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Correction: Manchester Evening News Start on Cyril
Although it doesn't show up online Cyril Smith has made page 20 of the MEN today yesterday under the headline 'Sir Cyril faces fury for backing asbestos firm'. Why is this piece not online? And why on page 20 given the death toll and the seriousness of Sir Cyril's having been hand in glove with these deathly polluters?
Jason Addy of Save Spodden Valley is quoted saying: "It's monstrous. If he had acted to ban asbestos then it could have stopped deaths. We're now left with 4,000 deaths a year."
Old Cyril meanwhile is pictured grinning like the very fat cat who got the very fullest fat cream. How can he be smug about this?
Another pecularity comes to light quoted from the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2006.
(Doctor) Lewinsohn recommended that examinations of ex-employees be conducted by the Medical Research Council rather than by the Company’s Medical Department, and that the press is taken into their confidence prior to the event to ensure their collaboration in the preparation of any statement that required subsequently to be made. Rochdale newspapers published reports of Coroners’ inquests on local asbestos workers, but there is reason to expect that were TBA to be threatened, the Press could be relied on to take a "responsible" attitude to the preservation of a local industry, much as did local members (sic) of parliament.
Here are links to some of Doctor Lewinsohn's publications. And here is a Health and safety Executive summary of the Joys of Asbestos. As a PDF or as a web page.
Lewinsohn was of course Turner Brothers Asbestos Chief Medical Officer, advising that the press be got at to be "responsible", just the same as the MP. Seems like a case of a euphemism that is the exact antonym of the real meaning. These days it seems to be Agent Hennigan who is "irresponsible" for keeping the press in line. He's not doing so well just now though is he?
Well done to the Lib Dems nationally for passing him over for those top jobs. Again and again and again. W Menzies Campbell, taken in by Hennigan Bull, was knifed just in time to save a national disaster.
27 comments:
And yet more evidence that the asbestos industry viewed Cyril as being their man. It is also worth noting that although the NS article is about Cyril supporting the industry in a debate in parliament in 1981 - he was still spouting the industry line in a subsequent debate in 1983 to which I have linked in earlier posts.
It would be very interesting at this juncture to hear Max Madden's views on how he viewed Cyril Smith's position at the time. Perhaps some enterprising journalist might want to try and contact Max - last I heard he had retired to Ireland.
But we should not lose sight of why all this is important - as a previous poster from Canada pointed out - this filthy and dangerous industry still exists in Cananda and Russia and other places - and it is still killing people for no other reason than profits - as there are perfectly acceptable substitutes for all forms of asbestos. The NS article also pointed out how it is Berkshire Hathaway's interests to try and reduce the insurers liability for asbestos claims (and I supsect that this would include a proper decontamination of Spodden Valley). If those politicians responsible for supporting the industry position such as Cyril Smith are not made fully responsible for their actions - my guess is that their successors (including Rowen - but not limited to him by any means) might not be quite as thorough in doing the right thing by all the victims of the asbestos industry.
This is not an area where the LibDems can maintain their usual position of being all things to all men.
Things have gone VERY quiet with Team Henag-anon.
Rumous abound in the old spanker's thiefdom that Spin it Again Dave is now about as popular as a turd in a swimming pool.
Acting like a cnut has a habit of biting the perpetrator back, right on the ARSE.
Looks like Sir Cyril could be getting the wet sponge out to wipe it better.
Fucking monster.
And Cyril isn't a nice man either.
Now we have all seen how Team Shenaighan's media strategy works, let's throw some left over cheese pie into the Mr Fusion unit of the DeLorean and take a trip a little into the future...
Headline (not in the Rochdale Obscurer):
CYRIL: THERE WAS NO COVER UP
The plain speaking godfather of Rochdale Lib Dems explains:
"There was no cover up, they had their pants round their ankles at the time I was slapping their arses and squeezing their tesitcles".
When asked about the allegations of sex abuse in young men's hostels in the 1960's Sir Cyril was robust:
"I utterly deny all that happened such a long time ago, unless you have copies of RAP from 1979. If so then its true"
A spokesman for benevolant asbestos employer of thousands spoke up for the politician. In a speech written by Smith, T&N spokesman Dr Death stated: "It's all blatant lies. Sue 'em Cyril' unless you did it, then youre on your own and don't call our company again."
A tired and emotional David Sheninighan was reolute of Sir Cyril.
"off the record, as a good catholic former choirboy, these allegations do not shock me.
