Former Liberal Democrat leader David Steel has quit the party and the Lords after an inquiry said he "turned a blind eye" to claims of child abuse.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse criticised political groups for not acting on complaints.
It accused Lord Steel of an "abdication of responsibility" over accusations against the late MP Cyril Smith...
He was elected as a Liberal MP in 1972, and Lord Steel said he had discussed the allegations with him in 1979 after an article appeared in Private Eye.
The peer told the inquiry that he "assumed" that Smith had committed the offences, but took no further action because "it was before he was an MP, before he was even a member of my party - it had nothing to do with me".
Is that the best Lord Steel can come up with after forty years to mull it over - nothing to do with me? He says he only knew about the allegations after an article appeared in Private Eye so not a leader with his ear to the ground presumably.
7 comments:
Well, it was the Liberal Party and they do things differently there. Party Leaders attempt to murder their gay lovers, other leaders resign due to alcoholism, Mark Oaten pays rent boys, and odd blokes with wispy beards wear socks with sandals. I bet Steel heard worse most days of the week.
And Clement Freud was an MP for the Liberal Party during these years, if memory serves, their education spokesman. Intriguing Freudian undercurrents
I seem to remember him getting the head boy job in the Liberals, winning a vote against John Pardoe.
It didn't make much difference to me, as I couldn't give a monkey's then and still don't...
At his age this is probably a "cleansing of the soul" moment in the hope when he moves on he will be forgiven for being a cover up merchant for nonces, where does the Liberal party find them, do they have a special unit somewhere churning out people who they believe and only they, are suitable for becoming Liberal party MPs.
Sam - good point, Steel probably did hear worse most days.
Graeme - I'd forgotten him - it's becoming quite a list.
Scrobs - you have a good memory, I had to look him up as a reminder.
Wiggia - I don't know where they find them, but maybe reading the Guardian is one of their signals like a masonic handshake.
"Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government" was the boy David's famous line. Anyone so deluded would surely also have missed a little local in-house problem like CS.
Ed - good point. That line amazed me at the time but Jo Swinson decided to repeat it.
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