Will the loony left rape your daughters?

[mudskipper]

Mich, I know you might think it irrelevant, but do you really think this "Harperson" jibe is worth your breath? It's a bit 1970s laddish, not really funny.

I thought it was funny.

HTH.

[Mich the Tester]

Mich, I know you might think it irrelevant, but do you really think this "Harperson" jibe is worth your breath? It's a bit 1970s laddish, not really funny.

Well maybe, but it can't be anything like as silly as the Wail's current campaign against her. Bloody hell, what is the world coming to when I find myself standing up for Harriet Harman?

Obviously the right has its loony fringe too, and the Daily Wail is at the front of it.

[Gittins Gal]

Yes exactly. And I'm no fan of politicians of either colour.

Oh well, I know it sounds bad but I couldn't really give a stuff what happens to Harman and her ilk.

And if you think her freedom of expression is being compromised then great....

Hoist by her own petard is the phrase that leaps to mind.

[vetran]

much as I would like to believe that harperson & co are up it to their necks they may have been involved with youthful enthusiasm and lack of experience. However the organisation partially funded lobbying for the reduction of the age of consent to an age almost everyone has felt inappropriate for over 100 years.

BBC History - Child prostitutes: How the age of consent was raised to 16

in individual evil terms Saville & his enablers surpass this. However for final effect Harpersons ex employer's associate would have done far more damage.

[Mich the Tester]

And if you think her freedom of expression is being compromised then great....

That's not great at all. She must have the freedom to express her opinion.

[vwdan]

I think she's fallen into the trap they wanted by not simply apologising for the association. That said, the whole thing is a class Mail headline and is being somewhat misconstrued to say the least. I'm really not a fan of her, but I do feel she's been witch hunted for the sake of it.

[expat]

That's not great at all. She must have the freedom to express her opinion.

Absoultely. And I sincerely hope that all the PIE guys themselves who were jailed, were jailed for what they did, and not for their opinions alone.

Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.

-- Lord Justice Sedley

[Gittins Gal]

If I'm not mistaken, Harman is not accused even of having "some time in the past [...] debated the issue and expressed opinions that are today considered abhorrent": she was employed by the NCCL, which had itself allowed PIE to affiliate some time before she joined it. It's a typical Mail smear campaign, i.e. slimy and dishonest. Some people here ought to be above the Mail's level (and some clearly aren't).

No, it's more than that. Her moniker appears at the bottom of a legal document that sets out the case for lowering the age of consent to 10 so she is definitely complicit.

And besides, this argument about judging the past on today's attitudes- well maybe when talking about pop stars and borderline legal age teen girls, but 10 years old???!

[Gittins Gal]

That's not great at all. She must have the freedom to express her opinion.

Read the whole post Mich.

Great to see her hoist by her own petard...

[Mich the Tester]

No, it's more than that. Her moniker appears at the bottom of a legal document that sets out the case for lowering the age of consent to 10 so she is definitely complicit.

Complicit in what, precisely?