was very innocent, I suppose, perhaps I should have made it
0:17:01 > 0:17:09a really loud, personal, in-your-face kind of announcement.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11I don't know. I really don't.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19Would it have been that expensive in hardware and money to have
0:17:19 > 0:17:20sent a couple of frigates and a submarine?
0:17:20 > 0:17:25Well, you don't really want to take that action
0:17:25 > 0:17:29unless you feel that it is a real possibility that something serious will happen.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Now, as it turned out, we were wrong in that sense. It did happen.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37Richard Luce was under fire from all sides.
0:17:37 > 0:17:44But on the day the Argentines invaded, his mother rang with a brilliant solution.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48She called about ten times, so I took the call and she said,
0:17:48 > 0:17:50"Darling, I have got the answer for you."
0:17:50 > 0:17:51I said, "Well, what's that?"
0:17:51 > 0:17:54She said, "Arrange a football match between Argentina
0:17:54 > 0:17:56"and Britain and that will end the war."
0:17:56 > 0:17:59"It's a bit late, there's been an invasion!"
0:18:03 > 0:18:08Voters can exert their own pressure on politicians who they want to go.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Health Minister Edwina Currie was forced to resign in 1988,
0:18:12 > 0:18:18over the salmonella in eggs crisis. Some of her constituents were her greatest critics.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21- I think she's done the right thing. - By resigning?- Yes.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25- Great.- Why?- Why? Because we don't like her round here.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28She just opens her mouth too much, doesn't she?
0:18:31 > 0:18:36Sometimes the pressure to go can come from an outsider, with an axe to grind.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40Jeffrey Archer was forced to resign as Mayor of London candidate
0:18:40 > 0:18:43by a man who didn't want Archer in a position of power.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47- How much are you earning? - Never mind.- That's my business.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50- That's your business. - The publicist, Max Clifford.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55He made sure a client's revelations about Archer committing perjury
0:18:55 > 0:18:59in a libel trial forced Archer's resignation.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04The main concern I had was you don't want Jeffrey Archer in a position of power.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Today, in the centre of the media circus,
0:19:06 > 0:19:08the man who lied for Lord Archer.
0:19:08 > 0:19:14Clifford took to the airwaves with his client, Ted Francis, to get the desired result.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18I disapproved of the idea of Jeffrey Archer becoming Mayor of London. I'm sure you feel the same.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23Ted Francis was a guy that gave Jeffrey Archer his alibi.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26So he came to me and the rest was history,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30but I got the result I wanted inasmuch as Jeffrey Archer
0:19:30 > 0:19:33wasn't going to be Mayor of London because of the scandal.
0:19:35 > 0:19:41So pressure can come from many directions and it is difficult to resist.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Any minister must have the full confidence of his colleagues.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55I therefore asked to see the Prime Minister to tender my resignation.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01Honourable resignations are sometimes seen as an old-fashioned way of carrying the can.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05Leon Brittan is believed to have resigned as Trade and Industry Secretary
0:20:05 > 0:20:09to save Mrs Thatcher's skin over the leaking of a letter.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13I suppose he has to resign, but one can't help wondering
0:20:13 > 0:20:15if he isn't the scapegoat of the Prime Minister?
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Mrs Thatcher served for another four years.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30Few honourable resignations are as simple as they seem on the surface.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32To the South Atlantic.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36Quick...march!
0:20:37 > 0:20:42One of the most celebrated was over the Falklands crisis in 1982.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45Immediately after the Argentine invasion,
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Richard Luce sought out his boss, Lord Carrington.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Before I spoke, he saw my face and said, "You're not going to resign."
0:20:53 > 0:20:58So I told him the reasons and he said, "No, now hang on.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00"I'm the Foreign Secretary, I carry the can.
0:21:00 > 0:21:07"You're my Minister of State. It is our duty to stay at our post."
0:21:07 > 0:21:12It took a pounding from Parliament and, perhaps crucially, the Press
0:21:12 > 0:21:14to finally make up Carrington's mind.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18I think time led him to pause and reflect and he had been told
0:21:18 > 0:21:22there would be a very nasty editorial in The Times on Monday,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26not that an editorial of a newspaper should dictate what we do.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31It did on the Monday morning talk about ministers of the Foreign Office
0:21:31 > 0:21:34being traitors, virtually being traitors to their country.
0:21:34 > 0:21:40I think that, apart from being deeply wounding, was something of a catalyst
0:21:40 > 0:21:45for him to say, "Well perhaps the Prime Minister needs a new Foreign Minister."
0:21:45 > 0:21:48But Margaret Thatcher intervened.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52She said, "I hear you're thinking of resigning, I order you not to."
0:21:52 > 0:21:57And I said to her, "Prime Minister, to me it is a matter of honour."
0:21:57 > 0:22:01And there was a surprising silence coming from Lady Thatcher
0:22:01 > 0:22:03and she said, "I can't quarrel with honour."
