Press Gang

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David Steel, leader of the Liberal Party wound up his party conference with a speech in which he declared the Liberals to be "bloody but unbowed" and made a bitter attack on press coverage.

It had hardly been possible to read anything im the capitalist papers of what plans and policies the junior capitalist party had to stem its likely political anihilation.

Instead, the Southport conference had been turned into a circus in which the ring masters of the press had taunted 1, baited and lashed the participants.

The hounding of Thorpe has of course nothing to do with his pro-capitalist policies or his success in securing a formal repudiation of socialism from the leaders of the Labour Party.

When he was implicated in the collapse of a fringe bank, he received the usual sanctimonious editorials telling him how unwise he had been, before the Fleet Street editors retreated respectfully behind the heavy curtain of business secrets.

Now, when he had been charged, but not convicted, of conspiracy to murder and incitation to murder, the pack is on his heels with unrestrained hysteria.

In the normal run of things it would not matter deces ends so much if Thorpe had been charged with a serious criminal offence. What lies behind this case is the allegation of homosexuality.

It is this-as was evident by the headlining given to the police investigation into the National Liberal Club morals-that fuels the flames.

Behind the pompous affirmations of principle hides the most blatant and virulent anti-gay campaign.

Thorpe timetable

The whole of the coverage of Thursday's events centred around the timetable of when Thorpe arrived, how he looked, how he walked and who stood next to him. The following day when Thorpe had left the conference the coverage centred on the fact that he was not there!

Their sexual hounding was not reserved for Thorpe.

On Friday Astrid Proll was arrested in a London garage, accused of being a member of the BaaderMeinhof group in West Germany.

The icing on the cake was again allegations of homosexuality.

The Daily Express reported:

"People who worked with her in London said she was a women's libber and had no boyfriends. In fact she was a self confessed lesbian There was speculation that her cover was blown by a scorned girlfriend."

The Telegraph called her:

"a masculine type woman said to have lesbian tendencies."

The Sunday Express pay John Junior every week to serve up a column of reactionary filth. This week his column turned its attention to Maureen Colquhoun in words which are unattractive enough not to want to reprint. Again there is no mention of politics, merely an approach to sexuality which should be reserved for the psychiatrist's couch.

It was interesting that in the week where the press, radio and TV had all united to black out all mention of politics to concentrate on the sexual inhibition, the Anti Nazi League was being witch-hunted for wanting to pull the plugs on the National Front broadcasts.

The Sunday Express asked:

"If the Anti Nazi League, now dominated by militant left wingers, does succeed in preventing the National Front broadcast, whom will Mr Hain and his friends be "pulling the plug' on next? The Tories? The Liberals?"

In the case of the Liberals there would be little need to do so. The Sunday Express and the friends and neighbours in the Fleet Street gutters have already achieved that.