The Sunday Cyril: How Two-Faced Can Rowen Get?

Clearly we at LOL believe there must have been something wrong with the vetting procedure of the Liberal Party which chose the larger-than-life Cyril Smith to be a by-election candidate and MP. You know giving his hilarious slap schtick and tickle on the asses and ball sacks of the young men of the town, his er incompetence in the Treasury of a local Labour Party branch before being pushed or jumped out, not to mention his general illiberality on capital punishment and the like.



But they did pick him. And he did win. And the people of Rochdale, or enough of them, apparently loved or feared him enough to let him keep winning. Even though he was a Class A chump when it came to the shenanigans of the local carcinogenic capitalists Turner Brothers Asbestos / Turner and Newall who made the area around their Spodden Valley death trap No Country for Old Men.



We reported this before - in a post on this theme which unusually got no comments - but here's what Sir Cyril's protege Paul Rowen MP had to say very recently indeed at the launch of the marvellously titled non-fiction tome "Defending the Indefensible" as reported in Rochdale Online:

"(Dr) Geoff (Tweedale)’s book and his research together with the ground breaking documentary by Yorkshire Television released 28 years ago reminds us of the deceit and deception practiced that hid the effects of exposure to asbestos."

(Rowen's own author familiarity, old pals see!?)

But can there be any getting away from the facts that Sir Cyril Smith, the ball-grabbing spanker of Emma Street, and the man who first got Rowen involved in politics as a fresh-faced young "canny lad" of seventeen was party to that deception?

That's the man Paul Rowen spoke of in his maiden speech in the House of Commons, as reported by the BBC:

"I owe him a lot. He is the reason that I got involved in politics in 1972 when, as a 17-year-old, I took part in his famous by-election. This year, almost approaching the age of 77, he came out of retirement and fought for me. He has been a fighter all his life. The town owes him much."

Indeed. His fight for the right to get cancer going forward should obviously be represented by a larger than life statue of the man in Drake Street, right near Rowen's office (and Hennighan's sleeping quarters when he is too pissed etc to get back to Stockport, or latterly even Heywood) and crafted exclusively in the wonderful magical materials that provided the jewel in Rochdale's industrial crown.

By the time Sir Cyril was making his paeans to Corporate responsibility in the House in 1981 and 1983 young Paul would have been 26 and 28. Quite old enough I'd have thought to stay up late and watch documentaries about Rochdale on the goggle box?

Here's Paul Rowen MP once again. This time responding to Rochdale Online on the spot of bother in which his mentor currently finds himself:

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Whatever the then known dangers of asbestos, Sir Cyril was faced with the possible loss of thousands of jobs. No MP worth their salt would sit back and let the factory just shut down. Cyril worked hard to ensure that the people of Rochdale were protected as much as possible.

Rowen went on with full on disingenuity, nay lying both shemelessly and shamefully:

"Labour and Conservative MPs at the time agreed with the line that Cyril was taking. The more appropriate question might be why the report in the New Statesman isn't also mentioning these MPs.

Perhaps Mr Rowen that would be because you are lying through your yellow teeth and that Labour MPs DID NOT agree with the line Cyril was taking. Why would they? they knew the Spodden valley works were a disgusting death trap? I'm not going to speak up for the Tories at this juncture. But even they probably shouldn't be tarred with the same brush as wreckless Cyril. Finally Rowen tries to salvage something:

"I will continue to work with groups like the Save Spodden Valley Campaign Team to ensure the safe future of the T & N Site. It’s a shame that this has been used as a political football to try and smear Sir Cyril, this issue should be non-political."

"Political football"? "Smear Sir Cyril"? "Geoff's book"? "Groundbreaking documentary"? How two-faced can a man get? Even by Lib Dem standards this is going some. Why would anyone need hindsight when speaking the year after the documentary appeared? Because the corporation told him they were wrong perhaps? Perhaps they weren't giving him the full story? Who ever would have thought it? Or perhaps Cyril was just being "responsible"?

Here is a first ten-minute extract from that famous documentary:



At this point I would like to respond formally to me old china Dave Hennighan on the marvellously cack-handed way he has directed the defence of Sir Cyril and his current parliamentary boss Paul Rowen. It is almost as though he is deliberately playing right into the hands of those who wish to hold Sir Cyril to account for the terrible things he has put his name to in the past. Perhaps Dodgy Dave is a double agent?

There'll be more on this before long, I'll be bound.