Re: Top polititian used to hold reasonable opinions shock

On Mar 7, 1:24 pm, Cub Reporter <m...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Harriet Harman under attack over bid to water down child pornography
law

Harriet Harman has been accused of a conflict of interest after it
emerged that she once advocated the watering down of child pornography
laws.

By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent

Telegraph.co.uk, UK: 7 March 2009http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/4949555/Ha...
[http://tinyurl.com/cz2nsf]

The Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women and
Equality, who is now being touted as a possible successor to Gordon
Brown, sits on a Cabinet committee on young people's welfare.

But her political judgement and ambitions are now in question after
The Daily Telegraph obtained documents showing that she called on
ministers to make sexually explicit photographs or films of children
legal unless there was evidence that the subject had been harmed.

At the time she made the official submission, she was a senior figure
in a civil liberties organisation that wanted the age of consent to be
lowered to 14 and incest decriminalised. It also defended
self-confessed paedophiles in the press and allowed them to attend its
meetings.

Last night Tim Loughton, the Shadow Children's Minister, said:
"Clearly there is a serious conflict of interest with the committees
she sits on, who might want urgently to clarify her position on the
exploitation of children for the sexual gratification of adults.

"It's a shame that Miss Harman's zeal for positive discrimination and
all things politically correct among adults does not extend to the
exploitation of children. Any child who is used for the sexual
gratification of adults counts as an abused child and needs
protecting."

Miss Harman, 58, was a newly qualified solicitor when she became legal
officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties, now known as
Liberty, in 1978. At the time its general secretary was Patricia
Hewitt, who went on to become health secretary under Tony Blair.

Among the groups affiliated to NCCL were the Paedophile Information
Exchange and Paedophile Action for Liberation, whose members argued
openly for the abolition of the age of consent. NCCL complained to the
press watchdog about their treatment by tabloid newspapers and said in
one article: "We support any organisation that seeks to campaign for
anything it wants within the law. They have that right."

In NCCL's official response to the Government's plans to reform sex
laws, dubbed a "Lolita's Charter", it suggested reducing the age of
consent and argued that "childhood sexual experiences, willingly
engaged in, with an adult result in no identifiable damage". It
claimed that children can suffer more from having to retell their
experiences in court or the press.

Amid growing public concern about adults preying on children, the
Protection of Children Bill was put before Parliament in order to
tighten the laws on child pornography by banning indecent images of
under-16s.

NCCL's official response, signed by Miss Harman and submitted in April
1978, claimed that the new law could lead to "damaging and absurd
prosecutions" and "increase censorship".

She suggested that a pornographic photo or film of a child should not
be considered indecent unless it could be shown that the subject had
suffered, and that prosecutors would have to prove harm rather than
defendants having to justify themselves.

Her submission states: "Although this harm may be of a somewhat
speculative nature, where participation falls short of physical
assault, it is none-the-less justifiable to restrain activities by
photographer which involve placing children under the age of 14 (or,
arguably, 16) in sexual situations.

"We suggest that the term 'indecent' be qualified as follows: - A
photograph or film shall not for this purpose be considered indecent
(a) by reason only that the model is in a state of undress (whether
complete or partial); (b) unless it is proved or is to be inferred
from the photograph or film that the making of the photograph or film
might reasonably be expected to have caused the model physical harm or
pronounced psychological or emotional disorder."

It adds: "Our amendment places the onus of proof on the prosecution to
show that the child was actually harmed."

Miss Harman left NCCL in 1982 when she was elected MP for Camberwell
and Peckham, by which time several members of PIE had been jailed for
conspiracy to corrupt public morals.

A spokesman for Miss Harman said: "She has always opposed child
pornography and has never supported PIE and to suggest that she did is
untrue and misleading.

"NCCL's approach to the protection of children's bill was to argue for
clear definitions in the bill to make sure the law was precise so that
it was about child protection and not about censorship."

The spokesman added: "PIE had been excluded from the NCCL before she
became legal officer."

However press cuttings from 1983 make it clear that it was still an
"affiliate group".

NCCL's official response, signed by Miss Harman and submitted in April
1978, claimed that the new law could lead to "damaging and absurd
prosecutions" and "increase censorship".

She gets full credit and a title just for predicting that.

WM
.

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