5 Feet of Fury

No sex (toys) please, we’re British? My NEW Taki’s column

I can’t imagine the comments being really “JOOOOO!”-y this week, but I’ve been wrong before…

In one of these memos, the Home Secretary, Lord Brittan, writes:

“A further area in which the law could usefully be strengthened is the supply of sex aids. (…) Some of the items in circulation are most objectionable including some which can cause physical injury. This is a strong case for bringing sex aids fully within the scope of the ‘deprave and corrupt’ test in the 1959 Act.”

That’s it.

For all we know, Thatcher rolled her eyes and muttered something that fit the then-legal definition of obscenity under her breath.

Actually, that’s pretty easy to believe, if you’ve heard the one about the time Christopher Hitchens met the Iron Lady…

Space didn’t permit me to mention some of the other interesting tidbits in the trove, like that during one particular year, the BBC received more complaints about the (temporary) cancellation of Dr. Who than it did about “obscene” programming.

Amazon.com Widgets