One of the odd things about Blogging is the assumption that my readers are as much political anoraks as I am …or as old.

Take Cyril Smith…Liberal MP for Rochdale in the north of England. Rochdale is a seat that “should” be Labour. And Smith….was I think destined to be a footnote in British politics of the late 20th Century. A Trivial Pursuit question. Who was the heavyweight Liberal MP for Rochdale from 1972to 1992? Hmmm was it Cyril Smith? Correct….take a piece of pie.

Heavyweight …yes. Serious player in politics…no? Sounding as “Northern” as Compo, Cleggy or Foggy, he was maybe the first “celebrity politician”. Nowadays, we would say he was obese….then they said he was “roly-poly” and as we all know “roly-poly” men are jolly and good natured. And so was Cyril Smith. Except of course it turns out he was a notorious paedophile. And “everyone” knew about Cyril. The Liberal Party Leader dismissed Cyril’s penchant for spanking boys as “harmless”.

And the Rochdale police knew all about it. They had gathered evidence. There was no prosecution and later a Rochdale police officer told TV News of how he was asked to deliver by hand the dossier to Special Branch in London.

It is curious. The big question is why. Jimmy Savile….everyone knew he was a sex pest. Surely the police knew. How did he get his knighthood? How did Cyril Smith get his knighthood. Why did nobody listen to the Thatcher bodyguard who told Thatcher that one of her closest aides was a paedophile? The BBC? Dolphin Square? There is an odd pattern.

Why exactly does Special Branch-Security Services have this information? Obviously it is not to prosecute them. Nor is it to “blackmail” them. Nor is it to hamper their rise thru the “Establishment”. Is that it? Is entry into the Establishment a key to some form of “protection”.

It cant be just about paedophiles. Surely the people….RUC, British Army and journalists ….who knew the truth about Bloody Sunday cannot be surprised that the Savile Inquiry exonerated the murdered. Surely this week’s evidence of Chief Superintendant Duckenfield into the Hillsborough Inquest (where ninety six Liverpool FC supporters died) can only surprise with its candour. He lied in 1988. Liverpool supporters have been routinely slandered for years. Yet surely, politicians, police and….yes Special Branch knew.

Surely “dodgy dossiers” over Iraq….and the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six, Maguire Seven…..surely the “spooks” merely protect the Establishment. Surely assorted spooks in Norn Iron knew about sex abuse.

In any small town….in Lancashire or County Clare or Texas….surely its only a matter of listening to a conversation in a police or hospital canteen to know that a local radio presenter is a paedophile, that the local mayors wife is an alcoholic and the local politician beats up his wife. And really “Intel” is the filtering up that information to London, Dublin or Quantico.

As a parade of celebrities….Steve McFadden from Eastenders, Shobna Gulati from Coronation Street and the pathetic Paul Gasgoigne (ex-footballer) go into the High Court to state that their lives and loves were ruined by phone hacking by the Daily Mirror….the newspaper offers no defence. It all seems to be happening under the radar….well down the running order of News broadcasts. Of course, cheques will be written. Apologies made. But is anybody going to jail. Was it a crime that had only “victims”…it had no perpetrators. But surely “spooks” would have known.

The “spooks”….why do they exist at all?