Lord Longford

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 fiancée (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.

## References[edit]

1. ↑ http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicsobituaries/story/0,1441,563425,00.html