0:22:03 > 0:22:10It was a blow, but in a way, it's never a blow for politics
0:22:10 > 0:22:13if you have someone doing what he deems to be the honourable thing.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17We have seen a very great national humiliation.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21I felt myself, like Lord Carrington, that it would be right
0:22:21 > 0:22:27for the Prime Minister to have the chance to have new ministers at her disposal.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30So the Press and Parliament and a Prime Minister's belief
0:22:30 > 0:22:34in honour helped an honourable resignation get back on track.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40But doing the honourable thing isn't always so easy.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43The MPs' rule book is quite clear -
0:22:43 > 0:22:46your main home is where you spend more nights than any other.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49Jacqui Smith insists she spends most of her time
0:22:49 > 0:22:52at this southeast London house behind me, belonging to her sister.
0:22:54 > 0:23:01Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was pilloried for clinging to office after the expenses revelations.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06In fact, she wanted to go, but the decision wasn't hers alone.
0:23:06 > 0:23:12It was the Friday before the G20 and my adviser said to me,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15I think he's right, "The last thing the Prime Minister wants
0:23:15 > 0:23:18"to happen this weekend is for the Home Secretary to resign."
0:23:18 > 0:23:23Smith waited a few days and met the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27He said to me, "If you resign about this, you know, you'll always
0:23:27 > 0:23:30"be remembered as resigning because of expenses."
0:23:30 > 0:23:33And I said, "Well, I know that to a certain extent,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36"but I can't do the job that you asked me to do."
0:23:36 > 0:23:41Eventually, he realised that I had made up my mind
0:23:41 > 0:23:42and I was going to go
0:23:42 > 0:23:47and then he persuaded me not to go until the reshuffle.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50I didn't feel like crying. I felt a big relief.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55I felt a big weight lifted from me.
0:23:55 > 0:24:03The interests of a Prime Minister derailed an honourable resignation, not a desperation to stay on.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Honour and political interest are often uneasy bedfellows.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Resignations are a product of their times.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19The issue, the crisis, can be seen as a barometer
0:24:19 > 0:24:22of what society deems to be acceptable behaviour.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Marriage prospects are good. The proportion would be much higher
0:24:26 > 0:24:30except for the regulation requiring all pregnant service women to resign.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36It was only in the last decade of the 20th century that the MoD
0:24:36 > 0:24:39stopped discriminating against women.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44But homosexuality, that was another matter.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48I think most red-blooded males, and I count myself among them,
0:24:48 > 0:24:52are repelled by the physical genital activities of these people.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Faced with a new posting to Northern Ireland,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00and the task of carrying out more investigations of gays in the Army,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02Caroline Meagher handed in her resignation.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07I felt a relief, I suppose it had been at the back of my mind for ages
0:25:07 > 0:25:10and I actually felt quite liberated. I felt very hopeful.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12But before she could work out her notice,
0:25:12 > 0:25:19the Military Police arrived to investigate her own private life.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23They were very sarcastic and delighted in saying, "It's you that we've come for."
0:25:23 > 0:25:27And they went more or less straightaway to a photo
0:25:27 > 0:25:33and removing the back of the photo, removed letters.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36There was a stuffed toy there and they unzipped the toy
0:25:36 > 0:25:43and reached in, and lo and behold, there was another cache of letters appeared and I knew then,
0:25:43 > 0:25:49just my heart fell and I thought they have certainly planted evidence here.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53Some of the letters I had not received.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56So they had been intercepted.
0:25:56 > 0:26:03It is just not in the military where gays and lesbians felt hounded.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08A 37-year-old computer programmer died after collapsing on the floor
0:26:08 > 0:26:12of a gay disco called Heaven. He contracted AIDS.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16The AIDS virus provoked widespread fear.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18Merely to be gay can cost your job.
0:26:18 > 0:26:23Even a bishop said he found it difficult to shake hands with an AIDS sufferer.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28I think three parts of them want burning and I do mean that. They want burning.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33Like thousands of others, Jonathan Grimshaw knew there was little effective treatment,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36a terrible prognosis, and a lot of prejudice.
0:26:36 > 0:26:42It's a terrifying prospect. If I was to be living at home,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44I know that my flatmate could not cope.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46I'm not sure that services
0:26:46 > 0:26:49would be available from the local authority to look after me.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52So, I mean, I don't know what's going to happen.
0:26:52 > 0:26:57To be told something like that is just utterly devastating,
0:26:57 > 0:27:02because it meant that it was a death sentence, really.
0:27:02 > 0:27:07Friends of mine were being hounded out of their jobs.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11Beset on all sides by this moral panic and believing he had little time left,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15Jonathan decided to resign from his job in TV.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19If you're told that you have a terminal illness,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23you find that people have a sort of surge of energy and they think,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25"I don't want to kind of die insignificantly".
