Thread by @MarkWatts_1

1. Day 8 of Westminster hearings at #CSAinquiry – my round-up in 33 tweets.

David Steel, #LordTittleTattle, skewered on his complacency. Background @FOIACentre: foiacentre.com/news-CSA-inqui…

While most in UK hate the LibDems, we learnt that many LibDem MPs have long hated each other.

2. After Tory’s “Sir” Peter Morrison on Monday and Tuesday, focus at #CSAinquiry today was on Liberal’s “Sir” Cyril Smith.

First up, LibDem president Baroness Brinton who said that he and Jeremy Thorpe, those two great titans of Liberal party, “cordially loathed each other”.

3. Des Wilson, Liberal president from 1986 to 1987, told #CSAinquiry about the Liberal party at the time: “It was almost like two parties. The party in the country was very strong.”

But, he continued: “The parliamentary party was a bit of a rabble, to be honest.”

4. Des Wilson to #CSAinquiry: “A lot of the MPs had come down with great ambitions and hopes that now they were in national politics, they were going to really make it, and only to find that they were sitting on the back-benches, unnoticed.”

5. Cyril Smith was a “larger-than-life figure”, Des Wilson told #CSAinquiry.

But he “used his popularity to blackmail the party leadership by constant threats to resign if he did not get his way and was generally a bullying, selfish, manipulator of his public image.”

6. Des Wilson told #CSAinquiry that Cyril Smith “was very, very much a Jekyll and Hyde character.”

On his reaction when allegations surfaced in 1979 that Smith had physically and sexually assaulted boys at a hostel in Rochdale, he said: “I just instinctively believed them.”

7. On Liberal party’s failure to take any action re Cyril Smith in 1979, Des Wilson told #CSAinquiry: “It seems incredible to me… I wasn’t involved in the party at the time… I just assumed that this was a bombshell that would resonate.”

8. While saying that David Steel #LordTittleTattle “has a lot outstanding qualities”, Des Wilson told #CSAinquiry re Cyril Smith: “He didn’t like confrontation at any time on any thing.”

“He must have hated this… I think that he would have just not wanted it to go anywhere.”

9. Des Wilson to #CSAinquiry on failure by Liberal party, led by David Steel #LordTittleTattle, over Cyril Smith in 1979: “No inquiry was set up. So it kind of died. I mean, I admit that it is appalling that it did, and I don’t understand how it could have, but it did.”

10. Des Wilson on culture at Liberal party, Tory party, (and, he said, church, police and BBC) re cases such as Cyril Smith told #CSAinquiry: “We don’t want to rock this boat.

“Once we start making a big issue of one person in the parliamentary party, where will it all lead?"

11. Alexis Jay, chairwoman of #CSAinquiry, asked Des Wilson her FIRST question of a witness in Westminster hearings: “Would there be a distinction made between what were potentially criminal allegations and… other activities… such as extra-marital affairs or heavy drinking?”

12. Des Wilson replied to Alexis Jay at #CSAinquiry: “I think if you started looking into extra-marital affairs in the House of Commons, I think you could never stop.”

“But a criminal activity of this kind… I would have expected to be treated with the utmost seriousness.”

13. Next, time for David Steel, aka #LordTittle, to face questions at #CSAinquiry.

Began easily enough.

What was Cyril Smith like? “Well, I listened to the evidence this morning of Des Wilson, and I thought he put it very well, that he was a rather Jekyll and Hyde character.”

14. In 1979, Private Eye, summarising and following up a detailed report in Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP), said that Smith had physically and sexually assaulted boys at a hostel in Rochdale.

“I happen to be a subscriber,” David Steel told #CSAinquiry, “and so I had read it.”

15. On Private Eye’s article on Cyril Smith, summarising RAP’s report, David Steel told #CSAinquiry: “I accepted the article as presumably correct, which is why I questioned Cyril Smith about it.”

It was “simply a conversation” in House of Commons – a “fairly brief” discussion.

16. David Steel #LordTittleTattle, on his “fairly brief” discussion with Cyril Smith, told #CSAinquiry: “What I said to him was, ‘What’s all this about you in Private Eye?’

“And he said, rather to my surprise, ‘It is correct.’”

Yes, you read that correctly.

Jee-bloody-zus.

17. David Steel #LordTittleTattle told #CSAinquiry what Cyril Smith told him: “He had been in charge of, or had some supervisory role in, a children’s hostel.”

