Notes to the Preface
1. When we use the word ‘progressive’ in this volume it reflects US usage, covering a range of perspectives from social democrat to Marxist. The terms professional Left and professional feminist refers to politicians, academics, and those employed in any other organization including local government where they can combine their employment and politics.
2. When we use the term in this volume, we are alluding to any act by any social or interest group that promotes its values by engaging in political activity designed to secure/exploit government support for their preferred social policy agenda.
Notes to the Introduction
1. http://www.onpedia.com/encyclopedia/moral-panic, retrieved 01/01/2009.
2. See http://everything2.com/title/The+war+on+Iraq+as+a+moral+panic, retrieved 23/05/2013.
3. As children have no “use” we would prefer not to use the term “abuse,” but given its popular usage we have retained it for this volume.
4. Jenkins’ Intimate Enemies is also a perfect example of the limitations of the “interest group perspective.” Despite his exemplary account of the moral enterprise involved behind the headlines, unless one ‘was there’ you cannot appreciate or understand the influence of Ray Wyre of the Gracewell Centre. He dominated popular TV shows from the late 1980s, spreading myths about pedophilia, pornography, and sex crime; and then between 1989–94, did so as part of a ‘double act’ with Mike Hames of the Obscene Publication Squad. They were also major players in the feminist crusade against pin-up porn we cover in Chapter 5, and the satanic panic we cover in Chapter 6, although because of space we have had to cut their particular contributions from the script.
5. The failure of this limited understanding of history became apparent to us when we lived in the Catskills but never met a redneck who watched Fox News, listened to ‘Right-wing radio,’ or went to church. We also gained the impression that if progressives had spent the same amount of time mobilizing the rural poor as Acorn did municipal minorities, they might had the constituency who would vote for universal health care, infrastructural investment, and regulating banksters. Ironically, church attendance amongst the progressive elite was as extensive as the local GOP.
1. This refers to The Beatles being awarded Member of the British Empire status in 1965 by the Queen following the recommendation of the Labour Party, then in power.
Notes to Chapter 2
1. Hansard House of Commons debates can be retrieved from http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1964/
2. MAR1 source URL—http://www.britishpathe.com/results.php?search=mods+and+rockers
3. Hansard HOC debates can be found at http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1964/. Hereafter, all HOC references can be found at this URL.
4. MAR2 source URL—http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFWnaAQjbK4
5. Property owners exploiting the housing shortage.
6. The philosophy behind the Clean Up TV campaign.
7. This major omission becomes central in Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s rewrite of Cohen’s account, without any explanation [2010: 29].
8. Acquisitiveness was a euphemism for Covetousness’—a sin denounced in the 10th Commandment.
9. Canon Collins was a radical cleric. He not only led the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament which organized the Ban the Bomb marches, but also favored civil disobedience as a tactic. The reference in the debate alludes to the public disorder that occurred on the 1963 march.
10. A Christian argument long before John Gagnon turned it into a sociological one.
11. Rag weeks consisted of numerous events designed to raise funds for charities but often became an excuse for binge drinking and destruction.
12. It had suggested raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years, and recommend further attention to be paid to 13–21 year olds; hence the proposed Royal Commission.
13. The voting age; then at 21.
14. One Plus One URL—www.oneplusone.org.uk/ICOR/StatisticsDetails.php?Ref=41, retrieved 13/04/09.
Notes to Chapter 3
1. That expression alludes to the way public political ‘debate’ tended to amount to people listening to politicians on TV rather than the centuries old habit of mass meetings in public, effectively denying the public any voice.
2. While employed as an attorney’s clerk researching Chapter 5, we jumped at the chance to work on a fraud case in front of the equally infamous Judge Argyle. We were not disappointed. The trial was delayed while Argyle threatened a Rastafarian in the preceding case with a longer sentence unless he removed his tam; and at the end of the prosecution phase of our trial, he threatened our client with the maximum penalty if he dared waste the court’s time with his “useless defense”! We turned the tables, and our client avoided jail.