0:27:25 > 0:27:28But I was so angry,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31and so fired up,
0:27:31 > 0:27:34and so determined to achieve
0:27:34 > 0:27:38everything I wanted to achieve in, I don't know how many years I had,
0:27:38 > 0:27:45two years, three years, four years, that I absolutely threw myself into,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49you know, really sort of committed campaigning work.
0:27:49 > 0:27:56Resignation led Jonathan to co-found Body Positive - a support group for HIV sufferers.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04Sex has been at the heart of many political resignations.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08War Secretary Jack Profumo's resignation in 1963,
0:28:08 > 0:28:15followed his dalliance with a call girl who also slept with a Soviet naval attache.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20Ten years later, Defence Minister Lord Lambton was also caught with a prostitute.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25Why should a man of your social position and charm and personality have to go to whores for sex?
0:28:25 > 0:28:28I think that people sometimes like variety.
0:28:28 > 0:28:33I think it's as simple as that and I think this impulse is probably understood by almost everybody.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39Don't you?
0:28:39 > 0:28:45I think a great many people may understand it, Lord Lambton, I think that is so.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47If the call girl had said to me,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51"Please, suddenly, darling, tell me about the laser ray,"
0:28:51 > 0:28:59or something or, "What do you think of the new Rolls-Royce engine for the MRCA?"
0:28:59 > 0:29:04I would have known that something was up.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Despite his protestations, Lambton resigned.
0:29:08 > 0:29:14Mr Parkinson left his London home this morning, firmly declining to add to his statement.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19I will not, at any stage, say any more.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24Misdemeanours didn't have to involve paying for sex to provoke the end of ministerial life.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Affairs could be fatal too.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28Will it affect your political future?
0:29:28 > 0:29:32I have no further comment. I have no idea.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35Cecil Parkinson resigned as Trade and Industry Secretary
0:29:35 > 0:29:41in 1983 after revelations about an affair and a pregnancy.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45A decade later, affairs and perhaps more crucially,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49the hypocrisy they uncovered, was still an issue.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53The only thing I want to say is how grateful I am for the support
0:29:53 > 0:29:57and encouragement and how sad I am to leave the Government today.
0:29:57 > 0:30:03Environment Minister, Tim Yeo, fell foul of the Tories' Back to Basics policy.
0:30:03 > 0:30:09His extra-martial affair and resulting child led once again to resignation.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13But by 1997, things were changing.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17I can confirm that I'm leaving my wife. I want to make it clear
0:30:17 > 0:30:20that the responsibility for this is entirely mine.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23A newspaper discovered that Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook,
0:30:23 > 0:30:27was having an affair with a member of his staff.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31This idea that I phoned him up and said you know,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34"Wife or mistress, you decide." It wasn't like that at all.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39I had almost this coded conversation where I was able to be clear to Robin,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42but he was not being terribly clear back.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47That's because Cook's wife, Margaret, was within earshot.
0:30:47 > 0:30:48We got cut off.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52He then obviously explained to Margaret what was going on
0:30:52 > 0:30:54and when he phoned back I remember him saying,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59"Look, you know, we're swimming in a sea of some emotional turbulence here."
0:30:59 > 0:31:01And I then said, "Look, I've talked to Tony,
0:31:01 > 0:31:06"and he does not see this as a resigning issue per se,
0:31:06 > 0:31:10"but, you know, you do need some sort of sense of clarity about this."
0:31:10 > 0:31:15And it was he who came back in the morning and said he'd decided to end his marriage.
0:31:15 > 0:31:20Clarity meant Cook's marriage, not his career, was over.
0:31:20 > 0:31:25Politicians, it seems, have learned to avoid the trap of preaching about family values.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33And by the time we reach 21st century Britain,
0:31:33 > 0:31:37married men can pay for sex and hang on to their jobs.
0:31:37 > 0:31:44Max Mosley led the FIA, the governing body for world motor sport, for 16 years.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49A newspaper sting revealed he'd been having sadomasochistic sex with prostitutes.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51There were the usual calls for resignation.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54- You represent over 50 million members.- Correct.
0:31:54 > 0:31:59You would consider pulling all those out of the FA because of Mr Mosley's actions?
0:31:59 > 0:32:03- We would consider that. - But Mosley refused to go.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05There are situations where you are in charge,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08it is not your fault but you have to resign.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12I think if there'd been a big accident in Formula One,
0:32:12 > 0:32:14with, say, part of the car going in the crowd,
0:32:14 > 0:32:18something really serious like that, I would have felt probably
0:32:18 > 0:32:22I ought to resign or at least offer my resignation.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26If I had resigned, I don't think it would have been an honourable
0:32:26 > 0:32:29resignation, I think it would have been a cowardly one,
0:32:29 > 0:32:32because I had done nothing wrong.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36I hadn't done something I shouldn't do, which is when you should resign.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39This was something to do with my private life.
