Ted Heath: Unbelievable

 

Regular viewers may have noticed that Fagburn went into involuntary exile just after one of the most lunatic episodes in the British media of all time; ludicrous and unfounded claims that former PM Ted Heath was a child molester were splashed all over the front pages as if they were serious charges.

I sometimes suspect my old computer may have commited suicide in despair.

Here's the Sunday People - easily the worst offender - claiming Edward Heath attended meetings of the Paedophile Information Exchange and used to rape and murder boys on his yacht.

Uh-huh...

Several papers later ran articles by columnists pointing out what an avalanche of absolute nonsense it all was.

For the record, here are four of the best...

How easy it is to convict the dead and defenceless, Simon Jenkins, The Guardian.

There's no evidence against Ted Heath, Ann Widdecombe (hell yes!), Daily Express.

The crusade against Ted Heath: Dancing on people's graves, Frank Furedi, Spiked.

If Heath was a child abuser, I'm an aardvark, Matthew Parris, The Times.

Admittedly, Fagburn is going out on a limb here and is working on the assumption that none of these people are members of the infamous Dolphin Square VIP paedophile ring and are just covering the late Sir Edward's tracks.

PS It goes on. Sky News today; Prison worker makes Ted Heath allegation.

PIEgate: Latest!

'Compound for sins they are inclin’d to,

By damning those they have no mind to:

Still so perverse and opposite,

As if they worshipp’d God for spite.

The self-same thing they will abhor

One way, and long another for.'

Samuel Butler, 1684.

Sunday Times.

Further, PIE was founded in  October 1974, after the GLF had died.

Here is Rod Liddle's original article.

Here is Rod on gay marriage.

And here is that oldie but goody; How can the swine Rod Liddle, who cheated on me within days of our wedding, set himself up as a champion of marriage?

It's by Rachel Royce, who he left for a woman 30 years younger than him - his new lover, Alicia Monckton, soon had this paragon of virtue charged with assault.

This is The Observer...

Paedophiles not actually pictured.

This piece in The Independent is predictably barking.
Fagburn remembers the good old days when unimaginative journalists blamed the 60s for everything.
He once saw Yasmin Alibhai Brown speak at a Stop The War Conference in London.
Her first words; 'I'm not sure why I'm here, I don't want to stop the war...'

Sunday Mirror: 'If these allegations are true...' Which they are probably not.

Will this paedohysteria ever end?

Private Eye.

Update: Oops! 'A senior aide to David Cameron resigned from Downing Street last month the day before being arrested on allegations relating to child abuse images.'
Patrick Rock, who was involved in drawing up the government's policy for the large internet firms on online pornography filters, resigned after No 10 was alerted to the allegations...' Guardian, March 4th.

Daily Mail: PIEgate latest!

Zzzz...

Daily Mail: Sorry?

Steve Bell in The Guardian.

Does anyone honestly think that Ms Harman could ever have been some kind of a cheerleader for child-abuse? Of course not. And if we don’t think that, and if we do think that it was through inattention that, as an officer of the National Council for Civil Liberties, she didn’t spot the unwisdom of a dodgy lobbying outfit’s association with the council, then for pity’s sake what’s all the ruckus about? But lacking further evidence against her, we rant at her “refusal to apologise”.

She was silly not to apologise, but can’t you understand her sense of righteous indignation that her reputation should be impugned by the suggestion that there might be something morally suspicious about her behaviour? Her anger at these newspaper attacks stung her into playing into the hands of her tormentors by trying to tough it out and take no notice.

Easy to say, though, after the event. Sometimes taking no notice works, and it’s difficult to say when the tactic will or won’t backfire. Being attacked by the Daily Mail is rather like being mobbed by bullocks when crossing a Derbyshire field. The standard advice is to take no notice but walk confidently through the herd, which, seeing you’re unafraid, will shrink back. And (the standard advice continues) if they do run at you, run back at them, preferably waving a stick. They’ll back off. Whatever you do (the advice concludes) don’t run away or, emboldened, they’ll run after and trample you.

Matthew Parris, The Times.

Daily Mail: Sorry?

This is the Daily Mail at its worst.
As before, it's an old story.
And it's a non-story - there are no 'links'
It's just a smear story on Labour and Liberty.
Still the Mail Online has filed ten stories in the last 24 hours alone.
And so hypocritical as the Mail loves publishing sexualised images of young girls saying they look "all grown up".
Pathetic.

Politician slammed for links with known paedo

Liberty: Now And Then

"We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance.
"In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship."

EM Forster, the first president of the Council For Civil Liberties.

The Guardian marks the 80th anniversary of Liberty by asking 'Edward Snowden and top writers what freedom means to them'.

PS The Daily Mail is celebrating Liberty's decades of good work by running a series of stories such as this; The Labour elite who gave succour to paedophiles.
As are the Telegraph.

Great stuff guys!

Edit: In The Sunday Times Rod Liddle wonders why this hasn't been 'in the news' [sic].
A leftist conspiracy?
Even though it's been covered by Rod, them above and in today's Observer!

It's not been in the news much as it's not actually 'news' - it's an old and distinctly tenuous story dredged up by the Mail to smear Labour and Liberty.