XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: dthomas@zazzle.com   
      
   Harriet Harman has said she regretted the "existence" of a   
   paedophile right group linked to a civil liberties group she   
   worked for.   
      
   However, the deputy Labour leader said she had nothing to   
   apologise for and that she neither colluded with nor supported   
   the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).   
      
   She continued to insist the series of stories run by the Daily   
   Mail over the links between the National Council for Civil   
   Liberties (NCCL), which Ms Harman worked for, and PIE, were a   
   politically motivated "smear".   
      
   Ms Harman said: "I am not going to apologise because I have got   
   nothing to apologise for.   
      
   "I very much regret that this vile organisation, PIE, ever   
   existed and that it ever had anything to do with NCCL but it did   
   not affect my work at NCCL.   
      
   "They had been pushed to the margins before I actually went to   
   NCCL and to allege that I was involved in collusion with   
   paedophilia or apologised for paedophilia is quite wrong and is   
   a smear."   
      
   It comes after Ms Harman issued a fierce and lengthy rebuttal of   
   claims by the Daily Mail that she was an "apologist for   
   paedophilia".   
      
   The claims centre around Ms Harman's employment at the NCCL, the   
   group now known as Liberty, in the late 1970s and early 1980s   
   and the group's links with the paedophile group, which wanted to   
   make child sex legal.   
      
   PIE, which has now been disbanded, was founded by Tom O'Carroll,   
   who has been described as a "sexually predatory" paedophile. He   
   was allowed to make a speech at the council's spring conference   
   in 1977.   
      
   Ms Harman was the NCCL legal officer from 1978 to 1982, her   
   husband, the Labour MP, Jack Dromey, was on the group's   
   executive committee from 1970 to 1979.   
      
   The former health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, was NCCL's general   
   secretary from 1974 to 1983. Ms Hewitt has yet to comment on the   
   matter.   
      
   The Daily Mail has run a series of stories about the links   
   between the groups over the last 10 weeks and has demanded the   
   three Labour stalwarts apologise to the victims of child sex   
   abuse.   
      
   However, in a statement issued on Monday, Ms Harman maintained   
   that by the time she joined the group, PIE were in the process   
   of being expelled from the NCCL.   
      
   Later on Monday, she told BBC's Newsnight: "It is ironic that   
   they are accusing me of supporting indecency in relation to   
   children when they themselves are not above producing   
   photographs of very young girls, titivating photographs, in   
   bikinis.   
      
   "I stand by what I was doing at NCCL and I stand by what I have   
   done all the way through."   
      
   On Tuesday she tweeted a picture taken from the Daily Mail of   
   girls in bikinis saying: "When it comes to decency and   
   sexualisation of children, would you take lessons from the Daily   
   Mail?"   
      
   The Daily Mail responded to Ms Harman's claims with equal   
   robustness saying the statements from both her and her husband   
   were "full of pedantry and obfuscation".   
      
   A statement from the paper issued on Monday night said: "They   
   have failed to utter a word of contrition or sorrow about the   
   NCCL's closeness to the notorious Paedophile Information   
   Exchange, an organisation that validated the activities of a   
   monster like Jimmy Savile. Nor do they utter a word of apology   
   to the victims of PIE."   
      
   PIE was disbanded in 1984 after a number of its activists were   
   jailed.   
      
   Senior Labour sources on Tuesday told Sky News the series of   
   articles about Ms Harman, Mr Dromey and Ms Hewitt was a   
   continuation of a "smear" campaign that began with its piece   
   about Labour leader Ed Miliband's father Ralph in September.   
      
   The piece, titled "The man who hated Britain", gave details of a   
   diary entry written by a 17-year-old Ralph Miliband in which he   
   expressed frustration with the country.   
      
   The source said: "We do think there is a connection with the   
   Ralph Miliband row. The Daily Mail is trying to have some   
   payback. There's a pattern of behaviour here.   
      
   "They smeared by innuendo over Ralph Miliband, they are smearing   
   by association over Harriet Harman.   
      
   "This is not the way that political debate should be conducted,   
   that's not what the British people want to see.   
      
   "It's not a British value to conduct political debate by smear."   
      
   Mr Miliband has given Ms Harman his full backing saying: "I know   
   she has a long and proud record of being on the right side of   
   all of these issues."   
      
   There have also been a number of discussions around the   
   acceptability of behaviour in the 1970s that would simply be   
   viewed as criminal today.   
      
   Conservative MP Nadine Dorries said on Twitter on Tuesday   
   morning: "In 70's following legalisation of homosexuality   
   (rightly) and a decade of 'free love' organisations like PIE   
   genuinely thought they were next."   
      
   http://news.sky.com/story/1216883/harman-denies-colluding-with-   
   paedophile-group   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)