0:32:39 > 0:32:44So in the space of a generation, having one's sex life exposed
0:32:44 > 0:32:47was no longer an automatic route to resignation.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55- Time to go, Prime Minister? Is it time to go?- Are you resigning?
0:32:57 > 0:33:00Timing is crucial to resigning.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04It can mean the difference between a good and a bad resignation.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08Why have you decided to resign from the Labour Party?
0:33:08 > 0:33:13Because I joined the movement to defend people.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18Lord George Brown's resignation from the Labour Party in 1976
0:33:18 > 0:33:21was marred by an unfortunate coincidence.
0:33:21 > 0:33:22He appeared to be drunk.
0:33:22 > 0:33:29I resigned after 40 years or more because I think they are more
0:33:29 > 0:33:32interested in establishments then they are in people.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37Photographs of him falling into the gutter after the interview didn't help.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42Events can be the enemy of good timing.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46"Wait, I know you're probably reaching for your phone to have me
0:33:46 > 0:33:50"marched out of the building, but please, save on your bill.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53"I quit."
0:33:53 > 0:33:57Journalist, Richard Peppiatt, timed sending his resignation letter
0:33:57 > 0:33:58to perfection.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02The 1st March was going to be the day that I did it
0:34:02 > 0:34:05and that was partly because that was the day I got paid!
0:34:05 > 0:34:08I wanted to make sure that I got my expenses
0:34:08 > 0:34:10for the last two months and my wages.
0:34:10 > 0:34:17I just remember my finger hovering and just thinking and then going,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20"No, you can do this. You're strong enough to do this."
0:34:20 > 0:34:26And I hit the button and this wave of euphoria followed by...
0:34:26 > 0:34:28I just burst into tears.
0:34:28 > 0:34:33And for about 30 seconds I was uncontrollably sobbing.
0:34:33 > 0:34:39You really had not just had burnt your bridges, you'd gone back and strafed them for good measure!
0:34:39 > 0:34:46Desmond was getting more than a simple "I quit" from Peppiatt.
0:34:46 > 0:34:51"I suspect you see a perfect circle. I see a downward spiral.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55"I see a cascade of shit pirouetting from your penthouse office,
0:34:55 > 0:35:01"caking each layer of management, splattering all in between."
0:35:01 > 0:35:04The Business Secretary promised to go to war on the Murdochs
0:35:04 > 0:35:06and on their takeover of BSkyB.
0:35:06 > 0:35:12But a bigger media story bumped Peppiatt's letter from being published in the Guardian.
0:35:12 > 0:35:14It was a real, real low point.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19There'd been so much planning and so much thought gone into
0:35:19 > 0:35:25the timing of this and the letter itself, that when it didn't...
0:35:25 > 0:35:29when the plan started going off the rails, I thought I'd lost control.
0:35:37 > 0:35:38I don't want to go.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42For goodness sake, who wants to resign from being Foreign Secretary?
0:35:42 > 0:35:45I don't think you can allow something like this to happen
0:35:45 > 0:35:51and to just ignore it. You have to take responsibility for it.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54and it is quite clear, if you read the Press
0:35:54 > 0:35:56and the debates in the House of Commons,
0:35:56 > 0:36:01that my judgement and my actions have been questioned.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04After a weekend of press and Parliamentary criticism,
0:36:04 > 0:36:09Lord Carrington resigned, speeding Richard Luce's own resignation timetable.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13Lord Carrington rang me and said, "I'm going."
0:36:13 > 0:36:15I said, "You know perfectly well I'm going too."
0:36:15 > 0:36:19He said, "Well, you better be quick, because I'm going at 12.30,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22"the time is 10.30 and you've got to see the Prime Minister
0:36:22 > 0:36:25"if you're going. I don't think you should go," he kept saying.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29The Marines who tried to defend the Falklands returned to Brize Norton.
0:36:29 > 0:36:35Luce's job that day was to greet Falklands governor, Rex Hunt, and take him to London.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40The General held his hand out to me and I refused to take it
0:36:40 > 0:36:44and he looked very angry. His cheeks were twitching like mad
0:36:44 > 0:36:49and he said, "I think it is very ungentlemanly not to shake hands."
0:36:49 > 0:36:53And I said, "I think it's very uncivilised for you to invade our country."
0:36:53 > 0:36:58We got into the car and drove at 70mph through the red lights to Number Ten and he said,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01"If I may ask, do you do you always go round like this?"
0:37:01 > 0:37:03I said, "Don't worry, only when I resign."
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Lord Carrington goes,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09the first political casualty of the Falklands crisis.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11And so did the Minister of State, Richard Luce,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14the man who'd previously negotiated with the Argentines.
