Cyril Smith

I'm not the only one, am I ? who is speechless and discusted by OPs comments.
All I can say is, you are fortunate that you have never spoken to anyone that this has happened to. These children/ young men never grow up. The poor, sad young man I met many years ago was stuck in that horrendous childhood.
I could cry for him now.

I am now Great Gran.
But I can remember, many years ago, Cyril Smith being accused, by Private Eye, of abusing young boys in a care home.

I was pretty horrified at the time to think of this grossly huge man forcing himself on boys who were unable to defend themselves.

I waited for Cyril Smith to sue Private Eye for slander - but nothing happened.

The years passed, but the story stayed in my mind.

If I, and probably many other ordinary members of the public, were aware of the allegations against him -why did his political parties, (both of them) not undertake an in depth investigation into his behaviour towards these boys?

I cannot help but feel that they failed, not only those young boys - but the public at large. If a man has got away, scot-free, with deviant behaviour towards children throughout his life - he certainly does not deserve a knighthood, or an unblemished reputation after death.

First of all they're 'milking' the situation; then they are 'bleating'. Just think about the connotations of those two words, jingl. How would you like them to be applied to you or to someone close to you?

Oh FFS! I only started this bloody thread because Gransnet was getting so boring! I gave the original post all of thirty seconds thoughts. I don't stuffing care!

At least it's given all the heavily world weary ageing social workers a chance to air their knowledge. It's not all bad.

And before you start jingle, anno's comment is not a personal one

Too late sweetheart. I've started.

Anyone else want to come out with boxing gloves on?

I'm up for it.

At least jingle these 'heavily world weary ageing social workers' have some knowledge to air - unlike some, and that IS a personal comment

You have no idea of my knowledge on the subject.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Cari - shall I take the email as read?

Thanks GrannyTwice. You're right - I wasn't being personal. I was making a linguistic - maybe semantic - point.

I think there's a danger here of the Cyril Smith case, horrible as it is, being used for political purposes. ie "Get the LibDems." Something of a red herring.
Whereas there are, sadly, many more examples of abuse of vulnerable children which aren't headlines in the Daily Mail.
It's the system of residential provision for children whose parents have given up on them which needs to be supervised better. Difficult to find suitable staff, because it's a very stressful job.

I agree with TriciaF that residential provision for children needs to be supervised better. I don't agree that all the parents of children in residential care have given up on them.

The DM may have an anti lib dem agenda, but I don't. My concern is that the party failed to act responsibly in regard to Cyril Smith.

Apparently David Steele - in the seventies I think, questioned Smith about the rumours, but although he admitted to administering corporal punishments to boys' bare behinds, that was perfectly legal then. And so David Steele had no way to take it any further.

I think it has somewhat become a case of "get David Steele".

Having read all these posts, I had decided not to comment or get involved in what has turned into a rather unpleasant slanging match, but I just wanted to say that up to a point I can see where Jingle is coming from and it's true that it's a sad fact that there are people who might/will jump on this bandwagon for spurious reasons. However having said that CS had a dreadful 'dark' side, and was on the quiet a truly dreadful man and what he did to these poor children was absolutely horrible aided and abetted by the 'establishment' who, in my opinion, are as equally guilty. (as with Saville) He should have been stopped, investigated and prosecuted at the time and it is shameful that this wasn't done. I can remember donkeys years ago (I was 15) while on holiday, a friends father took a 'shine' to me, and it certainly made me feel VERY uncomfortable. Nothing happened and the holiday was only two weeks, I obviously didn't say anything (who would have believed me?!!) and that was that. The point is that although it certainly didn't blight my life, I never forgot it and for years was always wary round older men, so what those poor boys must have felt/feel over something a million times worse is very relevant and I think WOULD affect your emotional life and actually does need investigating and admitted to even though CS is dead, if for no other reason that it stops other would be molesters for doing it again - you WILL get found out and punished.

For some reason, CS was above criticism. Perhaps he knew too much about other Liberal politicians. Once, I took exception to one of his less-than-Liberal pronouncements (nothing to do with paedophilia), wrote a letter to the Lib Dem News and, surprise, surprise, it wasn't printed. But then, I started out as a Social Democrat and CS was one of the most prominent opponents of the merger of the two parties.

Put all of 30 seconds thought into OP and doesn't stuffing care. Says it all really. Heartless stirring on a highly emotive subject for her own entertainment because she was bored. Disgraceful!

No! You've got it wrong. I wasn't bored. I felt GN was getting boring. It has turned out to be an interesting thread.

When are you going to start one mcwhatever?

The "don't stuffing care" was the result of one too many exceedingly intelligent in their own estimation, people returning to put the boot in. Again.

I found your post extremely unhelpful and quite offensive, mcem.

As I found the OP and some subsequent comments! No comment about how unhelpful the post immediately preceding yours was? Enough of this. I have far more useful and interesting things to do than get involved in yet another Jingl-centric slanging match!

Jolly good!

'bye.

Did anyone hear the interview on Radio 4 this afternoon with the MP for Rochdale who wrote the book that started this whole enquiry.
To condense it, they had to stop the interview because the poor man broke down in tears on the radio when he got to the part where he was talking about what victims had told him about the 'sainted' CM.