David Steel Suspended By Liberal Democrats Over Cyril Smith Remarks

[naomi24]

//The Liberal Democrats have suspended former leader David Steel over remarks he made to a child abuse inquiry about the late MP Cyril Smith.

Lord Steel said he asked Smith in 1979 about claims he abused boys at a Rochdale hostel in the 1960s.

He said he came away from the conversation "assuming" that Smith had committed the offences but claimed it was "nothing to do with me".//

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-47573243

Speechless!

[ChillDoubt]

Power corrupts etc.....

Seems not even allegations of child abuse against a prominent figure(no pun intended) in his party was enough to deter Steel in his quest for absolute power.
Not the first to turn a blind eye to criminality whilst climbing the greasy pole I guess.

[retrocop]

Chill
Agree. See first post

[jno]

this was, it seems, not really a secret: Private Eye had run a story and the police had investigated. I don't know what duty Steel would have been under to do anything more. Tell the police "I have no evidence but I think you're wrong"?

[mushroom25]

but what would the police have done, if Lord Steel had said that, jno? apparently they were threatened...…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/17/met-police-cyril-smith-child-sex-abuse-official-secrets-act

[DTCwordfan]

looking after the boys eh? Remove his Lordship....

reminds me of the old Thorpe joke - 'how does one get to the top of the Liberal Party' - answer: 'one starts at the bottom.;

[jno]

allegedly so, mushroom. But we have no way of knowing if Steel had anything to do with that. On the face of it, he was not involved in any sort of cover-up and though he might regret that Smith got away with it, I don't see that he personally has anything to reproach himself with.

[ChillDoubt]

I don't see that he personally has anything to reproach himself with.
————-
Trying to find the footage shown yesterday(on BBC I think) when he was giving evidence at the inquiry.
He most certainly does have a lot to reproach himself for, hence his party acting in such a manner against him.