0:37:14 > 0:37:20I saw the Prime Minister and I did it just in time to fit in with Lord Carrington at 12.30.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25A mere four days ago, scenes such as this were utterly unthinkable.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29Even now it has to be said there is something almost unreal about them.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32A British fleet put to sea, not on some training exercise,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36but sailing with every intention of doing battle with an enemy.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38Seeing that lot go out,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42I think the Argentineans will quake in their shoes
0:37:42 > 0:37:43at the very sight of it.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47And I hope they blow the Argentinean Navy to pieces
0:37:47 > 0:37:49when they get out there, for starters.
0:37:49 > 0:37:55- What do you think about the Government sending this big fleet? - A lot of bloody bullshit!
0:37:55 > 0:37:57Home Secretary, are you going to resign?
0:37:57 > 0:37:59After a two month wait,
0:37:59 > 0:38:04Jacqui Smith's resignation thunder was stolen.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08The announcement was leaked.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12It became public the day or a couple of days before the reshuffle,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15which wasn't what I wanted to happen.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20It came out and hit the papers to coincide with my son's birthday.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23But in some ways it sort of summed up why I needed to resign,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27because I couldn't be with him even on his birthday and even though
0:38:27 > 0:38:33once again the newspapers were full of what a terrible sleaze bag I was
0:38:33 > 0:38:35and how awful his dad was.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38So it sort of made it absolutely clear to me
0:38:38 > 0:38:40that I was making the right decision.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44Jacqui Smith's son may never have been a fan of Labour anyway.
0:38:44 > 0:38:50- What do we think about Tony Blair? - Boring. Boring. Boring.
0:38:55 > 0:39:01At Bristol, Stephen Bolsin failed to stop a scheduled operation on a baby boy.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05Timing, for him, was a matter of life and death.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09It was the worst night of my professional career.
0:39:09 > 0:39:17A small child's life was going to be ended the next day because
0:39:17 > 0:39:23the surgeons were too proud to admit that they couldn't do the operation.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26I realised then that I didn't actually want to work for
0:39:26 > 0:39:33an organisation that was not prepared to intervene to save a child's life.
0:39:33 > 0:39:40In secret, Stephen got a job in Australia and resigned from Bristol.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Three months after arriving in Australia,
0:39:43 > 0:39:47he submitted a professional misconduct complaint to the GMC.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55Max Mosley eventually announced that he would go,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57but at a time of his choosing.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03I'm going in October with some relief because it is very hard work.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08But Mosley wasn't resigning, he was retiring.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12In Profumo's case, for example, he was having an affair with a girl
0:40:12 > 0:40:15who was also having an affair with the Russian military attache,
0:40:15 > 0:40:20so he'd done something wrong and in his position, I would have probably done what he did.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23But I felt I'd done nothing wrong. Nothing whatever.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27It was just this newspaper had done something absolutely outrageous,
0:40:27 > 0:40:33completely illegal, and I wasn't going to put up with it.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37They had no right to go into private premises and take pictures and films
0:40:37 > 0:40:42of adults engaged in activities which are no-one's business,
0:40:42 > 0:40:44but those of people concerned.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46- Who are you from?- The BBC.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50LAUGHTER
0:40:50 > 0:40:55Greg Dyke was haunted by second thoughts. The timing was wrong.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59Everyone involved in the Hutton Inquiry at the BBC,
0:40:59 > 0:41:03when they read the report, read it with disbelief.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08I should have said no. I should have said, "Go on then, fire me.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11"You want me to resign, I'm not going to, you fire me."
0:41:11 > 0:41:14And it would have taken them days to sort that out
0:41:14 > 0:41:19and in those days, the mood changed.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23It was pretty clear that Hutton had been rejected.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26Good timing is an art.
0:41:26 > 0:41:31It can desert even the most experienced when it comes to resigning.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35REPORTER: Are you an embarrassment to the Prime Minister, Mr Blunkett?
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Would you mind letting me go?
0:41:38 > 0:41:42I have resigned from the Cabinet and I will make a full statement later today.
0:41:42 > 0:41:48So, the decision has been taken, the resignation submitted.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51I'm very sorry that Nigel Lawson has gone.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55We worked together for years and he has so many enormous achievements.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58There is now a reckoning.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09Sky Hawks, four or five came low across the bay
0:42:09 > 0:42:12to bomb the two landing ships unloading men and supplies.
0:42:12 > 0:42:17Despite the risk, the helicopters disappeared into the black cloud,
0:42:17 > 0:42:20trying to pull men from the waters.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25Throughout the period of conflict, I felt,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27and so did Lord Carrington, very, very low.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30I remember ringing him one day and saying,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34"I feel rather like a prisoner. I can't break out of this."
0:42:34 > 0:42:37The priority was to save the living, not count the dead.
0:42:37 > 0:42:42"People are being killed and even though we couldn't have done anything, I feel we're responsible."
0:42:42 > 0:42:45He said, "I feel exactly the same, it's a nightmare."
0:42:48 > 0:42:52Bit by bit, the Falkland Islands were re-taken.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02At GCHQ, Katharine Gun was arrested
0:43:02 > 0:43:05after admitting she had sent the e-mail to the Press.
