Has been stripped of the freedom of Rochdale, which he cant make use of anyway, seen as he is dead.
What was the point?


www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/gre...smith-could-15261564

I'm a bit puzzled by that article as it says he "could" be stripped of the freedom of Rochdale, but it does look as if it has happened, as his name is not on this list:
www.rochdale.gov.uk/council-and-democrac...men-and-Freemen.aspx

I didn't follow the allegations about him. Did you have the impression they were valid?

Jo wrote:
I'm a bit puzzled by that article as it says he "could" be stripped of the freedom of Rochdale, but it does look as if it has happened, as his name is not on this list:
www.rochdale.gov.uk/council-and-democrac...men-and-Freemen.aspx

I didn't follow the allegations about him. Did you have the impression they were valid?

A lot of them seemed to be a copy of the Savile complaints.
Obviously there is no way of knowing, but I prefer to presume innocence unless proven otherwise.
There is also something extremely tacky about badmouthing a dead person who cant respond.

I must say, the Freedom of Rochdale would not be very high on my list of awards I would like to receive.

Freedom of St Tropez, New York or Rome may do it.

What a sight Smith was !

I was amazed when I discovered he was gay in about 1976. It was one of those not mentioned secrets (like all the other gay MPs)

I have no idea what Cyril might have done in his life but so much of the 'pedo' accusations today appear to have arisen while being gay has become more accepted.

Is it that people always need a "sexual pervert enemy"?

I think the key, as often, is exaggeration - after death it is not only easy but obligatory to pump up claims with assistance from media and fiction. Throw in the odd bleeding anus and you can usually guarantee some extra compo.

The media I read at the time was all stories with nothing factual. The usual latest day crazy stuff.

The person who seemed to make a thing about it was Simon Dabczuk another one of them labour characters who seemed to cash in on the crazy stuff.(My hope is labour will attract more candidates with integrity and sense not one's who follow fads and crazy reasoning).

One incident from the book Simon wrote was published to help sell the book but the story as far as I could tell never found any support at all. The published story about been stopped on the motorway with something in the car boot or whatever it was may even of been discredited.

Like the main Savile popular book I am under the impression the book is a collection of "stories". A bit like going to an Alien encounters convention and collecting the stories then saying here's the proof.

The book "Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith" by Simon Danczuk

The author demonstrated along with his then wife someone I could not trust to have written with an "open mind" and a zeal for truth plus the published story thus nothing to remotely interest me to it been factual. Opposite to JK's book I am looking forward to reading it and as time goes on the evidence to his innocence just keeps piling up.

I must admit, freedom of Rochdale is something I could happily do without.

I don't think Danzuck even wrote the book, rather his MP agent did while he was on the public payroll.

What an odious little man he is ...banished to obscurity.

Let's hope the ghastly John Mann MP follows him.

I only know about the original allegations made in 1979 but I must say I don't find them too convincing. The problem is not that I think the men were lying, the original complainants all sounded like they were telling the truth. However, this was about events in the early 1960s. Most of it was about spanking teenage boys as an alternative to a legal punishment or some other sanction. Of course nowadays (or even in 1979) people would understand this as the behaviour of someone with sexual motives. But I do not think people in the early 1960s would have so readily understood this. It would have been completely taboo to discuss such sexual proclivities in the kind of circles that Cyril Smith was likely to be mixing in ('respectable working class'). This raises the question of whether Smith himself was able to conceive that sexual desire was his actual motive. Cyril Smith sounds very much like my old headmaster, a man whose behaviour was bad my standards (corporeal punishment especially) but I am not clear that he was guilty of paedophile crimes. After all you need an 'intention' or a 'criminal mind' in order to be actually prosecuted for a crime.