[arista]

[Former Labour cabinet minister defended cutting age to
14 and 10 in some circumstances in letter to teacher in 1976]


At least she has said sorry.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...age-of-consent



[Former Labour cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt
defended a proposal to lower the age
of consent in the face of a school
teacher's accusation that she
was seeking to "shatter
prospective individual happiness at an early age".
The then general secretary of the
National Council for Civil Liberties
was writing in April 1976 in response
to a letter from a teacher at
St Paul's boys' school in London.
He had accused the organisation
of having "some very twisted minds" behind it.
Hewitt wrote in her letter: "Our proposal that
the age of consent be reduced is based
on the belief that neither the police nor
the criminal courts should have the
power to intervene in a consenting
sexual activity between two young
people. It is clearly the case that a
number of young people are capable
of consenting to sexual activity
and already do so."
She was responding to Philip McGuinness,
a house master at St Paul's,
a leading public school,
who wrote to the NCCL
on 14 March that year expressing his disgust.
A month earlier Hewitt's name had appeared
on an NCCL press release that
proposed cutting the age of
consent to 14 and
in some circumstances 10.]



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