David Steel tells inquiry that Cyril Smith admitted the abuse allegations against him were true

It was an extraordinary day at the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse.

As the Guardian tells it:

Lord Steel, the Liberal Democrat peer, has admitted believing in 1979 that child abuse allegations against Sir Cyril Smith were true, but did nothing to assess whether he was a continuing risk to children. 

The former Liberal party leader said the late MP for Rochdale confirmed in a conversation that reports of child sexual abuse in the media were accurate. 

But rather than suspend and investigate the MP, Steel allowed him to continue in office. Smith stepped down as an MP in 1992 and died in 2010.

You can download a pdf of the day's evidence from the inquiry website, and I would recommend anyone interested in the last years of the Liberal Party to do so.

The three people giving evidence were Sal Brinton, Des Wilson and David Steel.

Much of Sal's evidence involves her being questioned about a written submission to the inquiry by Michael Steed, which details the organisation and culture of the party in the 1960s.

Des Wilson came and went from the party during the 1970s and 1980s, but he was the darling of the activists when he was around.

His evidence lays bare the divide between party's the MPs and activists in that era. The activists were more often in the right, but it is MPs' memoirs that are consulted by the historians.

Perhaps I should start reprinting extracts from Liberator from the past 40 years to show what really went on?

Wilson is also very convincing when he talks about Smith's bullying character.

Finally, there is David Steel and his startling admission.

I blogged about the allegations against Cyril Smith in 2012:

I first heard of the allegations against Cyril Smith when I read them in Private Eye in 1979. The Eye had picked them up from the Rochdale Alternative Press (RAP - those were the days when any self-respecting town had an 'alternative' newspaper). Northern Voices reprinted the original RAP story in 2010. 

My instinct has always been to assume that they were true, if only because I could not see why anyone would trouble to invent anything so tawdry - he "'told me to take my trousers down and hit me four or five times on my bare buttocks" - about someone who was then only a local politician.

My memory of 1979 is that the story about Smith was widely known in the party, which has always made me a little sceptical of Liberals of the era who claim not to have heard it.

You can read more about my reasons for this view in a 2015 post on this blog.

Anyway, you can read the Private Eye story from that year above and download a pdf of the full RAP story on which it was based.

The new Liberator is out - become a subscriber

The new Liberator is with subscribers and carries a selection of tributes to Paddy Ashdown

You can find a couple of articles from it - one by Tony Greaves and another giving views of Brexit Britain from abroad - on the magazine's website.

I have contributed an article-length review of Jonathan Coe's Middle England and, of course, Lord Bonkers has sent in his latest diary.

If you turn to Radical Bulletin, the magazine's gossip and inside news section, you will read about the runners and riders to succeed Sal Brinton as party president.

Then there's Your Liberal Britain's decision to uncouple itself from the party and the attempts to thwart openness about what is discussed at Federal Board.

Can you afford to miss out on all this? Subscribe to Liberator.

Lib Dems call emergency board meeting for Tuesday

PoliticsHome reports a development in the story about redundancies at Lib Dem head office that broke last week:

Lib Dem bosses have been summoned to an emergency board meeting amid a financial crisis in the party that is set to see up to quarter of staff laid off. 

Board members are expecting an “angry” exchange of views at the summit next week, with some blaming the current turmoil on bungled financial management.

The meeting, called by the party's president Sal Brinton, will take place on Tuesday evening.

In an article for Lib Dem Voice last week, Nick Harvey (the party's chief executive and former MP for North Devon) spoke of a "reorganisation" and of politics being a cyclical business where parties consolidate after an election and later build up for the next.

However, sources quoted by PoliticsHome suggest bad financial planning is to blame for the redundancies.

That is in line with the rumours I heard before this story broke.

Who will the next Liberal Democrat President be?

The best source of gossip and inside information on the Liberal Democrats is Radical Bulletin in Liberator.

In the new issue you can read about the:

• candidates who may stand to succeed Sal Brinton as Lib Dem President;
• Young Liberals' policy they are too embarrassed to mention in their freshers' campaign;
• key target constituency that won't tell its parliamentary candidate where its office is.

All of which proves that you should subscribe to Liberator.

Tim Gordon resigns as Liberal Democrat chief executive

Liberal Democrat Voice reported the news on Wednesday, quoting Tim Gordon's statement:

It has been an honour to work for the Party for the past half decade. These have not been easy years but I am proud to have worked with both Nick Clegg and Tim Farron who so clearly and eloquently articulated the Liberal voice that Britain needs. 

We now have a great new leader and deputy in place and after the challenges of the past few years this feels like an appropriate moment for a change. There are other opportunities that I have delayed pursuing for long enough and I want to give my successor as much time as possible to prepare before what could be yet another snap General Election.

It also posted the email we all received from Sal Brinton:

Yesterday Tim Gordon announced that he was resigning as Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats, after five years service. On behalf of the party I want to place on record a huge thank you to Tim for his all his amazing hard work over what have been some often very gruelling years. 

He has run the party machine during extremely demanding times with the Liberal Democrats in coalition government, then two general elections and the EU Referendum. 

