The Spectator’s Notes | 6 August 2015

As someone who has rarely written a sentence in praise of the late Sir Edward Heath, I hope I can escape charges of ‘cover-up’: I don’t believe the accusations against him. Even the word ‘accusations’ is an exaggeration, actually, since the story so far seems to be Chinese whispers with nothing amounting to evidence, put out by the frightened police. When this fashion for airing unsupported claims of child abuse has finally run its course, we shall be collectively ashamed of it, and people like Tom Watson MP will be seen for the McCarthys they are. (This is true, by the way, even if some of the things Mr Watson alleges turn out to be the case: the same applied to McCarthy.)

One should explain the culture of the period now under scrutiny. From the 1960s to the 1980s, homosexuality was emerging from criminalisation and concealment. This meant that homosexual men still dissembled and their colleagues usually covered up for them.