Simon Danczuk Aide Jokes Exposed

A civilian investigator for Greater Manchester Police was recently sacked for making a distinctly off-colour joke to the wife of Martin Digan, the whistleblower who had worked for 20 years to expose the activities of former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith. Crude innuendo delivered in the midst of a child abuse investigation was beyond the pale. There was no complaint about the sacking from Rochdale’s current MP Simon Danczuk.

That may be because Danczuk takes the subject of Child Sex Abuse (CSA) very seriously indeed. Or so he says: a number of emails have arrived on Zelo Street which appear to have been sent by his former sidekick Matt Baker. These show that, while Danczuk was fearlessly campaigning against CSA, his aide - the one who, it is claimed, wrote that book about Cyril Smith - seems to have been indulging in more of that crude innuendo.

Zelo Street regulars will recall the last Matt Baker email to appear on this blog, which has resulted in stories in Rochdale Online, and later the Manchester Evening News. That showed at attempt to smear former Rochdale Council leader Colin Lambert, together with former Mayor of Rochdale Robin Parker. Although he was Baker’s boss at the time, Simon Danczuk has denied any involvement.

But, as Clive James might have said, I digress. The first email extract - these are all believed to be genuine - was sent on 12 November 2012, with the subject “Cyril Smith handgliding” [?]. Baker’s email address, and the name of the addressee, are redacted, as is the subject line in the body text. But the rest is all too clear.

“It’s a funny old world isn’t it? Turns out Cyril Smith was good at hand gliding after all. Except it was down young boys trousers!” Laugh? I thought I’d never start. Then there is an email from January last year, on “Cyril Smith & Tickle the pony”. An excited Baker tells “The first sentence of this story is so wrong. Read it. It is just WRONG!”

So what is the fnarr-inducing first sentence? Yes, the Rutland Times link is genuine, and the story is still live. It reads “Cyril Smith was delighted to be given the chance to make a fuss of five-year-old Tickle”. The Cyril Smith in question was a resident of a care home. But the inference of “five-year-old Tickle” is as crude as it is clear.

And, as the man said, there’s more: a third email, making yet another crude swipe, this time at former Lib Dem Councillor Greg Couzens, who, it has been alleged, was one of Cyril Smith’s “famous five”. Sent in February 2013, and titled “What a recommendation!” it simply reads “Cyril was always right behind Greg!” Kersnick, kersnick.

I’m sure that Simon Danczuk will be the first to denounce this kind of behaviour. But if, as I believe, these emails are genuine, he has questions to answer about the conduct of his former sidekick. That’s in addition to the questions over the Lambert and Parker smears.

Zelo Street readers can expect further developments in the very near future.