Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas with Oscar Wilde in 1894. Image via Chronicle/Alamy

At his May 2026 trial for possession of crystal meth, former MP Crispin Blunt’s story was presented by the prosecutor as a classic and tragic tale of a man’s descent from high office and heterosexual marriage into a life of group sex parties facilitated by high-octane psychotropics and homosexuality. “It was the first time he had come out as a gay man and during his ministerial role he saw first-hand the harm caused by the government’s drug policy,” said the prosecutor, outlining Blunt’s role as prisons minister. “Then he began his involvement in the chemsex scene.” Mere proximity to that scene, it seemed, was enough for even a respectable politician to be pulled into its intoxicating orbit. To the outsider observer it must seem sad, inexplicable and – whisper it – perverse.…