The arrest hasn't happened - but should have.
The claims of sexual abuse on vulnerable young lads by Cyril Smith, late at night, in the Cambridge House hostel, has been subject to a conspiracy of silence by Rochdale's Establishment for years.
It is a serious scandal that will, one day, be fully investigated.
Cyril Smith remains the 'elephant in the room' in polite society.
Cyril never sued Rochdale Alternative Press or Private Eye when the details of his abusive spanking and non-consensual testicle squeezing were published in 1979.
For years, hacks and editors at the Rochdale Observer have known about the claims of Cyril's sexual abuse at Cambridge House- and elsewhere - but the Powers That Be in that great Liberal Institution have helped keep things quiet.
The founder of Scott Trust (that owns Guardian Media titles) - CP Scott - must be turning in his grave.
In today's All Fools' Edition of the Rochdale Obscurer, the grubby spanker Cyril Smith spits venom at the closure of the local Rochdale Observer offices as part of the GMG regional titles centralisation to Manchester
In testicle-squeezing fury, Cyril proclaims the Drake Street closure as:
"A tragedy, a disgrace and a real blow to Rochdale and destruction of part of its history over the last century".
How very telling.
Cyril Smith- The very man who has bullied Rochdale Observer journalists and editors with abusive phone calls and threats to get them sacked - many times over the past 50 years.
Cyril Smith- The very man who is well known in Drake Street for orchestrating bizarre letters for the Readers' Page.
Cyril Smith- The very man who has greased the cogs of the local Establishment- Rotarians, Freemasons, asbestos company directors and others for his own advantage and petty vanity. At the expense of the lives of his victims and those who blindly trusted him.
Cyril Smith- The very man who has helped ensure the Rochdale Observer never reported one word of the serious allegations of sexual abuse and financial impropriety that has dogged his political career.
No wonder Cyril Smith laments the departure of his local Rochdale Observer office.
This could mean he is losing his strong and infamous grip on Rochdale.
![[Cyrilshealinghands.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2TXXTlVeksW1fwAeoFKmipiPhyjXP4vBwZsecP6uCRWch_R73SuBaua8juu7F3Hu1NfwfGXqqfpv1f4YK8-xpjSKUxkOPld0VBgz55JBU_0zqlrMt0hXgW6YPUCHAgMvItQ07uoA_QIxt/s1600/Cyrilshealinghands.jpg)
Cyril's letter in the Rochdale Observer on April 1st 2009 could also go down in infamy for another reason.
The Mother of All Freudian Slips !
On the loss of the Ob office he writes:
"Norman Scott must be turning in his grave".
NORMAN SCOTT ?!
Is this the same Norman Scott horribly satirized by Peter Cook as "a self-confessed player of the pink oboe"?
Norman Scott?
The male model who in the 1970's accused Jeremy Thorpe, his alleged former lover and Leader of the Liberal Party, of attempted murder. Poor Great Dane Rinka took a bullet for Norman Scott in a scandal that ripped the Liberal Party apart and ended Jeremy Thorpe's career.
A young David Steel then took control of the keys to the skeleton closet.
(The little chap that who defended Cyril Smith for "merely smacking a few bare bottoms").
Cyril was central to the Norman Scott/Jeremy Thorpe scandal. The Rochdale MP was Chief Liberal Whip (no pun intended) at the time.
In old Fleet Street circles Cyril Smith was known, back then, as a prolific leaker.
30 stones of grossly obese moving and shaking.
A friend at the Daily Mirror ghost wrote his autobiography "Big Cyril" and he protected his huge hide by keeping on the right side of the Daily Mail, Express and tabloids with a combination of his "cheeky chappie from Lancashire" persona plus illiberal "hanging and flogging" soundbites and the canny, shameless, liberal leaking of documents and confidences.
Recently released government archives confirm it was Cyril Smith who made the first approaches on behalf of the Liberal Party to help form the Lib Lab pact. He was the ideal choice given that he owed a huge favour to Home Secretary Jim Callaghan following the dropping of the investigation against Cyril of the Cambridge House sex abuse allegations.
Apparently Special Branch personally picked up the Cyril Smith "paedo" files from Lancashire Police HQ at Preston and sent them to that there London for safe keeping.
The Scott/Thorpe affair was manna from heaven for a troubled Wilson administration. There is much intrigue about the political shenanighans at the time- it is fair to say that Cyril Smith was very much out of his depth: MI5, "Operation Clockwork Orange" Very British Coups, Heath's little Helpers and a Paranoid Wilson in the mix was too much for the Northern bully used to being a big fish in a small pond.
