Constituency : Rochdale 1972-92
The vagaries of first past the post meant that a 1% drop in the Liberals' vote share translated to a 50% drop in their seats total as Ted Heath's Tories scored a surprise victory in 1970. Apparently back to square one, the Liberals in Parliament were effectively reduced to a trio as Russell Johnson busied himself in Europe, Emlyn Hooson was usually in court and Jo Grimond was more than semi-retired.
Things changed rapidly in 1972 with a string of by-election victories starting with Cyril Smith's decisive triumph over Labour at Rochdale. It was Cyril's second attempt at the seat having got into second place in 1970.
This is a tricky post given some personal connections to Cyril and the controversy surrounding him in recent years. He was born in Rochdale, the illegitimate son of the town slut. He was educated at Rochdale Grammar School. He became a supporter of the Liberals as a teenager and found work in a mill at Littleborough, owned by Charles Harvey, nephew of the former Rochdale MP Gordon Harvey. One of his co-workers there was my mother. He left to become a Liberal agent in Stockport for the 1950 and 1951 elections but was advised that the party was doomed and he should switch to Labour. In 1952 he became a Labour councillor. He became a well known local figure as his weight ballooned. He was Mayor in 1966 making his mother Lady Mayoress at the same time as she held the job of cleaner at the Town Hall. He held a number of prominent local positions and helped set up Cambridge House, a home for delinquent boys which is at the root of the accusations against him. In 1966 he resigned from Labour after the group refused to raise council rents and sat as an Independent until 1970 when he rejoined his former party and stood for election. By this point he had already been investigated by police over claims he had physically abused boys at Cambridge House by spanking them with their trousers down but no prosecution resulted. He was a UNitarian
Cyril increased his majority in 1974 and became one of the party's best known figures. He was a robust populist taking positions on abortion and capital punishment which dismayed his colleagues. David Steel made him chief whip but found it very difficult to work with him as Cyril had scant respect for party discipline.
In 1979 a local left wing magazine Rap published details of the Cambridge House allegations. Steel quizzed Cyril about them but accepted the police verdict and indeed the voters' verdict as Cyril more than doubled his majority that year. Cyril became industry spokesman in the new parliament. He was sceptical about the Alliance and said the SDP should be "strangled at birth ".
During the eighties his appearances in Parliament became infrequent. He justified his absences by saying he could do a better job as an MP elsewhere than sitting as "lobby fodder" in a House where one party enjoyed a large majority. In 1985 he sent me some material to help with my dissertation on early twentieth century Liberalism. He was rumoured to be considering standing down in 1986 but he made a rare appearance at a Liberal Assembly that year to announce that he was indeed standing again and enjoyed his sixth and final triumph that year.
In 1988, Cyril fervently supported his colleague David Alton's bill to tighten up the abortion laws and was reprimanded for describing his opponents as "murderers in the womb" when it was talked out. That was pretty much it as far as Parliament was concerned and he had the poorest voting record of any MP in his final years. He was knighted in 1988 and appeared in an advert for American Express.
Cyril was still active in the local party for some years afterwards. I last saw him in the flesh at the wake following his successor Liz Lynne's defeat in 1997. I heard him speak on a number of occasions but never actually had a conversation with him. I last saw him on TV in a documentary about one-hit wonders; he was appearing with Don Estelle in Rochdale Market doing the Windsor Davies part in a version of Whispering Grass.
Cyril was regularly embarrassed by having to do interviews whenever Rochdale FC had a Cup run or a televised game. Cyril had zero interest in football and had trouble faking it. Before a Sky game circa 1999 he came out with the lame comment that "they don't do any harm" which is still remembered at Spotland.
In 2008 the New Statesman accused Cyril of presenting the case for the local asbestos company Turner's which had actually been prepared by the company itself. At best this was a very lazy way of supporting a local employer but he later admitted to having shares in the company. By that point Cyril was suffering from cancer and losing weight rapidly.
He died in 2010 aged 82. Two years later the then-current Labour MP for Rochdale Simon Danczuk accused him of child abuse in Parliament and followed it up with a book very light on dates and lacking any accusations about people who were still alive. I don't know what to make of it all but certainly there's been some very lazy journalism in covering the allegations because some of the propositions are utterly ludicrous.
Nobody seemed inclined to consider that Danczuk, who'd only scraped home because dozy local Tories forgot they needed to vote tactically, had a vested interest in smearing the Liberal Democrats.
The proposition that MI5 repeatedly intervened to protect him as part of an Establishment cover-up is preposterous. Cyril was an obscure Northern politician then a lone wolf in a party with a mere handful of MPs. When on earth was he part of the "Establishment" ? He's accused of clandestine activities in a London paedophile ring but he was the most easily recognisable man in the country; he couldn't go anywhere in secret. . Geoffrey Dickens the neighbouring Tory MP seemingly rehabilitated for his "dossier" on Westminster paedophiles used a picture of him and Cyril together and an apparent endorsement in his 1992 election leaflets so Cyril can't have been in it.
The police decision not to prosecute Cyril over the Cambridge House incidents is perfectly understandable in the context of the late sixties without any need for conspiracy theory. Cyril's spankings would have been viewed as a humiliation punishment rather than a sexual offence and the recipients were all juvenile delinquents. Even if a jury believed he'd done it, they would have applauded his actions and acquitted him. Taking the case further would have been a complete waste of public money.
No comments:
Post a Comment