A vanished file and troubling claims about Heath and young musicians

Heath the musician: Rehearsing the 107 strong European Community
Youth Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall

The late spring of 1978, and in a sunlit rehearsal hall a stout, shirt-sleeved figure, familiar from a quite different setting, is conducting a new orchestra of young musicians.

Roaring and flailing as his proteges run through Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, former British prime minister Edward Heath is clearly in his element.

‘That’s much better strings … much better!’ he enthuses. Afterwards, he tells a television crew which had been filming the event: ‘The orchestra here has a saying — “Tell them the Community isn’t only about the price of fish: it is about Beethoven and Brahms.”’

An odd comment you might think, if you did not know the political context. The ensemble in question was the European Community Youth Orchestra, and it was about to embark on its inaugural tour of EEC capitals. It was to be a flagship for pan-European cultural co-operation.

The 135 musicians, some of whom were as young as 14, were drawn from the then nine member nations. Heath, an enthusiastic amateur musician who had led the United Kingdom into the European Community five years before, was the orchestra’s founding president. He would also be its guest conductor for that tour and several tours to come.

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In the course of the Mail’s own investigations this week, further new allegations of sexual abuse and possible official cover-up concerning Sir Edward have come to light. They centre on his relationship with the European Community Youth Orchestra.

A retired senior police officer, who served with several southern forces including Wiltshire, told the Mail that there were ‘always rumours’ about Heath, the former MP for Bexley.

The policeman — a widely respected officer with a distinguished career — asked that due to the sensitivities of the Heath investigations, he remain anonymous. He told us that the rumours did not come with any specific evidence against the former PM.

But he went on: ‘The exception were several allegations made against him in his role with the European Youth Orchestra. I understand there were credible claims that Heath indecently assaulted young people on tours to the Continent which he was leading.

‘These tours took place in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

‘It was never clear how old the victims were, or exactly what happened, and what was alleged was not at the top end of the scale of criminality.

‘Why these were never investigated I cannot say. I suspect it is because they took place overseas and the victims were from other countries.’  (more...)

A vanished file and troubling claims about Heath and young musicians

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And a blast from the past:

A blackmail plot. A smear. Or was it both.

A gay Bond not so farfetched

As world watches horror of UK’s #VIPaedophiles unfold, @MarkWatts_1 says: “It may not just be a British disease.” http://t.co/ac2snYW6Bn

— ExaroNews (@ExaroNews) August 6, 2015