After the setback of the 2015 General Election, Tim immediately set out to make sure that the party’s finances were secured, and provided the structures that have allowed the party to recover.

As it was dear old Lib Dem Voice, we were told Tim has done a great job and it is great that he is going. No doubt his successor will be great too.

For a more jaundiced view of this episode you have to go to Guido Fawkes:

Gordon was appointed by Tim Farron in 2011, and after weeks of internal speculation in LibDem circles that Vince Cable wanted him out, the party boss has fallen on his sword. 

A LibDem source says “he jumped before he was pushed”, the move is being seen as a Cable power grab.

Where does the truth lie? For that you will have to wait until the next issue of Liberator.

Harriet Smith Award supper with Sal Brinton in Rutland

The road to Edith Weston. Photo  © Marathon

Rutland and Melton Liberal Democrats are holding a supper to celebrate their vice president Fay Howison winning the Harriet Smith Award.

Sal Brinton, the party president, will be there to present the award. She will also do a question-and-answer session with those attending.

The supper takes place on Wednesday 9 November at Rutland Sailing Club, Gibbotts Lane, Edith Weston, Rutland LE15 8HJ.

Full details and a form to complete and email can be found on the East Midlands Liberal Democrats site.

We all know who Fay Howison and Sal Brinton are, but some readers may want further explanation.

The Harriet Smith Liberal Democrat Distinguished Service Award is made each year to a party member who has never been elected to public office and who has demonstrated excellence and commitment.

Harriet Smith was an all-round Liberal and Liberal Democrat good egg and was also a member of the Liberator collective. She died in 2006 and there are some lovely tributes to her in Liberator 312 (that link downloads a pdf of the whole issue).

Edith Weston, despite what Lord Bonkers will tell you, is not a charming girl. She is a village on the shores of Rutland Water.

East Midlands Liberal Democrats Autumn Regional Conference

This event takes place on Saturday 7 November at Derby Moor Community Sports College. Moorway Lane, Littleover, Derby DE23 2FS.

The keynote speakers will be party President Sal Brinton and the blogosphere's own Mark Pack.

Full details and booking information on the East Midland Lib Dems site.

Lib Dems choose negotiating team for aftermath of next election

From tomorrow's Guardian:

Danny Alexander, the Treasury chief secretary, is to lead a Liberal Democrat team preparing for possible negotiations with other parties in the event of a hung parliament after the 2015 general election, the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, told his MPs late Monday. 

A politically balanced, five-strong team has been appointed: Alexander; general election manifesto co-ordinator David Laws; Lady Brinton; international development minister Lynne Featherstone; and pensions minister Steve Webb. Featherstone and Webb are regarded as on the left of the party.

Has anyone heard from Nick Clegg?

I got home about an hour ago expecting to find an email from Nick Clegg explaining why the parliamentary party voted in favour of secret courts.

Nothing.

There was an email from Sal Brinton urging me to come to Brighton for the Spring Conference, but nothing from Nick Clegg.

Like Paul Walter I am puzzled by his decision and want an explanation.

I am puzzled by the politics of this. What has been gained by adding civil libertarians to the list of people who feel that Nick Clegg has courted them and then let them down, I cannot imagine.

There is some suggestion that a deal has been done, trading Lib Dem support for secret courts for the Conservatives cutting back on the plans for competition in the NHS.

But that is puzzling too. If we Lib Dems were the kind of people who were relaxed about secret courts and determined to defend the status quo in the public sector we would have joined Labour long ago.

Unlike Paul, I am angry too. Not angry that the MPs went against a Conference decision - Conference does not always get it right and MPs must be free to exercise their judgement in the light of events.

But I am angry that they voted for secret courts at all. Opposition to such proposals should be hard-wired into every Liberal Democrat. Clearly, it is not.

Six of the Best 201

Focus on Bar Hill celebrates progress in Belinda Brooks-Gordon and Sal Brinton's campaign to win a fairer deal for part-time university students.

"The House of Commons is full of lawyers, isn't it? Not really, not any more. Last night I was at a Cambridge seminar presented by David Howarth, the former LibDem MP for the city and now an academic, on the 'decline and fall' of lawyers in Parliament. The statistics he presented were (if you like the idea of the people who create the law knowing something about it) sobering." No wonder this blog is called Heresy Corner

"If you are charging for your work, you have an obligation to be professional." Andrew Hickey on the ethics of self-publication.

A cautionary tales from the New York Times: "Soon my entire life revolved around tweeting. I stopped reading, rarely listened to music or watched TV. When I was out with friends, I would duck into the bathroom with my iPhone. I tweeted while driving, between sets of tennis, even at the movies."

The announcement that Newcastle United’s St James Park is to be rechristened ‘The Sports Direct Arena’ should alarm even those who don’t like football, argues Steve Akehurst on LabourList.

Leicester was a considerable Roman city several centuries before Nottingham was even a collection of huts by the Trent called "Snottingham". But let us be magnanimous and welcome the forthcoming release of a two-disc DVD of archive film of Nottingham by the Media Archive for Central England.