Will Paedophilia Skeletons Haunt Labour?

Back in 1982, Mike Morten, a gay man and self-confessed paedophile who lived in London had a letter published in the left-wing publication "Rights". Here is part of that letter which was written in response to an article written by one Peter Thornton which attacked paedophilia, published by "Rights" a month or so earlier:

"Rights" was in fact published by the National Council for Civil Liberties which is now known as "Liberty" and three very well-known Labour figures cut their political teeth whilst working for the NCCL from the mid-seventies. They are Patricia Hewitt, Harriet Harman and her husband, Jack Dromey.

NCCL apparently had a formal relationship with PIE (the Paedophile Information Exchange), a lobby group formed in 1975 to advance the human rights of predatory paedophiles and which campaigned for child sex to be legalised and for the age of consent to be lowered to four. It made the claims that "girls as young as four months can achieve orgasm" and that a four year old child can consent to sex.

PIE cosied-up to NCCL in 1975, which was then led by Patricia Hewitt with Jack Dromey on its executive, and was granted official "affiliate" status with the lobby group. In 1976 NCCL lobbied Parliament for the age of consent to be lowered to ten and for incest to be legalised. Two years later NCCL, whose legal officer was Harriet Harman, attempted to water-down child pornography laws. Motions were passed at NCCL AGMs supporting the human rights of paedophiles and the organisation gave PIE activists legal support.

Patricia Hewitt described PIE as "a campaigning/counselling group for adults sexually attracted to children" in her annual report to NCCL members for 1975. In 1978 Harriet Harman wrote a briefing paper to Parliament on the proposed Protection of Children Bill which sought, amongst other things, to outlaw child pornography in which she advanced the argument that naked images of children should only be considered pornographic if it could be proven that the child had suffered.

A couple of months ago, the Home Office launched an investigation into claims that PIE had secretly received tens of thousands of Pounds signed-off by a civil servant who worked under Labour's then Home Secretary, Merlyn Rees, in the Callaghan government.

The Police is now investigating PIE in an operation launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile affair and according to a senior investigator there is evidence that members of PIE were abusing children "on an industrial scale".

The Daily Mail drew attention to the links between NCCL and PIE in December and Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty, which is the name the NCCL now goes under, issued an apology:

(Shami Chakrabati was born in 1969 and had nothing to do with this affair.)

But all three politicians have declined to comment on NCCL's links with PIE or to apologise for them but a spokesman for Harriet Harman claimed "The very suggestion that Harriet was in any way supportive of PIE is untrue and misleading".

Yesterday Mike Hames who formerly headed Scotland Yard's Paedophile Squad weighed-in with:

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These MPs' political party is totally irrelevant. I'd be just as outraged if they were Tory or Lib-Dem or SNP or any other party. The fact is that they not only supported child pornography and paedophilia but actively campaigned and lobbied on behalf of paedophiles and pornographers.

The wider question is: shouldn't the political parties be required to vet Parliamentary candidates far more thoroughly and shouldn't the electorate be more discerning in its choice of MPs?

I do wonder how this affair will affect Labour's chances at the next election particularly as the results of the Home Office investigation into PIE's funding should be known by then.

You can, if you really want, read the Mail's full investigative report here.

Isn't this what this whole story is? A desperate attempt to divert voters away from a failed government, failed policies and trying to keep our eyes from the real problems with this country!

That said, the three Labour politicians in question are shocking examples of cronyism and our country would be better served if they left politics altogether.

That's very likely how I'd spin Labour's response were I one of its PR people.

I agree. But how many more skeletons are lurking in cupboards - from all parties.

Now here's an interesting thing. The RMT is backing Bob Crow's new party, No2EU, which wants to field eleven or so candidates for the European Parliamentary elections in May. No2EU is the left-wing's equivalent to UKIP and like UKIP wants Britain to leave the EU. Now if this new party gathers momentum and has popular appeal amongst trades unionists and other disenchanted (Old) Labour supporters, it may fancy its chances at the next General Election - or, more likely, it may get its supporters to vote Tory as that party is the only one offering a referendum on Britain's continued membership of the EU. We may be about to witness the demise of champagne socialism to be replaced by the firebrands of Old Labour style politicians. (Mind you, Bob Crow is a bit of a champagne socialist himself!)

We need more political movements from the left and the right, the large apathetic majority in this country are being shafted by all 3 major parties. This keeps then apathetic and out of politics.

Russell Brand is a symptom of our failed politics in the UK. People need to get angry and then get engaged.

I agree but it's not simply Harman who's in denial, it's her husband too! And I believe that the Labour supporting newspapers such as the Guardian are quite critical of their behaviour. At least Patricia Hewitt has now issued a statement of regret but that's nowhere near the somewhat more fulsome apology that Shami Chakrabati issued on behalf of Liberty back in December.

But you're right, this issue isn't going to disappear and there's every chance that journalists investigating this whole sorry mess may uncover much more shameful evidence against the trio and possibly other leading figures.

It does seem to me that Milliband has lost control of his party and faces real threats to his authority from the likes of McCluskie and the RMT's support for Bob Crow's fledgling anti-EU party could be really rather divisive.

Good decent Labour supporters must be wondering "what next?".