0:43:05 > 0:43:10Everybody, including the security division personnel,
0:43:10 > 0:43:12were remarkably nice...
0:43:14 > 0:43:18..as were the investigating officers at the Special Branch.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23Locked in a police cell, Katharine was visited by her husband.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27I haven't thought about that for ages.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30Yeah, he was in tears.
0:43:30 > 0:43:31And he, you know, said...
0:43:34 > 0:43:41..I don't suppose he ever expected to see me on that side of the partition.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45Erm...In a way, you know, it is in the situation
0:43:45 > 0:43:48when someone else is crying, you end up being the strong one,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51so I was not crying and I was saying, "It's going to be all right.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53"Everything's going to be all right."
0:43:55 > 0:43:58The princess has made the battle against AIDS
0:43:58 > 0:44:03and the provision of help for those already suffering, one of her most dedicated causes.
0:44:03 > 0:44:08Developments in medication meant an HIV diagnosis was no longer a death sentence.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12Jonathan Grimshaw, who resigned expecting he had very few years
0:44:12 > 0:44:15left to live, discovered a whole new future.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20But like many who abandon good careers, he paid a price.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23Most of us at that time were pretty young.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28We hadn't had time in our jobs to build up a big pension pot
0:44:28 > 0:44:32and when I look at my peers, people the same age,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35the same sort of education as I had,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38and a lot of them are doing great.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41Very good salaries and...
0:44:41 > 0:44:47You know, I do feel... I do feel sort of cheated out of a life
0:44:47 > 0:44:50because of HIV, but you know,
0:44:50 > 0:44:55I mean strictly speaking, you know, I shouldn't be here.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11The cost of not being able to resign on her own terms was serious for Caroline Meagher.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15Instead of accepting my resignation,
0:45:15 > 0:45:21I was subjected to humiliating interviews
0:45:21 > 0:45:24where I was followed to the bathroom and watched
0:45:24 > 0:45:30whilst I went to the toilet, invasive bullying questions.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34I lost all of my so-called friends.
0:45:34 > 0:45:40In the last five years, 260 homosexual men and women have been discharged.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45Caroline was herself discharged from the Army for unnatural conduct,
0:45:45 > 0:45:47contrary to military discipline.
0:45:47 > 0:45:53She was convicted of fraud for claiming travel expenses to visit her girlfriend.
0:45:53 > 0:45:58I felt cheated out of my resignation that I wasn't being allowed to
0:45:58 > 0:46:05just mark time quietly and leave with some shred of dignity
0:46:05 > 0:46:07and some pride in my career.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11Had I resigned I would have, in all probability, joined the police.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14I would probably have two big fat pensions
0:46:14 > 0:46:17and probably a very different standard of living.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21I was left with virtually nothing. I was unemployed for a long while.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24I was struggling on every level
0:46:24 > 0:46:29and I feel, in a way, that that taught me an awful lot about myself.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35In 2000, the ban on homosexuals in the military was finally lifted.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39It came a decade too late for Caroline.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Not everyone paid a financial price.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Greg Dyke's private wealth probably made it easier for him to go.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52One of the issues, I made money. It's interesting,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55the only two people who left the BBC at that time,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58given the numbers that had been involved in Hutton, were myself
0:46:58 > 0:47:03and Gavin Davies, who were the only two who didn't have a mortgage.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06But whether it is financial or emotional,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09resignation always racks up a cost.
0:47:15 > 0:47:20I intend to join those tomorrow night who vote against military action.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27It is a truism to say all resignations have consequences.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31The point is, nobody knows what the consequences will be.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34It is for that reason, and that reason alone,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38and with a heavy heart, that I resign from the Government.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40Hear, hear!
0:47:40 > 0:47:45For Robin Cook, it was the surprise of the first standing ovation in the history of the Commons.
0:47:50 > 0:47:55For Richard Luce, reaction to his resignation demonstrated a strength of democracy.
0:47:55 > 0:48:00I went in rather nervously to Parliament, having resigned,
0:48:00 > 0:48:02and wondering what people were feeling,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06but members of Parliament from all parties came up privately and said,
0:48:06 > 0:48:11"Thank you for doing that and there, but for the grace of God, go I."
0:48:11 > 0:48:14I thought that was gratifying and it made me feel
0:48:14 > 0:48:17that principled resignation as a matter of honour
0:48:17 > 0:48:20is a good thing for our democratic system.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22You murdering bastard!
0:48:24 > 0:48:30Stephen Bolsin's revelations, backed by his resignation, helped change the Health Service.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32Bastard!
0:48:32 > 0:48:34You murderer!