However, in the early day's of his Parliamentary carrer Chief Whip Cyril Smith was a modest man who thought himself eminently suitable to be the next Liberal Party leader.
As Chief Whip of a minority party in a not very well hung parliament, Cyril was in a key position as whip-cracking kingmaker. Just what documents were leaked and by and to whom is still shrouded in mystery. Is that why arrogant and unrepentant Cyril Smith remains so confident to this day that he is "protected"? Even Minister of Justice Jack Straw remains somewhat coy.
At the time the Liberal Party Leader desperately needed help from his Chief Whip, Cyril Smith admitted himself to Birch Hill hospital with a dickie tummy. Two weeks of non-specific illness kept him out of the limelight.
Those with long memories recall that, although lying low, the public telephone was wheeled to Cyril's NHS bedside and kept there permanently. A huge stack of 2 pence peices were used by the fat Machiavelli as his party crumbled.
Anyone with an interest in the Scott/Thorpe affair can find lots of books and infomation to quench their curiosity.
This was certainly not Cyril Smith's finest hour.
Sexual abuser, bully, informant, sneak, disloyal, dishonest, criminal?
Such phrases shouldn't be for the Court of Public Opinion to decide. For far too long, the doors to that Court were blocked locally by the likes of the Rochdale Observer.
Natural justice must prevail. Cyril Smith should be held accountable for his past (mis)deeds.
CP Scott must be turning in his grave.
"a newspaper is much more than a business as it reflects the influences and life of a whole community"
Do those fine word include sexually abused young apprentices and asbestos cancer sufferers?
We wish the Rochdale Observer well in its new Manchester offices - well away from Cyril Smith's sweaty grasp.
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But please - start exercising those Scott family values - for Rochdale.
7 comments:
Crikey! RAW should write a book on Rochdale's corrupt history. I found this a very informative read.
What does the town's current MP, Paul Rowen, think of Cyril? Does he support him or keep a safe distance?
Paul Rowen is putting himself in the limelight on behalf of the M.E.N. Christies campaign.
So he should, given that his old boss Cyril Smith help promote and profit from a national asbestos cancer epidemic.
Perhaps a Freudian slip by Cyril because of his close connections with 1970's Westminster sheninghans
but
There WAS a Norman Scott who was very influential in Rochdale during Cyril Smith's formative years.
This is probebly the Norman Scott that Cyril is referring to so warmly.
Norman Scott, Freemason, Rochdale Observer joint proprieter and original trustee of the Curtain Theatre (a gentile little place, with close lnks to the old Liberal Party, used for Rotarian am dram soirees).
Rochdale: Freemasonry. Local Liberal Party Politics. The Rochdale Observer and Turner Brothers Asbestos all meeting up in a cozy social setting at the Curtain Theatre.
Original trustees of the Curtain Theatre included Norman Scott and Sir Samuel Turner (of Turner Brothers Asbestos).
Rochdale has a proud history of covering up sexual abuse. Those in power are shamelessly upfront about it too.
This is what Terry Piggott, Rochdale's executive director for children, schools and families, told the MEN in 2006.
"I cannot see how the interests of today's challenges of protecting children will be served by re-examining cases that are 15 years old."
You'll see Paul Rowen and his team of Lib Dems doing the same in condemning anyone who asks questions about Cyril of raking up ancient history that has nothing to do with now.
Oh, but it does. Cyril and the Council's actions of yesteryear are even more relevant now.
and Knowl View School too.
There are some evil people in Rochdale that keep things covered up.
One day it will all come out.
No amount of spin, threats, deceit or cash should keep a lid on the disgusting cover-ups that taint our town.
He was a Liberal! WTF did anyone expect????
Investigations about Cyril Smith abusing vulnerble young lads whilst he was a Labour Councillor?
Claims about abuse cover-up by Labour ministers Wilson and Callaghan during the Lib-Lab pact?
I don't understand. Isn't this an example of RAW criticising old members of the Labour Party?
That paragon of journalism, Rochdale Online, had Paul Rowen saying that RAW was a "Labour Blog".
That bastion of traditional liberalism, the Rochdale Obscurer, was more circumspect by allowing RAW to be described by Million Pound Paul as "Labour supporting".
Looks like Dave Hennighan has helped negotiate his boss up Shite Creek- sans paddle.
"I taut I taw a puddytat" tweets Rochdale's current MP.
Paul Rowen in pussy - attack shocker.
Never saw that one coming.
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