Jimmy Savile, Mrs Thatcher and Status

There is lots that could be said about the Jimmy Savile affair, but I want to add some comments on the role that status played in creating and maintaining his persona, and (presumably) protecting him from prosecution. 

Firstly Savile cultivated relationships with those at the top of society - politicians, the church and royalty. This brought him both Papal and Royal Knighthoods in his lifetime, and visits to the Prime Minister. Mrs Thatcher appeared three times on Jim'll Fix It  in 1976, 1983 and 1985 - an extraordinary indication of the way Savile was able to get the truly powerful to work with him. Interestingly however the claims that Savile spent Christmas with Mrs Thatcher at Chequers may be just that - claims. The exhaustive Thatcher Foundation website certainly records meetings between the two - about Stoke Mandeville and with an NSPCC official - but not weekends at Chequers. 

Savile's victims were broadly, but not exclusively, those towards the bottom of society - children in care, and those in other institutions such as Broadmoor. That pattern of offending is not unique - indeed it could probably be found amongst a small number of upper class men at any stage in the last couple of centuries. It is 'Victorian Values' personified.

Savile though had not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth - he had worked his way to the top. The addition in Savile's CV and key to his modus operandi was his understanding of that most twentieth century of concepts - celebrity.  That celebrity gave him another area in which to meet young women - the music business. It is probably outside the remit of any investigation that goes public, and not in keeping with the tone of the media's coverage, but my guess is that much of the sex Savile had in this setting would have been consensual, and lots of people would have known about this. Far more than those who had concerns about abuse. 

Savile wore his celebrity and work for charity as a cloak when awkward questions were raised. If you raise as much as £40 million for places like StoKe Mandeville - as Savile did - you change countless lives for the better. That image, combined with establishment friends, is a powerful combination. It is certainly more powerful than the status of a teenage girl abandoned in a 1970s care home on a corrupt little island like Jersey. 

 

Comments

[paul maleski]

Born on Halloween.
Jimmy Savile was a Yiddish speaking fanatical Satanic Zionist. We need to know more about his murky relationships with Mossad and MI5/6, before we can make any worthwhile analysis of this diabolical situation. Institutions such as the: NSPCC, Childline, Children in Need, and Multicult/PC obsessed Ministers such as Hodge--muddy the waters and give me grave concerns. Literally! The likes of Mandelson, Rantzen, Caplin, and Currie should keep their unhealthy noses out of our kids' welfare. Quite often it is people of their ilk who are the problem!

[Maximusmichaelus]

I have heard plenty, too much in fact regarding Saviles ponshion for younger ladies.
I have not however heard anything or seen anything written which renders him liable for the accusations of peodophilic behaviour.
The young females throwing themselves at celebrities during ' Top of the Pops etc' may have been 15 or thereabouts, obviously it was wrong to take advantage of the situation as Savile clearly did but Peodophilia. Nah, certainly not on the basis of what I have read.

[Maximusmichaelus]

Just noted that you have logged the time of my comment as 07.58 PM
How stupid is that. Don't you know how to use the 24 HR clock. On Nov 1st at 07.58 I was fast asleep 07.58 being in the morning.

[S]

It is perhaps surprising that someone who claims the name Maximusmichaelus is unfamiliar with the term pm, meaning post meridiem or after noon. On second thoughts, a person who writes ponshion for penchant is probably ignorant of quite a lot.

[Charlesfrith]

Savile also connected Ted Heath to the Jersey childcare home Haute de la Garenne where he took children away on his boat for weekends. Savile provided children to the elites. The media are unable to report this.

[Jamie]

@charlesfrifth: it's already been reported by the media. The Ted Heath thing has been known for a while now.