"I have spoken to Cyril at Emma Street for many hours until the feint smell of wee was too much and he shouted at me and told me to go home to my wife".
Cyril is adamant he did nothing wrong.
"If those lads at Cambridge House did not like my strict late night discipline then they could have left"
"They knew the risks when they entered the hostel"
"I was doing them a favour, the arse slapping saved them from being arrested for alleged theft and getting a criminal record."
"There was absolutely no risk to people outside the hostel, such abuse is about control, power and domination of vulnerable people and not about all that smutty sex stuff"
"If I was doing something wrong, how come others who knew at the time kept quiet? What about the Rotarians who set up the hostel in the first place? If I have done anything wrong then why has the Rochdale Observer never mention a peep about this?
There were worse folk than me. I was one of the better abusers. You should be looking at those other sex abusers at the time rather than one who was careful and did not take excessive risks.
On another web forum Spin paramedic Shenahighan tried a different tack with an ingenious reason for defending Sir Cyril:
"why are they making jokes about how fat he was back then. Think about it, if he wasn't so clinically obsese back then he might have been able to maintain an erection. They would have been buggered then wouldn't they!!!"
A 1979 quote from Liberal party spokesman David Steel backed up Shenaighans take on the accusations:
"all we are talking about is a few smacked bottoms".
Lashing out at other political parties, Smith remains resolute:
"All I was doing was defending jobs in the wet sponge market. Back then there was safe alternative to a testicle grope or arse slap. Today is political correctness gone mad. Elf n'Safety. Today you can't seem to do anyting in the safety of someone else's home, late at night with young boys too terrified or ashamed to tell anyone".
"and don't give me all this rubbish about the labour party" blackmailed Smith."They knew what was going on. Jack McCann was Labour MP at the time I was questioned by the police. Where is the DPP file?"
"I was the perfect man to enter into negotiations in 1974 with Labour for the Lib Lab Pact".
"If Jeremy Thorpe hadn't seen real potential in me then he wouldn't have made me Chief Whip".
"As the longest running farce in town, I had no time for Parliament. It was full of shifty buggers and perverts. I notice none of them have spoken out against me have they"
"I have no regrets. If I could go back in time I wouldn't have done anything different" Apart from not gettign caught, threatening to sue RAP then dropping the threat at the time the Tories had just got into power and they needed all the socialist bashers they could get their hands on"
"I don't get involved in politics now,apart from writing to the Observer every week, phoning Master Shenanighan several times a day and mentoring young Paul and the councillors"
"That nice John Major and Edwina Curry still send me a Christmas card every year"
I didn't want a fuss making for my 80th. But that daft idiot David Henighan insisted.
Ah well, at least my charity Rochdale Childer got a big cheque off me. I told them that I would pop round to the children's home but the phone went quiet for a bit ...then they they said that wasn't a good idea, especially if it was at night and on my own.
Instead they came round to Emma Street to pick the big cheque up. very thoughtful of them.
And young David took a photograph and put it in the Ob. Even though I didn't want any fuss.
Anon
If your allegations are backed up by any evidence then they should be made to the Police rather than here - otherwise they are libellous and detracting from other arguments which have substance and can be supported (but perhaps that is the aim?)
Thanks TBNGU
The scurrilous insinuations and apparent curious fantasies in the above work of humour and satire seem on a very quick reading to be somethingly similar if not identical to real life allegations, facts and figures published with all the witnesses and checks and proper research and all that by both Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) and Private Eye.
Neither one nor t'other received any meaningful complaint and certainly no legal action. As the Bard of Rochdale suggests the excuses reported at the time were rather similar to those being used now over the Asbestos massacre.
It was for the best. It had to be done. Good faith and best intentions. Never did anyone any harm. It was just a few smacked bums. And all that rot.
Specifically Cyril was I understand involved as a volunteer in the governance of a home for naughty boys. When they were particularly naughty these publications alleged with evidence including survivor testimony that Cyril had offered miscreants the option of summary justice instead of the police or whatever else. Thgis summary justice they say consisted of his big bear hands smacking the bare bottoms of teenage boys over his lap and which kind offer was often accepted by the naughty but nonetheless vulnerable individuals.
Cyril was also said to have held the occasional scrotum and demanded a cough from the victim. In the manner of a Carry On medical for the National Service. You know the kind of thing. Titter ye not. Let's hope he warmed up his hands first.
The remarkable David Steel response is not contested. Obviously Jeremy Thorpe allowed him to be selected for the by-election. And there is that Redifusion business involving Smith and Thorpe too.
