Online Archive  
Issue 12 - May 1973
 
Even Dirtier
Sunderland is currently suffering under an anti-pornography campaign by a relatively small number of people. These people, although doomed to fail in their efforts to change public morality, are succeeding in making life difficult for others.

A forerunner in the campaign is a local councillor, Mrs Whiteman (not house) who succeeded in getting the council to pass a motion that: "this council directs the Consumer Protection Working Group to include in its long-term objectives, promotion of standards of public decency and awareness".

This is pretty ineffective though, mainly because the council has no power to do anything other than pass complaints to the police. Also because the Chairman of the Working Group is not sympathetic with Mrs Whiteman's aims.

Mrs Whiteman says she is not against pornography but is primarily interested in stopping displays in shops and cinemas that can be seen by children. This is possibly a good thing but where do you draw the line? For instance her main achievements so far are to have pictures outside the cinema removed and a shop was persuaded to remove a panti-girdle advert, that was too sexual?!

She is strongly backed by a Catholic group called Christians in Action, which has about 50 members. It is supposed to be non-denominational but they publish a broadsheet that you can't have if you're not a Catholic.

These people need to have pointed out to them the fact that although they dislike having other people's moral standards inflicted on them, these are the standards of the majority.