Hallo Readers,

Harriet Harman MP is Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and a former Legal Officer of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) between 1978 and 1982. She met her husband Jack Dromey there and he too is a Labour MP. Former NCCL General Secretary Patricia Hewitt was also once a Labour MP and Cabinet minister under Tony Blair but is now pursuing a lucrative career outside Parliament.

The 70’s and 80’s were, we keep being told, a different time. Read worse. Think Jimmy Savile. And think the loathsome organisation that was PIE, the Paedophile Information Exchange, an organisation set up to promote paedophilia and as a means of introducing paedophiles to other paedophiles, like E-Harmony for perverts, except that they were all too old for each other. PIE affiliated to the NCCL in 1975, during which time it campaigned to abolish or lower the age of consent to as young as 4. Frankly, you didn’t have to be Inspector Gadget to realise what PIE was about and the name was really a bit of a giveaway. Nevertheless according to Hewitt, the NCCL “naively” accepted assurances that PIE’s purpose was “to counsel and advise”. Which it was but to counsel and advise them where to find children to molest. PIE was not expelled until 1983 and disbanded in 1984 with several of its members banged up in jail where they doubtless received the warm attentions of their fellow inmates. 

Scroll forward to late 2013/2014 when The Daily Mail decided to launch another of its well-balanced attacks on the Labour Party, this time on Harman, Dromey and Hewitt. It alleged that they had “links” with PIE (“links” is one of those words newspapers use when they haven’t got any evidence of anything concrete), that they were apologists for paedophilia and that the NCCL had supported the lowering of the age of consent to 10 in 1976 (which it hadn’t and anyway was before Harman even worked there). It also alleged that she had opposed a ban on photographing naked children unless harm could be proved, whereas she had in fact pointed out the dangers of parents who took snaps of their kids in the bath ending up in court. When The Mail sinks its teeth into you they stay sunk in, the way that a rabid dog hangs onto its prey until battered over the head and forced to desist.

For over a week these allegations went unanswered, giving rise to headlines of the “And STILL they won’t apologise” variety. On Monday, Harman appeared on Newsnight to attack The Mail’s campaign as a political smear (which it was) and to disassociate herself from PIE’s activities. However she refused to accept that it had been a mistake for the NCCL to have allowed PIE associate membership although it had raised “an unfortunate inference”. Cue more pontification by The Mail which called upon the unbiased testimony of convicted paedophile and former PIEman Tom O’Carroll who stated that Harman had failed to throw PIE out “because she did not want to rock the boat on her political career”. Not that Harman has ever met him. Or that anyone gives a fuck about what he thinks.

One can understand why Harman did not want to kowtow to The Mail. But the best way to have killed this off (and on Tuesday the Mail finally acknowledged that it was not making personal allegations against Harman) was to have admitted that any association between PIE and the NCCL had been an error of judgment and that although it had no effect upon NCCL policies, it should never have happened.  This is what the NCCL (now named LIBERTY) did pretty much straight away and in this it was right. Sometimes, despite the wisdom of a raft of spin doctors and political analysts and fresh-faced young Oxbridge graduates who have never had a proper job, the simplest approach is the often the best. Harman has since expressed “regret” and Hewitt has gone further and apologised. But in these matters timing is everything. Let a mosquito keep biting away at you and you get a large and infected lump. What this story needed was a quick application of antiseptic cream because you don’t get more septic than The Mail. Fact.

To the week’s sartorial nasties, starting with a rather wan-looking Rita Ora, fresh from Milan Fashion Week, wearing Moschino.

Rita has not made a record for a while and instead seems to ponce about with the glitterati. WTF therefore surmises that in order to fund her lifestyle she freelances as a sponsored school crossing patrol lady. Where’s your lollipop Reet? And your lippie?

More ridiculous Moschino, this time on Anna dell Russo.

Anna would wear this because her raison d’être is to look ridiculous. But would anyone else?  (Apart, perhaps, from Rita Ora?)

To the Vanity Fair Young Hollywood Party in, er, Hollywood. This is Disney starlet Bella Thorne wearing Zadig & Voltaire.

Disney is to release its new movie The Good Dinosaur which has clearly inspired Bella’s choice of attire, it being green and scaly. The cartoon version, however, does  not appear to be wearing a visible black bra.

Another guest at the event was actress Jessica Lowndes wearing Peggy Hartanto.

Could this actually be any more unflattering? There is a lot of side boobage whilst the trousers have inflated in the same way as your swimsuit does in the jacuzzi. WTF also deplores the badly dyed feet. Foot-blotch is rampant amongst celebs. How hard can it be to rub cream down to the soles? Or pay some other bugger to do it?

This week’s It’s Got To Go is designer and King of Minge Julien Macdonald, whose trashy efforts have been annoying the hell out of WTF for some time. Keen Readers will recall that last week we had Jessie J in a ghastly onesie fashioned from a Moroccan urinal and most weeks WTF has been forced to upbraid him for his latest crimes against women. This one was the worst, worn by Abby Clancy at an event honouring servicemen on the eve of Armistice Day.

Julien has also incurred WTF’s wrath by spelling his name in a daft way and prancing about on Strictly Come Dancing like a wounded elephant but that could have been overlooked had he made some effort to stop dressing women like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Julien – sew up some seams and start using lining. This is your last warning.

This is Rihanna out and about in a jacket thing and a fur thing.

I know it’s cold. But what in the name of all that’s Holy is that tit-warmer? 

We now meet actor Adrien Brody at the premiere of his new movie Grand Budapest Hotel wearing Dolce & Gabbana.

This is very…..shiny. Adrien is probably squinting at the brightness of his own reflection like Narcissus and we know what happened to him. The suit itself is beautifully cut but it is also just the wrong side of Italian rent boy.

And here is another gentleman from that premiere, the director Wes Anderson wearing I know not what.

Sorry, but Wes looks like a sociology lecturer at the college Christmas Party. Those shoes! The colour combos! That shirt and tie combo! The velvet suit! Yurgle.

This next one is a shocker. Here is the lovely Julianne Moore wearing Prabal Gurung.

No! WTF reveres Julianne who is beautiful and a wonderful actress but this shapeless outfit makes her look like Mr Toad escaping from prison dressed as a washerwoman.

Finally and this is bad, bad, bad, we have actress Regina King wearing Michael Costello. Yes, it’s him again.

Regina is very sassy and a good actress (remember her as Cuba Gooding Jnr’s wife in Jerry Maguire). On catching sight of this, WTF’s first thought was the poor woman had undergone some serious surgery and rushed to Wikipedia to check that this was not so. Happily it was not, in which case what possible excuse can there be for such an ugly, unflattering and downright sadistic dress? WTF has said it before and she will say it again – this Michael Costello is a pest. Go away and earn a living doing something else – on the evidence of this effort, butchery.

OK Readers, that’s your lot for this week. Keep your comments coming as well as your suggestions for It’s Got To Go. Let us meet again next Friday. Be good x