0:48:34 > 0:48:41Surgeon, James Wisheart, and hospital Chief Executive, John Roylance, were struck off.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45Surgeon, Janardan Dhasmana, was found guilty of serious professional
0:48:45 > 0:48:50misconduct and not allowed to operate on children for three years.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53We are victims of a gross injustice.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57The injustice that our children were taken from us.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02It sparked the biggest ever public inquiry into the workings
0:49:02 > 0:49:07of the Health Service and overhauled monitoring of hospital deaths.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11I've got no doubt that clinical governance
0:49:11 > 0:49:15has changed the Health Service and made it much, much safer.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20I suspect that the events in Bristol and my resignation
0:49:20 > 0:49:23and publicising of them has saved thousands of lives,
0:49:23 > 0:49:28if not tens of thousands of lives, in a relatively short period of time.
0:49:31 > 0:49:36I'm obviously delighted and just gobsmacked.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40- I'm speechless, quite frankly. - Would you do it again?
0:49:40 > 0:49:42I have no regrets, I would do it, again, yes.
0:49:42 > 0:49:47A year after her arrest at GCHQ, the Government dropped all charges
0:49:47 > 0:49:52against Katharine Gun and proved to Katharine that she was right.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54It was fantastic. I was at Liberty at the time,
0:49:54 > 0:49:59I was in London. We got the news,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02and we were just jumping around hugging each other.
0:50:02 > 0:50:07There was a sort of 24-hour media circus,
0:50:07 > 0:50:12at Liberty headquarters. I was talking to Jeremy Paxman.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18It was all really surreal, looking back on it now.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21Who are you to make a judgement on whether it is legal or illegal,
0:50:21 > 0:50:23moral or immoral?
0:50:23 > 0:50:28My conscience compelled me to reveal it to the public
0:50:28 > 0:50:34and I think the reaction that I've seen and also the fact
0:50:34 > 0:50:36that they've dropped the charges
0:50:36 > 0:50:39is pretty much vindicating what I did.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43Jacqui Smith eventually lost her seat,
0:50:43 > 0:50:46but her marriage was strengthened.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52Some people say, "Why forgive your husband and not make him sleep on the sofa?"
0:50:52 > 0:50:55If he watches porn films, we can argue about that,
0:50:55 > 0:51:00but if he makes a silly mistake on a claim form and I'm silly enough
0:51:00 > 0:51:05to sign it, that shouldn't undermine everything that he has contributed
0:51:05 > 0:51:10to my career and everything that we've got together as a relationship.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14Richard Peppiatt's letter was finally published
0:51:14 > 0:51:18in The Guardian and struck a blow for journalistic ethics.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21I went from having about ten followers on Twitter,
0:51:21 > 0:51:26because I had just joined it, to 2,000 in about six hours.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30And people e-mailing me from, you know, all over the world,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33sort of saying, "Bloody hell, well done, you know.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35"You've done a really good thing here."
0:51:35 > 0:51:38A lot of journalists I knew and journalists I didn't know
0:51:38 > 0:51:43on Fleet Street who got in touch to say, "Congratulations, you have
0:51:43 > 0:51:48"been very brave to do that. Thank God someone's finally speaking out."
0:51:48 > 0:51:52The Daily Star says it has never endorsed the EDL.
0:51:52 > 0:51:58Peppiatt couldn't resign, he'd only been a casual reporter for two years.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01He was unhappy at not getting a staff post.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05And he had been warned about offering to make up quotes.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14There are still nurses within the Health Service who,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17as it were, disapprove of people with AIDS.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21Jonathan Grimshaw found fulfilment
0:52:21 > 0:52:25and a commitment to helping others with HIV.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28Ten years after my diagnosis,
0:52:28 > 0:52:32I achieved everything I wanted to achieve.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37HIV gave me the reason to do something which I thought was important with my life.
0:52:37 > 0:52:42For me, spending the time well, meant, I suppose, doing something
0:52:42 > 0:52:45to help people who are going through
0:52:45 > 0:52:50this awful trauma and social rejection
0:52:50 > 0:52:55and not being cared for when they had this terrible disease.
0:52:56 > 0:53:01Even when it takes place in the worst of circumstances,
0:53:01 > 0:53:06a resignation can still be an uplifting experience.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14Once the resignation has passed, there is time to pause for reflection.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20I really hope that Greg will be able to move on from this,
0:53:20 > 0:53:23and that's important, not just for him,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26but it's important also for the BBC.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28About 18 months, two years later,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31it was still sort of dominating my life, really.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33This was a traumatic event.
0:53:33 > 0:53:38So for two years, I looked around what else I should do with my life.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42But if you've just had that sort of bust-up with the Government,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45you don't get offered a lot of work...
0:53:46 > 0:53:48..because Blair was still the Prime Minister.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52And one day my daughter, who was about 20 at the time,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55just looked at me and said, "Look, just get over it."
0:53:55 > 0:53:58And I thought, "She's right. You just have to get over it."
