Give them a damn good kicking

I found myself yelling at Radio 5 earlier today. In response to the Ted Heath story people were calling in to say "Why did people wait until he's dead to come forward?" as if that is proof that the claims are false.

When Heath, Britten, Smith et al were alive they were protected. The establishment closes ranks to protect itself.  Calls are made and investigations are dropped. Dossiers are given to the Home Secretary that mysteriously go missing. Someone threatens to expose Heath if charges in a different case aren't dropped and purely coincidentally those charges get dropped.

I don't know whether Heath was involved in child abuse or not. My gut instinct is that he probably wasn't, but may have been aware of certain people and their activities (though I have no evidence to back this up). But there is mounting evidence that in political circles there was organised child abuse, and there is good circumstantial evidence that it was covered up by the Thatcher government. Any investigation into Heath would have risked exposing the wrongs of others, even if Heath was personally innocent of any direct involvement.

The establishment has long-standing expertise in closing ranks to protect its own. This expertise crosses party lines and involves politicians, police, judiciary and the press.

I remember how the BBC was hauled over the coals when the Savile affair broke. In 2012, Tory party Chairman Grant Shapps said "It seems unimaginable that the people in the BBC didn't know.” Well Grant, it seems unimaginable to me that Margaret Thatcher, Ted Heath and just about anyone of note in your party in the 70s and 80s didn't know what sordid and illegal activities were going on. To cover them up you must first have knowledge of them. Where are the 114 missing Home Office files? It seems to me that leading Tories of that generation are due the sort of public kicking that their heirs so joyfully gave the BBC, and they are due it in spades because they had the power to stop the child abuse and didn't. Likewise anyone else who put their party before moral and legal obligations is due a kicking. The only person being prosecuted is an old man with dementia. One gets the feeling that he has been chosen as the whipping boy for the establishment, and while he may deserve what's coming, I suspect that the establishment will once again protect its own and consider him collateral damage.