Reference to these matters has been on this blog before - with some long winded comments as well as my own posts - as well as in the esteemed organs. I personally find it remarkable that Cyril was ever selected to be a candidate or managed to be re-elected time after time. Why would the Libs allow him to be their elected member?
Almost as if there was some kind of deal not to pusue these matters in the political arena. Perhaps with one or two dodgy Tories or whatever "paired" like they do in votes. The allegations about Heath for example. And there were others.
This rather annoying, faulty and ineffective individual seems to have struck some kind of chord with the people of Rochdale for his Carry On Knockabout shenanigans. And this is what attracted Dave Shenanigan himself to come and learn at the master's feet.
If anyone wishes to put an alternative view or send me a statement from Cyril and Team Hennigan I will as ever consider publishing it on the blog.
By the same token if there are people that have lived through these or other weird and wonderful adventures with Cyril then please don't hesitate to get in touch. On the law of averages there must be the odd person who has been through the home, and the factory, and the hospital, and who knows? Perhaps the mortuary too.
If there's no proof PLEASE NOT ON THE BLOG until there that proof is obtained. As ever if some of you people would have the guts to use your names or at least a consistent pen name I would be glad.
He always had cold clammy hands when he tackled my tackle. And I liked it.
He felt my balls ... and I liked it.
So the Rochdale LibDem spokesman is now resorting to ad hominem attacks (however justified they may be) rather than addressing the central questions raised about why their former MP was supporting the interests of the asbestos industry rather than his constituents.
I've addressed them on this site - somewhere or another.
Dave Hennigan
However justified they may be? Give us a break TBNGU.
Hennigan is all over the place. He has no legitimate answers so he resorts to this total and utter guff. Attacking not just me but my wife?? Is he trying to start something here?
I don't plan to follow him at least for the moment with comments about his own personal relationships, strange accusations about Professors, his public promises to rid the council of XY and Z (usually based on defamation as it goes), his continuous defamatory briefings to journalists and the whole rich seam of bullshit that Hennigan wallows in.
Really! Using the drunk and disorderly spite blogger Guido Fawkes as a reference!!
Now you are using your name Dave perhaps you would explain to TBNGU what are the current excuses for the sordid history of your hero Cyril Smith away from the Asbestos apology malarkey?
And perhaps you'd like to share the real reasons why you left your role as a Levenshulme councillor. This was not to go to Wales and join a male voice choir now was it? And explain why you're now removed to Heywood and plotting plots and power coups there?
PS How on earth can you have the gall to point the finger randomly at others over alleged lies and malarkey and anonymity when you and your little friend carry on as you do on this blog, Rochdale Online, in falsified letters under other people's names to papers, when you regularly threaten people with all sorts of consequences, when you are such a scumbag in your own political activity? It's not even pot and kettle Dave. It's just pot.
I always use my real name Chris and have NEVER posted using anything else.
Reason I moved to Wales was for a women. What more do you wanna know? Sorry to bring in your missus but I understand that she is as crackers as you are from a close friend of yours!!!
Yes, I have moved to Heywood and yes I might be plotting something that will give the Liberal Democrats power for decades.
Like us or not Chris, you can't argue that we don't win elections. In my patch we won 10 out of 11 in May. Labour nearly came 3rd and enjoyed their worst election since records began.
You were quite right about your initial comments about Simon Danczuk. As you previously indictated, he is bloody useless!!!
Dave
I have been forced to remove your first comment of today from this blog. For legal and ethical reasons. Do not use this blog for defamation and dirty tricks under your own name, pen names or under cowardly anonymity.
Be accountable as I am.
I know that you are passionate about what you do and that you are stressed out just now. But there is a limit to what can be tolerated even with cutting you a bit of slack.
You need to take a sober look at what you are doing here and cut it out. No repetitions.
Chris P
I repeat Chris, I always blog under my own name like you. I have never blogged anonymously ever despite your repeated suggestions to the contrary.
PS - Pot, Kettle, Black Chris! Please tell me exactly what part of my comments that were offensive?
Although there is a better tone in the latest post Dave this approach just is not acceptable. You repeat the same drivel in a different way.
How can you think it is OK to involve my missus in this way? In any way?
You do not know her and whoever has (supposedly) given you this information - to be blunt I think you've made it up - is quite wrong about that characterisation.
It's defamation. Pure and simple.
You have NOT satisfactorily explained why you left the Manchester Lib Dems, what happened in Bedgellert or wherever, why you in fact immediately turned up in Rochdale, or what you are now doing in Heywood.
