Paedophile Smear Falls Flat

Predictably, the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre has refused to yield in his campaign to damage the Labour Party via a nudge-and-wink attack on the past employment of Harriet Harman, Jack Dromey and Patricia Hewitt. The only uncertainty was which of his unappealing bevy or Glendas, and overrated pundits, would be called upon to administer another kicking today.

Why can't I f***ing call Labour paedos, c***?!?

The story – which revolves around the infiltration of a group called the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) into the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), now called Liberty, during the late 70s and early 80s – has been in the public domain for decades. Many on the right have tried to make hay with it and failed – which should tell you just how little there is in it.

This has not deterred Dacre, who sees himself as the one single-handedly able to drag Labour from its perch in the polls. To this end, there has been yet another Mail article today, headed “Inexcusable: Leading abuse charity demands apology from Labour trio with links to vile paedophile group”, where the “links” are those made by the Mail. There has also been some difficulty getting Tory MPs to talk about it.

On top of that, the rest of the right-leaning part of the Fourth Estate is clearly not interested in joining in. So the Vagina Monologue has ordered the odious Quentin Letts (let’s not) to blame it all on the hated BBC, suggesting that, had it been three Tory MPs, they would have been all over it. Letts fails to see – probably deliberately – that the rest of the press pack is similarly silent.

Jan Moir - hatchet job specialist

Is there another weapon that Dacre can deploy? You betcha, says Sarah: at the front of the cab rank is, to no surprise, Jan Moir of Stephen Gately hatchet job infamy. “How can Harriet call herself a feminist after this?” she asks, showing that, by being on first name terms, she’s talking as part of the sisterhood (see also Andrew Pierce, and his claim to be “speaking as a gay man”).

“What next for the three senior Labour figures who backed a paedophile group in the Seventies and Eighties?” she ventures. But they didn’t. Try again: “They have not clarified. They have not elucidated. And they have not even, at the very least, apologised for this murky period in their collective past”. Yes Jan, so you and your pals have just filled the void with your own inventions.

And then comes a real pearler: “So passionate has been her feminism that, in the past, she has wanted to make it illegal to pay for sex in this country”. Actually, she hasn’t, but good to see that the Daily Mail now supports prostitution. I look forward to seeing an equally vehement campaign for legalised brothels and regulated red light areas in major cities. At least it will keep the Mail’s staff occupied.

Because the vicious campaign against the Labour three has run its course.