Last Friday I walked back into the QX office, clutching my supermarket lunch, to find Lembit Opik, former Liberal Democrat MP and lover of Cheeky Girls, a portly ‘PR guru’ named John Duckett, gay club promoter Alex Erfan, and Alex’s PA Salvador all standing there waiting.
Everyone started talking at once. Somewhere through the pandemonium of confusion it emerged a new gay club night was being put on, Lembit somehow had something to do with it, and they wanted me to talk to him about it. Here’s what happened…
My name’s Lembit Opik, which is an Estonian name but I was born in Northern Ireland’, says Mr Opik in the café we retreated to in order to conduct this interview. ‘My parents were political because politics changed their lives and their country was Estonia.
They had to move in WWII, and I grew up in Northern Ireland, so I was politicised from an early age, in the bombs and the bullets of my childhood.
‘I was in student politics, and then after a decade at Proctor & Gamble I was elected to Parliament in 1997 as a Lib Dem MP in Wales and spent thirteen years in Parliament.
And that’s the brief background of my political side, although it seems that’s not what I’m well-known for!’
Lembit Opik is an affable and engaging character to talk to. But perhaps it’s true that he is known more for his widely tabloid covered relationship with Romanian ex-Cheeky Girl singer Gabriela Irimia (less strange if you consider their joint Eastern European heritage), and his appearances on TV shows like ‘I’m a Celebrity…!’, rather than his parliamentary track record.
However, although he left Westminster when he lost his seat in 2010, he attests that his politics are part of the reason he is involved in the launch of this new gay night named ‘Rise on Sunday’ in Leicester Square.
‘I do a few things now, training and development work in the City, TV and political commentary for the media, and thirdly I’m involved in management of pop groups and club events in London.’
Hence, Rise? ‘Yes, we’ve put together what we think is a really glamorous, energetic gay night on Sunday but I’m politically motivated on this too. I have always disliked hypocrisy, and I think politicians are being hypocritical, not least when they voted against gay rights and then they’re gay themselves.’
It’s a fair point, although Lembit doesn’t quite explain how exactly a new gay clubbing night is going to overturn this hypocrisy. However, he becomes more passionate when speaking about his own beliefs: ‘Other people’s sexual orientation makes no difference to me – I like them or dislike them based on their character, not who they sleep with.
I get very annoyed with this laughable bigotry towards gay people and particularly even transsexuals and transvestites.’
As we speak further about those who may be potentially perpetuating a bigotry of sorts in the national media (the recent ‘transphobia’ scandals with Julie Burchill and Richard Littlejohn spring to mind), it becomes clear that Lembit perceives the Daily Mail as the main offenders: ‘The people that perhaps need the most sympathy, love and understanding are the people that write for the Daily Mail, who are quite clearly very challenged individuals themselves! If you look through the pages of the ‘Mail, you can still see articles that they would never have written and printed about straight people.’
Is ‘Rise’ going to have a political aspect then, I venture. Lembit is inspired by this point, and says: ‘My motivation, you might even say is principled,
saying ‘alright right then, why don’t you come and find out what gay people are really like’, and we will be extending an invite to all the journalists who in our judgement have been implicitly homophobic to come and see people who choose not to be terrified into the closet by your rubbish.’
Strong words, and Lembit later extends this invitation to Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, too. Did I really believe everything he said? Did I see him as he wanted to be seen: a champion on a shining white steed, fighting for the rights of the LGBT community? Or did I see someone who possibly wants to go back into politics and needs to re-angle his avenues of support? It doesn’t, necessarily, matter. In the world of politics, PR and media, that a straight ex-MP is now visibly pushing for gay and transgender rights, should help matters where it matters most; when viewed by the mainstream voting public. And if ‘Rise’ does get the clientele he’s inviting, it’ll be the most interesting gay club night to have been launched in a very long time.
I do ask Lembit, before we leave, whether he would go back into politics. ‘Politics is like malaria,’ he grins, ‘you think you’ve got over it and then you have a relapse. So I never ruled out returning to Westminster. But in a sense, in Westminster you talk a lot about doing things. What I’m doing with John and Alist PR and these guys is actually doing it. There’s a great phrase: even the best strategy, sooner or later, has to collapse into action.’
• Rise on Sunday is on Sunday 30th June at Rise Superclub (1 Leicester Square, WC2H 7AX), 9pm-4am, free before midnight with list/flyer/wristband/otherwise £5. £5 after midnight with list/flyer/wristband/otherwise £10.
