Danczuk, Baker and 'Inaccurate Journalism'

by Les May

YESTERDAY one of the editors of Northern Voices received the following e-mail from Matthew Baker, who co-authored the book 'Smile for the Camera' (April 2014) with Simon Danczuk:
'In the article below your publication says Simon Danczuk was happy to share a platform with Chris Fay. 

 http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/tom-watson-simon-danczuks-nifty-footwork.html

‘This is not true.  He told the organisers he would only speak at the event if Chris Fay was removed from the list of speakers, which he subsequently was. In the interests of accuracy, can you change this please.'  
I wrote the article, and if this is indeed true, then I accept that the information I gave was incorrect.  But this prompts the question of just when Danczuk concluded that Mr. Fay was a fantasist and that the stories he peddled were unlikely to be true.
As the recent Panorama programme showed much of what Mr. Fay had to say about paedophile activity centred on the Elm Street guest house.  But the interview with a man who had first worked and then provided 'services' at the guest house, showed that the only reasonable conclusion was that it had been operating as a homosexual brothel, which is why it was raided by the police in 1982, and later closed down. 
But in their book Danczuk and Baker wrote (p227-228): 
'Secret parties, underground grooming activities and vile associations all developed out of these thriving networks and the Elm Street Guest House in south-west London soon became the centre of a VIP paedophile ring. 
'Paedophiles from all over the country would attend parties there and the boys were sexually abused.'
As in much of the book they produce not the slightest evidence that what they have to say is true and on the evidence of the Panorama programme it is not.   So Mr Danczuk and Mr Baker:  'In the interests of accuracy, can you change this please?'
Further on we read:  'There has been much speculation as to who was part of this sordid club, but the Metropolitan Police has confirmed that Cyril Smith visited the premises.'
The intention seems clear; the authors want us to believe that Cyril Smith visited Elm Street Guest House in order to attend parties during which boys were sexually abused. Interestingly this is just about the level of 'evidence' of Smith being a paedophile that the authors are able to produce in most of the the book.  The fact that Smith was dead meant of course that it was safe to mention his name without fear of libel. 
The weak link in this story is that the guest house wasn't the centre of a paedophile ring, it was a homosexual brothel.  As Smith was a homosexual one prosaic explanation is that he visited it for 'services'.  When you strip the 'flowery flannel' from their prose it is clear that this is just what the authors were told by a man who provided those 'services'.   So why the embellishments which make it read like another exercise in 'queer bashing'?
In an article published on 24 September, I drew attention to a story about Cyril Smith which  
appeared on pages 221 and 222 of the book, and which is totally untrue.

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-humbug-of-simon-danczuk.html

Mr Danczuk's answer to it all was that the Northamptonshire police had not 'disproved' the allegation about Smith, something which is of course logically impossible. 
So Mr Baker and Mr Danczuk:  'In the interests of accuracy, can you change this please?'
It is a matter of record that I have on a number of occasions challenged Mr Danczuk in the Rochdale Observer, and by letter to say how many men were interviewed by the authors who claimed to have been abused by Cyril Smith after the closure of Cambridge House.  It is also a matter of record that one of the editors of Northern Voices asked the same question to both authors in Danczuk's Deli in October 2014, before being ushered out of the door by Mrs Danczuk.  Neither of us has ever received an answer. 
As a child I received a Good Sunday School education, and I seem to remember a story about 'moats' and 'beams' which seems to be appropriate in this context.