William Hague – An Understandable Overreaction?

The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has just angrily denied rumours that he is gay. The internet is full of allegations that politicians and celebrities are gay, bisexual, cheating on their partners, drug addicts or simply drinking a different fizzy drink from the one that they are paid to endorse. Although some might think "no smoke without fire", the majority of the small group of people who bother to read such things on blogs and obscure websites would not take such rumours as gospel but at best put them down in the "well, maybe" category of gossip.

So what prompted the minister's bombshell public statement (which meant that the rumours could be reported safely by the media without any libel or privacy risks) and did he – legally anyway – have any alternatives?