The Mary Whitehouse experience

Dame Joan Bakewell - back when she was just plain Joan - was in the spearhead of revolutionary fervour that created the permissive society in the sixties and the sexual revolution. Back in those heady days of her youth (when everything seems so clear and simple to immature minds - no matter how well educated) she couldn't see anything wrong with that, but now it seems she's had a conversion.

Her opponent back then wasn't some intellectual giant or senior conservative Lord of the Realm, but an ordinary housewife and mother by the name of Mary Whitehouse who was - and still is - vilified by the liberal left as either a figure of hate or ridicule - or both.

Now it's Joan Bakewell who finds that in her twilight years she is blessed with the experience and understanding which she and many others condemned as "reactionary" back in their youth and leads her to say .....

"I never thought I would hear myself say as much, but I'm with Mrs Whitehouse on this one"

Bakewell goes on to complain ....

"Then everything came to be about money: so now sex is about money, too."

Coming from someone who made themselves a tidy little sum from popularising filth that comment smacks of hypocrisy - especially as Mary Whitehouse never made a bean from her campaign and didn't get so much as a thank you note, let alone a peerage.

I doubt that Bakewell really understands what she and her like created back then. They were young, thought they knew it all - but are starting to realise that they knew nothing. Perhaps worse of all, though, is that even with their advancing years they still know nothing.

They say that "with age comes wisdom". Yes - but not always. The Bakewell's of this world might have the money, the education and the reputation, but they still don't understand the Mary Whitehouse experience.