0:54:00 > 0:54:04My son, one Sunday afternoon, looked up at me as we were playing
0:54:04 > 0:54:08with a tennis ball in the sun and he said to me very innocently,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12"Daddy, why do you smile so much more in Australia?"
0:54:12 > 0:54:17It was really a very moving moment for me, that I realised that
0:54:17 > 0:54:20the kids had noticed, but they just hadn't commented on it.
0:54:21 > 0:54:27The depressing thing for me probably is that I will be remembered
0:54:27 > 0:54:32for being put in a position where I had to resign because of the expenses scandal.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35I'm sad about that, but one of the things I have certainly learnt
0:54:35 > 0:54:38over the last two years is, you know who you are,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41regardless of what other people say about you.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43I knew that in resigning as I did,
0:54:43 > 0:54:46it wouldn't just be The Daily Star I'd never work at,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50it would be any tabloid, they'd all turn their backs on me.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53You have broken the code of omerta.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56But I can get up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror
0:54:56 > 0:55:02and smile and know that that day I can go about my business
0:55:02 > 0:55:07in a manner that I don't feel is detracting from the world.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10I'm trying to put something into it.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15I didn't have a bloody clue what I was going to do.
0:55:15 > 0:55:20I had a very bad bout of depression, which I think was literally a depression.
0:55:20 > 0:55:25It was depressurising and because of the way my mind works,
0:55:25 > 0:55:28that sometimes does take me into a pretty dark place.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33I had a very bad bout of depression, but I got over that.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36I then started to do different things
0:55:36 > 0:55:39and definitely ended up in a better place.
0:55:41 > 0:55:45If there are things out there that really should come out,
0:55:45 > 0:55:46hey, why not?
0:55:46 > 0:55:49'I am able to talk about it without developing the shakes
0:55:49 > 0:55:52'and the trembles, so I have moved on from it.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56'My life has changed dramatically since then.'
0:55:56 > 0:56:00I don't have a secure job. I don't have a secure income.
0:56:00 > 0:56:08But there have been other remarkable opportunities and experiences
0:56:08 > 0:56:12that I've had that I wouldn't have had if I had stayed there.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21I remember thinking, "Oh my goodness, I'm no longer a minister.
0:56:21 > 0:56:22"I haven't got an official car."
0:56:22 > 0:56:26I said to my wife, "How am I going to get to Parliament? What am I going to do?"
0:56:26 > 0:56:30She said, "There's something called the Tube, try that!"
0:56:32 > 0:56:34I hadn't realised that there were new doors
0:56:34 > 0:56:37which didn't open automatically, you had to press a button.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39And the doors didn't open,
0:56:39 > 0:56:43and I started to get very angry, "What a disgraceful Tube this is."
0:56:43 > 0:56:48And a man behind me said, "All you do is press that button," and the door opened.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53And it just shows, the world changes and you can be quite cushioned.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58And there are still some sweet moments to savour
0:56:58 > 0:57:03when those who have overseen your downfall face the axe themselves.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07I always remember Jack Charlton saying he had a little black book
0:57:07 > 0:57:09and he had a few names in there.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13Everybody, I think, has got a few names in a little black book.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16Amongst the names in my little black book would be Blair,
0:57:16 > 0:57:19it would be Campbell, the Cabinet Ministers around them.
0:57:19 > 0:57:24There were a couple of people on the board who I made it very clear at the time that I didn't like.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28Baroness Hogg, and she happened to be married to the guy who got done
0:57:28 > 0:57:32for claiming cleaning the moat on his expenses.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36And I looked up that day and thought, "There is a God after all."
0:57:42 > 0:57:47In the last 50 years, much has changed.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Society is more tolerant, but quicker to call for heads to roll.
0:57:51 > 0:57:56The honourable resignation may be less common in politics,
0:57:56 > 0:57:57but it's still to be found.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00In other walks of life, it has flourished.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03And perhaps there are some universal truths
0:58:03 > 0:58:07which have remained unchanged.
0:58:07 > 0:58:14Resigning is personal. It is painful and it is important.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20You have got loss of lives, always in the back of your mind.
0:58:20 > 0:58:26Lord Franks' committee said the Government could not have done anything to stop that invasion,
0:58:26 > 0:58:30but it is nevertheless very painful to think what it led to.
0:58:33 > 0:58:37I don't think I would do anything differently,
0:58:37 > 0:58:41but I think that if I knew then
0:58:41 > 0:58:44what I know now,
0:58:44 > 0:58:46I wouldn't have applied for the job in Bristol.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53When I tell people I was sacked from the Army for being gay,
0:58:53 > 0:58:57they laugh and go, "No, really? Really? Did that happen?"
0:59:00 > 0:59:03Never, since the moment I hit that button,
0:59:03 > 0:59:06have I doubted that what I did was the right thing.
0:59:09 > 0:59:15My advice to anybody who is facing resignation is, don't resign, wait,
0:59:15 > 0:59:17because it looks different in the morning.