3. A non-existent confession.
4. This followed and attempt by the police to arrest a man for “parking a Mercedes, while black” in south London, who turned out to be a Nigerian diplomat [see Moore, 1975: 66].
5. Lobster was a magazine, and it’s now a web site—www.lobster-magazine.co.uk.
Notes to Chapter 4
1. The 1960s sociological argot for petit-bourgeoisie [see Tracey and Morrison 1976: 278].
2. Abortion, obscene publications, moral education in schools, Sunday trading, tax breaks for family, embryo experimentation, and surrogacy.
3. The European equivalent of a voodoo doll.
4. Though their motives were similar we wish to reiterate that none of the moral entrepreneurs we met, including Mary Whitehouse, revealed any hint of Mather’s authoritarianism let alone his megalomania.
Notes to Chapter 5
1. The sources used in this chapter are based on the contents of the files collectively known as 1/27 in Portsmouth City Council’s records office (PCC). This included the correspondence between the Planning Committee and council officers, and between the planning committee and the Department of Environment (DOE), both indicated by the material’s official file codes; and in this case a letter from the City’s MPs. The protest letters and petitions were also found under this file number. As were the relevant Committee’s minutes. We acknowledge the access granted by Portsmouth City Council to research and cite this material, which first appeared in Thompson [1987] in return for a ten-year moratorium.
2. For Hansard HOC debate please refer to URL – http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1981/nov/25/, retrieved 16th April 2013.
3. We apologize for the lack of page numbers in some newspaper references. They were not de rigueur at the time, and the cuttings file we utilized during this period did not record the page number.
4. See http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1981/mar/23/, retrieved 16th April 2013.
5. See http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1979/jan/26/, retrieved 16th April 2013.
6. See http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1982/jul/, retrieved 16th April 2013.
7. At the time, the popular term for a politically correct person was “right-on”.
8. At the time a 15 certificate meant those under that age could watch the movie as long as they were accompanied by an adult.
9. See http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1986/apr/25/act-to-apply-to-television-and-sound, retrieved 16th April 2013.
10. From 1990, we were constantly contacted by attorneys whose clients were being accused of selling snuff movies; although, following our reports detailing the origin of the movies and the alleged ‘victims’ next one, the charges were always dropped. We did, however, have to appear as a witness in the case of “Minnie’s 3rd Love, or: Nightmare on Polk Street”, a cartoon strip written and drawn by Phoebe Gloeckner, published in the 1994 feminist collection Twisted Sisters. The not guilty verdict led to an assurance by HM Customs to review its practices.
1. Sheriffs are judges in Scotland.
2. As most of the media material cited is from British, we have used the day-month-year rather than the US system; and once again apologize when we have relied on cuttings services which did not record the page number.
3. We have retained the popular use of “abuse” despite our philosophical, political, and linguistic objections to its deliberate nebulous nature.
4. We were fortunate enough to have worked with Dr. Paul on two cases before his untimely death.
5. We explain this feature with appropriate examples below.
6. In the UK the prefix R in legal cases stands for Regina (indicating the queen) and represents the state or crown.
7. We acknowledge the extensive investigative work by Derek Prigent.
8. Our analysis of the remaining interview notes helped reopen this case. As some of the children were much older and contested McLean’s interpretation of the interviews too, the parents successfully appealed against their conviction.
9. Although we believed that they were all knaves or fools, our hang up about honesty compelled us to offer evidence on behalf of Croall, whose contribution to the TV show was being misrepresented by his detractors; and so helped him escape false allegations.
10. Hereafter, testimony is indicated by the name of the witnesses and the date of their evidence. Although we could usually cite several, to save space we only refer to the major witness.
