Mainstreaming Loonies.

I don't want to go on about Beatrix Campbell OBE, but I really do find her an extraordinary figure. By rights someone who has spent decades promoting absurd conspiracy theories about satanic ritual abuse ought to be an obscure and marginal figure. Her views on almost every single subject are laughable and usually motivated entirely by extreme political ideology with little connection to reality. Her Marxism is ridiculous enough but at least that's a 20th century superstition whereas her witch hunting is utterly medieval.

Yet instead of being looked at as a David Icke type figure, she is treated with the utmost seriousness by the powers that be, as her OBE demonstrates. She is for example a member of the "Women's National Commission", a quango set up by the government a few months ago which is "the official and independent advisory body giving the views of women to the government of the United Kingdom." Right.

There are a number of reactions this raises, firstly why are the government still funding quangos when WE HAVE NO FUCKING MONEY. Seriously stop wasting our money on providing sinecures to political fellow travellers. A large proportion of the WNC's members are associated with the Labour Party or organisations to the left of Labour so I'm not sure what right they have to claim to be giving 'the views of women'. I don't know if any of the other members have been involved in anything as despicable as Campbell's attempts to destroy innocent people with ridiculous allegations but they are plainly not representative of anyone but themselves.

The government's agenda on 'equality' is directed by Harriet Harman who appoints a bunch of people with identical views to her own to an 'independent' quango to advise the government. This is more dangerous now than it would have been before the economy collapsed because the government's scope for effecting radical policies is going to be limited to areas that don't involve immediate spending increases. There is also an argument that hanging around wih people of similar views tends to push people to even greater fanaticism which considering the starting point for Bea Campbell is alarming.