Can what happened to Nick and the others really be true? Was there really a Westminster cabal, a ring of abusers who looked out for each other and protected themselves from justice? The answer, perhaps, is both yes and no. Just as at the BBC and in the NHS, there can be no doubt that serious abuse occurred in public life in the Seventies and Eighties, and that powerful public figures, including at least two MPs, got away with it. As early as 1970, Cyril Smith, soon to become the Liberal MP for Rochdale, was found by the police to have “used his unique position to indulge in a sordid series of indecent episodes with young boys towards whom he had a special responsibility”. No action was taken, and Smith was allowed to carry on abusing children for most of the rest of his life.