Sorry, pet, the ends don’t justify the means

ANDREW NEIL turned his latest This Week politics show into a special Back To The Future edition. It wasn’t just the appearance of Eighties pop star Mick hucknall from Simply red.

The guest who grabbed my attention was the leathery old Marxist Bea Campbell, drafted in to defend the indefensible — the disgraceful conduct of Nonce Finder General Tom Watson towards leon Brittan and his family.

Twenty-five years ago, Campbell — a holder of the here We Go looby loo lifetime Achievement Award — was at the centre of another hysterical paedophilia scare. She claimed that thousands of children in Britain were victims of ritual satanic sex abuse.

In the ensuing panic, dozens of working-class families from rochdale to the Orkneys were raided by police and had their children taken into care.

lives were ruined without any justification.

Eventually, the charges were thrown out and a subsequent government inquiry concluded there was no evidence whatsoever to support the ‘ myth of satanic abuse’.

There are echoes of this insanity in the current Paedos In high Places witch- hunt. Campbell insisted that Watson had nothing to apologise for because he had brought the issue of child sex abuse into the public arena. That was all that mattered.

She refused Michael Portillo’s invitation to condemn Watson’s unwarranted smearing of leon Brittan. Apparently, this argument went on well after the show finished.

There was never any chance of her agreeing with him, just as Watson will never apologise either. As far as they are concerned, Brittan was ‘ Tory scum’ and, therefore, not entitled to either justice or common decency. If his family have also suffered, tough.

Campbell’s appearance on This Week reminded us once again that old Marxists never change. The ends always justify the means, no matter who gets hurt.