“He’d been investigated by the police, and that they had taken no further action, and that was the end of the story.”

18. Counsel to #CSAinquiry asked David Steel #LordTittleTattle whether he challenged Cyril Smith that he was admitting not only to “spanking of bottoms” but to indecent assaults.

“No, I didn’t have the magazine with me, so I wasn’t going into the detail,” came Steel’s reply.

19. David Steel #LordTittleTattle, to #CSAinquiry on Cyril Smith, continued: “Anyway, it was quite old. But it was certainly before he was an MP and before he was even a member of my party. My point was that he had gone on since then to be mayor of Rochdale, to be given the MBE.”

20. David Steel #LordTittleTattle to #CSAinquiry on Cyril Smith: “So I saw no reason, or no locus, to go back to something that had happened during his time as a councillor.”

He referred to the police investigation “two decades previously”. Even though it was 10 years earlier.

21. David Steel #LordTittleTattle #CSAinquiry: “He just accepted that the story was correct... obviously I disapproved, but it was – as far as I was concerned – past history.”

“As I say, before he was an MP, before he was even a member of my party. It had nothing to do with me.”

22. Asked about Cyril Smith, Liberal party’s response to RAP in 1979: “All he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms.”

Counsel to #CSAinquiry: “Bit of a silly thing to have said, though, don’t you agree?”

David Steel #LordTittleTattle: “Quite possibly, yes. Yes.” ...

23. David Steel, re Cyril Smith, bashed Des Wilson at #CSAinquiry: “After he’d been in charge of the election in 1992, he rather fell out with my successor, Paddy Ashdown. I don’t know the reasons why, I’m afraid.”

“But they did have a big fall-out, and Des became a bit bitter.”

24. Asked how Liberal party cld be confident that Cyril Smith was not still offending in way he had confessed, David Steel #LordTittleTattle to #CSAinquiry: “I don’t think the issue arose. I mean, it wasn’t a question of being confident about it. It just didn’t cross our minds.”

25. Asked whether he told honours committee about Cyril Smith’s confession to him when recommending him for his knighthood in 1988,

David Steel #LordTittleTattle told #CSAinquiry: “No, it never occurred to me to tell the honours committee about it.”

#NotMuchOccursToSteel.

26. Counsel to #CSAinquiry asked David Steel #LordTittleTattle why, on Newsnight last June, he dismissed evidence that Cyril Smith sexually abused boys as “tittle tattle” and “scurrilous hearsay”.

David Steel said that he had the book by @SimonDanczuk in mind...

27. But did David Steel #LordTittleTattle realise that #CSAinquiry had 3 wks of hearings about Rochdale the year before his “tittle tattle” comments re Cyril Smith?

“I can’t remember if I was aware of that at the time.”

Bg for Steel et al @FOIACentre: foiacentre.com/news-Cyril-Smi…

28. And did David Steel #LordTittleTattle realise that #CSAinquiry had published Rochdale report “a couple of months” before his “tittle tattle” comments re Cyril Smith?

“No, I haven’t read it.”

Still not read it?

“No, I haven’t, I haven’t seen it.”

29. David Steel #LordTittleTattle whimpered counsel to #CSAinquiry re Cyril Smith: “Sorry, can you enlighten me: does that inquiry justify the allegations, confirm the allegations, or what?”

Counsel: “That their evidence was compelling.” ...

30. David Steel #LordTittleTattle to counsel to #CSAinquiry: “The police investigation [into Cyril Smith] should have been pursued?”

Counsel: “Yes… If you read the Rochdale investigation report, Lord Steel, you will see… the DPP’s decision was turned around extremely quickly.”

31. Counsel to #CSAinquiry was being rather kind not also to point out to the know-nothing David Steel #LordTittleTattle that the inquiry also found that prosecutors missed no fewer than THREE opportunities to prosecute his grotesque colleague Cyril Smith…

32. But counsel to #CSAinquiry did tell David Steel #LordTittleTattle: “The police were very keen and enthusiastic that Cyril Smith should be prosecuted.”

Steel. “Right.”

Counsel: “But he never was.”

Steel: “Yes, well, I knew nothing about that at the time.”

33. Counsel to #CSAinquiry said to David Steel #LordTittleTattle: “May I suggest, when you have a moment, you should read the report.”

Steel: “Thank you very much. Okay.”

And there, in the witness box, died those dismissive comments on Cyril Smith’s abuse by #LordTittleTattle.