Difference between revisions of "Lord Longford"
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Revision as of 03:33, July 1, 2007
Francis Aungier Pakenham (1905-2001), the seventh Earl of Longford, commonly known as Lord Longford, was a politician and social reformer famous for his campaign against pornography and his campaign for the release of the Moors murderer Myra Hindley[1].
Longford was initially a member of the Conservative Party but was converted to Socialism by his fiancee (the biographer Elizabeth Longford), whom he married in 1931. From 1945 to 1951 he was a junior minister in the Labour government of Clement Attlee and from 1964 to 1968 was a cabinet minister in the Labour government of Harold Wilson.
In 1971 he was a leader of the Nationwide Festival of Light and in the early 1970s carried out a personal investigation into the pornography industry, a move which led to him being nicknamed 'Lord Porn' by the British press. Around the same time, his activities as a prison visitor brought him into contact with Myra Hindley. Convinced of her repentance, he campaigned unsuccessfully for her release from prison, a brave if misguided move which earned him much personal obloquy.