You AND YOUR CIPHERS must cease and desist from malicious nonsense. And by the way your assertion that you've never posted here without using your own name is a huge lie.
Shame on you. Go see Parish Priest and get a confession in PDQ.
Oh God - The above comment is from me.
Ha ha ha. 12:13 - I have never posted anonymously. 12:14 - anonymous post.
Hilarious mate. Just hilarious. And particularly so as I was just calling you out for lying about doing it.
And that Adam Power is another one who likes to post twaddle without giving his name. This has established a trend with your opponents to.
Just start telling the truth and shaming the devil.
Sorry, nasty sock puppet you're toast too. I can't believe I'm having to sit here live moderating this comment. Just put a sock in it. All of you.
Simple question for the Rochdale Lib Dems and their spokesman - Was Cyril Smith right or wrong in the stance he took towards the asbestos industry while he was an MP, based on the then publicly available information about the dangers of asbestos?
Yes or No? No triangulation or spin is acceptable!
Hennigan and Power. Pah-bloody-thetic.
Hennigan is sadly an inveterate anonymous poster, smear merchant and impersonator. Worse when inebriated but bad all the time.
He has no relevant contact with anyone in this matter. This is harrassment as his friends at Pannone will tell him. As well as defamation. (Though as they are inevitably in the licencing department they don't know much about it to be honest.)
If he refers to their colleagues in the relevant department they will also tell him to cease and desist with this twaddle as they told him to stop being ridiculous on those other matters. If that is he ever contacted them.
Harrassing, slandering and libelling people who are themselves a well-established professional is a very dangerous indeed Dave.
Cease and desist.
Just for clarity the other half a dozen people you maligned in your poisonous post this morning are also entitled to more respect than you showed. As are those maligned in anonymous posts which being charitable and believing you for a moment come from close to Team Hennigan but not DH himself as he NEVER posts anonymously!!! Ho ho.
You were factually incorrect in several significant matters involving people in both cases.
Among the signals you are sending out to your opponents Dave is that slagging off people's families and friends unfairly (or even fairly) is fair game as far as you are concerned.
Is that what you want? If you'd like me to proceed on that basis I'll get right down to work. But unlike you I'll stick to facts and figures and realities.
Not wild lies.
Chris, you spoke too soon about Guardian Media Grope, eh sorry group (I'm sure they would NEVER condone such sexual shenanighans)
Rochdale Obscurer back to radio silence about Cyril for its large circulation Saturday edition. Apart from one letter and yet another big colour photo of the Big Feller looking statesmanlike (clutching old T&N share dividends?).
Wisperers from Drake Street is that Those Who Must Be Obeyed in Stockport, where the real decsions, what to hedge their bets on this one. Has one very well written yet provocative letter been placed dead centre on the letters page create a debate? It beats having to write copy that upsets the Big Feller. (That said word on the street is that many hacks are sick to death of his ranting and raving added to from pestering from the wild-eyed boy wonder). Some would see holding back a little as responsible journalism. It also allows for an objective gauging of an issue. Or is it manipulative -especially if word round the water cooler is that a number of provocative letters defending Cyril to the hilt have been held back until Wednesday.
Is Dave Shenanighan gnashing his teeth? Does he feel as though he has wasted good ink and phone calls to get these letters out? Is he regretting those letters and has grazed his knuckles trying to get them out of the letter box after realising the bizarre and nasty defence of Asbestos-is-good-for-you-Cyril has spectaculary backfired. Is he being played? Has he shat himself and called in quiet a few favours recently?
Take the BBC North West tonight news footage with Cyril's appauling opinions aired to millions of shocked viewers. Not to be found on the BBC website. Quiet amazing. One of the hardest hitting investigative pieces that broke a new angle on an already shocking story. Where is it online?
David Shenanighan posted, on a discussion board elsewhere, an old quote from Gordon Burns, BBC North West Tonight's anchorman describing Cyril as one of the most honest politicians he has ever met. Now all this may be a genuine technical glitch, but stranger things have happened.
Stranger things like GMWN Rochdale freesheet that this week has not one word about the old dusty shareholder spanker. Instead the front page and page 2 of the Rochdale Express delivered to every household has a nice fluffy good news story about Paul (Crocodile tears Dundee) Rowen doing his Lib Dem all for a childrens charity.
Now either that is yet another GMG example of the great asbestos cover up - or sheer journalistic genius.
Setting the scene for the final curtain?
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