11. We became involved when the Parents Action Group asked for our help. We were then engaged by their lawyers. However, having got our hands on the only copies of the copious case files that had officially been ‘lost’, correctly transcribed the remaining audio tapes of the disclosures, and spent 6 months reconstructing what had happened, we were excluded from giving oral evidence because we could prove what had really happened and why. We were then subject to a gagging order.
12. That was nothing new either. We added that claim to our critic of the interview methods adopted in the Bishop Auckland satanic case several years earlier; but the authorities dropped the whole case rather than put that to the test, enabling her to continue her ‘services to ideology’.
Notes to Chapter 7
1. This has a similar connotation to “ghetto,” when used in the US to describe a housing project.
2. One of the authors twice faced prosecution. The first followed his defense of a senior citizen being threatened by three thugs, because he had used a weapon (a piece of wood), although one of the thugs was armed with an axe! The second followed catching two teens attempting to invade the home of his neighbor. The charge: kidnapping. The charges were not pursued because of infringements of statutory duties by the police. Yet, academics ignore this problem when accounting for the Bystander effect.
3. Alt.folklore.urban was an old usenet discussion group, which unfortunately no longer exists.
4. National Health Service, the state of which is the Left’s major barometer of the balance of forces in UK politics—eds.
5. free.uk.talk.portsmouth is a local newsgroup which is still active. Unfortunately, this newsgroup thread is no longer available [see Williams, 2004: 355].
6. uk.local.hampshire was a local newsgroup which, unfortunately, is no longer available [see Williams, 2004: 355–356].
7. As most police officers were acting under orders, we do not blame them. On the contrary, we believe that their decisions on the first night were an exemplary example of public order policing, and it’s a pity that example was lost in what followed.
8. The official name given to the investigation reflecting the attempt to construct a rhetorical riot.
9. These labels are ours reflecting the groups’ core attributes.
10. We maintain complete confidentially in this case.
Notes to the Conclusion
1. Like most theories of this ilk, it is simplistic and is defied by its chronology. The ‘Right-wing’ version, based on Francis Fukuyama’s 1989 essay The End of History, suggested that liberal democracy was the ‘highest’ form of evolution in governance. That was an easy claim to make once the major alternative, state communism fell apart. Its obvious weakness was that it relied on an evolutionary model of thought and development. The Left-wing version which followed and has numerous sources, argued that whereas people and governments were once inspired by ideologies, they are now both guided and governed by fear. Its obvious weakness is that it relies on a dichotomous model belied by the rebirth of libertarianism, the dramatic growth in fundamentalist environmentalism, and numerous other ideologies. It also takes government ‘fear’ at face values, and refuses to consider it as a deliberate tactic. Like this volume’s subject matter, these developments owe far more to interpretation than social reality.
2. This concerned the loss of the super tanker Derbyshire in the fall of 1980, during a typhoon off Japan, and the loss of the 42 crew members. The relatives had to engage and endure a two decade-long campaign before the manufacturers and the UK government would admit that there was a design fault which also explained the sinking of dozens of other tankers. Thanks to the unheralded efforts of the Derbyshire Family Association, the Oceaneering Technology Company which located the wreck and the underwater forensic team from the Oceanographic Institute of Massachusetts, the ship was finally located and real cause uncovered. On 8 November 2000 the crew was exonerated of all blame, and the design of bulk carriers improved from then on.
3. British student unions were a world away from the Greek Societies found on US campuses. They were autonomous; had their own buildings, bars, and concert halls. They funded the students’ sports and social clubs; and represented student interests both locally and nationally. They also offered a training ground for future politicians.
4. Much more than the equivalent of the US Innocence Project, it consists of numerous groups dedicated to opposing false allegations and convictions.
5. This is not to dismiss Parks’ real contribution to the civil rights movement covered in Danielle L. McGuire’s At the Dark End of the Street; but the failure to accredit Colvin is indicative of the way the black teens’ vital contribution in securing civil rights, bailing out the revered ‘leaders’ time and time again, left future generations of black high-school students with no political role models of their own.