Wasn't it Edwina Currie who appointed Jimmy Savile to a task force at Broadmoor hospital where he sexually abused multiple victims over many years. He was allowed his own keys, unrestricted access and enjoyed Currie's full confidence. No doubt there was never an apology.
Not a nameless civil servant, and it was approved by Currie. I asked @polyphemus a question as I wasn't sure and the details weren't that important. Her comments about Savile are more telling than the approval of his appointment. "However, an NHS inquiry found that a senior civil servant, Cliff Graham, appointed Savile to the managerial role, and Currie retrospectively rubber-stamped the decision. Currie was subsequently supportive of Savile's promises to confront the Prisoner Officers Association (POA) about working practices, and issued a press release at the time praising his work. The statement ended: "He is an amazing man and has my full confidence."" "Savile was appointed to a senior position at Broadmoor by senior civil servant Cliff Graham. The appointment was backed and approved by Edwina Currie, the then health minister."
Presumably this was at the time that everybody thought that he was a Saint? I recall that in a couple of the GNRuns I did, I was quite close to Him and his Team. (He ran surrounded by his 'minders', head down and covered in a cape. It could have been anybody under that lot.) You couldn't fail to notice that the volume of cheering from the crowd increased significantly, as he they ran past. It didn't bother me that HE might not be running. I reasoned that he would be raising a small fortune for Charities, and so it would be OK. Like most other I was completely taken in.
What the public think shouldn't ever affect Ministerial decisions, she was Health Minister and should've known better. Even if he was a Saint he shouldn't have been allowed unrestricted access to vulnerable patients and appointed to the task force He had no medical training or qualifications ... ... it was a publicity stunt from Currie that resulted in a great deal of suffering.
You are absolutely correct. As you might have guessed from my posts, I'm no Fan of politicians of any kind or persuasion, but I find it hard to blame anyone for not knowing things, that at the time, nobody knew. And as far as I know it is rare for a Minister to go against the advice of Senior Civil Servants. The sheer volume requires The Civil Service to do the vetting, all The Minister does is to rubber stamp their decision. Such was the esteem that Saville had at the time, she would have needed a dam good reason to reject that advice. Of course, in former days, if The Department had made such a mistake, under Ministerial Responsibility, that Minister would have resigned. But I suspect that by the time the truth emerged, Mrs C was out of office and out of favour.
I'm probably seriously biased mate. I never liked Savile and always found him really creepy ... ... pretty much the same with Currie tbh. She was a fraud and nowhere near as clever as she believed herself to be.
I remember those days all too well. I have said before that the saying 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is never truer than in politics. The current incumbents are up to their eyes in it, as were previous incumbents in my opinion. I am not at all convinced either party is better than the other, in terms of their honesty. As I have said before politics in this country is fast becoming about electing the least hopeless or hapless. We will end up in a situation where the government of the day is unable to make decisions because they will be voted out, on the back of the opposition shouting how terrible their decisions are, with no requirement for them to say what they would do. It shouldnt be that way. Just wait till we see the size of the cuts coming our way - will we get an intelligent parliamentary debate or a bunch of screaming idiots shouting at each other. I know where my money is. There has never been a better case study than the last 2 aggregated governments to demonstrate why change is needed in our political system. 13 years of Labour, 12 years and counting of Conservative. Neither will be remembered fondly, despite both delivering some significant achievements. I suspect the length of time a party is in power is part of the problem, in terms of attitudes evolving internally.
I remember seeing an interview with the actor Ralph Little and he said he'd been clearing his loft out and found a letter he'd written to Jim'll fix it, it read dear Jim please could you fix it for me to meet Gary Glitter, he said he has never been so relieved that his mother didn't have a spare stamp at the time so he could post it
When you see footage of him now you think '****ing hell it's so obvious'. Having said that, the country spent most of the 80s believing Freddie Mercury and George Michael were menaces to ladies everywhere.
Can you imagine showing your face outside your house ever again if that was you, the amount of peoples lives she’s ruined, I would be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life checking for snipers.
