To wonder why no one seems bothered by links to labour MPs + paedophile rights organisation?

[starlady]

The Mail has published new claims about Harriet Harman, Jack Dromey and Patricia Hewitt supporting The paedophile information exchange. Thought it was a rehash of an old story, but I've looked at the evidence published, and it looks as if harriet etc do have some explaining to do. I won't link to the Mail, but the Guardian gives a more nuanced point of view here

www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/feb/20/dailymail-harrietharman
What I'm finding puzzling is twitter is not bothered! And I haven't seen anything on mumsnet. Isn't anyone bothered? No wonder jimmy Saville et al got away with their actions. I am a labour voter myself, so I'm not trying to be partisan and stir up trouble, but the silence on this disturbs me.

Whaaaaat! Islington scandal Margaret Hodge?

You'd think he would say nothing if thats his Mum

Oh sorry to misunderstand re Dan Hodges - I extrapolated from the ref to his mum.

It would be better for transparency if he were Margaret Hodge's son, because of the sources who would then be available to him.

"They knew PIE were members of the NCCL. They knew they were formally affiliated. They knew they were active"

If it was all so obvious to everyone, why were newspapers not more vocally opposed to the PIE's membership of the NCCL at the time and why did they not bring this up earlier? These people are hardly the young bloods of the labour party.

None of this information has been concealed and it has been around for decades.

Glenda Jackson has shown signs of being unusually principled in the past. It may be that if she and Tom Watson were on the case, we might get somewhere with the truth.

Only a minor parental identity mishap

I bet he's never been more pleased Glenda Jacksons his Mother and not MH!

Have the other 9 members of NCCL at the time apologised?

Good question. Who are they?

I'm guessing the other 9 have no current political power but i could be wrong.

Its an interesting question as to who they were.

The papers only appear to have named Nettie Pollard in the articles yesterday, she worked very closely with Tom O carroll and helped him write a book. She also refused to comment when contacted apparently.

Her involvement was covered in the Telegraph.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10661251/New-evidence-casts-doubt-on-Harriet-Harmans-defence-over-paedophile-links.html

Why do only people currently or recently in politics have to apologise?

Nettie Pollard was the NCCL's Gay and Lesbian Officer -

That leaves 8 unidentified

BusinessUsual: "Why do only people currently or recently in politics have to apologise?"

Good point. Everyone who has ever done anything wrong ever should apologise. So anyone who belonged to an organisation that did bad things, or thought bad things, or had an association with another organisation that did or thought bad things should apologise. It doesn't matter if they don't have power now, or if we've never heard of them, they should apologise anyway.

^not for every "bad thing" but for something as serious as supporting a pro-pedophilia group, given the level of harm that twisted adult sexuality has done and continues to do to so many children and young people, it would seem like an apology is in order. If they still work with minors or with adults known to be survivors of abuse in a position of trust, then they should take this opportunity to definitively repudiate any past connection with such a group even if they're not politically active.

Glad the Margaret Hodge stuff has been brought up here - I live in Islington and it was beyond disgusting, what went on during Hodge's watch. And years later she tried to rubbish one of the now-grown-up victims of sexual abuse in an Islington care home.

Meant to add this link, for anyone who doesn't know what went on re the Hodge/care home scandal:
spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/margaret-hodge-attempts-to-talk-her-way-out-of-islington-paedophile-scandal/

"Good point. Everyone who has ever done anything wrong ever should apologise"

You're deliberately minimising it. These people hold high public offices and were possibly supporting a pedophile organisation. If you cant see a difference between that and "anyone who has done anything wrong" then your moral compass is broken.

I can't believe people are minimising systematic child abuse.

I'm wondering if the minimisation is because people just haven't grasped the extent of it. Just read the Jimmy Saville stuff. It's mind boggling.

spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/margaret-hodge-attempts-to-talk-her-way-out-of-islington-paedophile-scandal

oldgrandmama i'm sure a lot of people think of the horrors in Islington and beyond everytime that womans name is mentioned

Thanks for that link, oldgrandmama, which I haven't seen before. I have to have a strong stomach before I can read that stuff, so will probably read it tomorrow.

"In the Eighties, an official inquiry found, Islington’s children’s homes were riddled with abuse, sex and paedophile rings. Dozens of sexual predators worked for the council and were, found the inquiry, protected by misplaced “equal opportunities” policies which enabled them to cry “discrimination” if anyone tried to rein in their activities. ( One key member of the NCCL executive in the paedophile period, the lawyer Henry Hodge , was married to the then Islington council leader, Margaret Hodge, now reinvented as the chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.)"

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/10653944/The-right-to-sleep-with-children-was-one-civil-liberty-that-NCCL-supported.html

If anyone thinks it was only Islington, they are wrong.

'The shadow police minister, Jack Dromey, has insisted he did not give his approval to a call for the age of sexual consent to be reduced to as low as 10, made by the National Council of Civil Liberties (NCCL) during his chairmanship of the group in the 1970s.

The Sun reported on the minutes of a meeting of the executive committee of the NCCL in 1976 , attended by Dromey, which agreed that the body should propose lowering the minimum age for sex to 14, or 10 in certain circumstances .'

...

"I did not agree with the proposal in February 1976 to lower the age of consent," he said. "When elected chairman of NCCL weeks later, I made it clear that my first priority would be to take on the child sex abusers of PIE. I then defeated them by a massive majority at the annual conference in April.'

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/28/jack-dromey-nccl-age-of-consent-patricia-hewitt

Was this proposal dropped?

I was scooting around the net looking for the list of NCCL staff and came across this which has good info on the NCCLs involvement with PIE. Its Well worth a skim through because relevant bits will jump out.

ianpace.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/nccl-and-pie-documentary-evidence-1/

It said Jo Richardson MP was in NCCL so i scrolled down a bit and it said about a court case against a man named Andre Stephen Thorn who tried to blackmail a PIE applicant.

I googled again to see which member of PIE he was guilty of blackmailing and it doesnt say which is helpful so i looked at this Andre chap and saw his court archive document and its closed for 87 years

It must have been a pretty important person if the national archives have shut this info down for that length of time or is it normal?

discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C11497313