Editing Operation Spanner (section)

== Background ==

=== Attitudes to homosexuality ===
The 1980s was a period of rising negative sentiments towards homosexuality in Britain, peaking in 1987 when the [[British Social Attitudes Survey]] found that 75% of the population thought that homosexual activity was always or mostly wrong.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/latest-report/british-social-attitudes-30/personal-relationships/homosexuality.aspx|title=British Social Attitudes 30 - Homosexuality}}</ref> That year, a high-profile public information campaign ''[[Don't Die of Ignorance]]'' saw the delivery of an educational leaflet about [[HIV/AIDS]] to every household in Britain.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15886670|title=HIV/Aids: Why were the campaigns successful in the West?|last=Kelly|first=Jon|date=28 November 2011|work=BBC News|access-date=25 May 2019}}</ref> The association of gay and bisexual men with the [[AIDS pandemic]] worsened their stigmatisation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Population and Society|last=Sharma|first=A. K.|publisher=Concept Pub. Co.|year=2012|isbn=978-81-8069-818-7|location=New Delhi|pages=242}}</ref>

[[File:ConservativePartyPoster1987.jpg|alt=Tagline "Is this Labour's idea of a comprehensive education?" above an image of three books with the titles "Young, Gay and Proud", "Police: Out of School!" and "The playbook for kids about sex"|thumb|Conservative Party general election poster criticising the Labour Party's support for LGBT education, 1987]]
The Conservative Party under the leadership of [[Margaret Thatcher]] made opposition to [[Education and the LGBT community|LGBT education]] a pillar of its [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]] campaign, issuing posters accusing the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] of promoting the book ''[[Young, Gay and Proud]]'' in British schools.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/05/24/what-was-section-28-homophobic-legislation-30-years-thatcher/|title=What was Section 28? The history of the homophobic legislation 30 years on|last=Ashenden|first=Amy|date=24 May 2018|work=Pink News}}</ref> At that year's Conservative Party Conference, Thatcher warned that children were being taught "that they have an inalienable right to be gay".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106941|title=Speech to Conservative Party Conference|website=Margaret Thatcher Foundation}}</ref>

=== Policing and the law ===
In 1988, [[Section 28]] of the [[Local Government Act 1988|Local Government Act]] prohibited local authorities from "intentionally promoting homosexuality".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/9/section/28/enacted|title=Local Government Act 1988 - Section 28|website=legislation.gov.uk}}</ref> The measure received broad support from Conservative MPs including [[Peter Bruinvels]], who commented that "Clause 28 will help outlaw [homosexuality] and the rest will be done by AIDS".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Global 1980s: People, Power and Profit|last=Davis|first=Jonathan|publisher=Routledge|year=2019|isbn=978-0429624360}}</ref> In the years that followed, further legislation was proposed to discriminate against LGBT foster carers<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Logan|first=Janette|date=2007|title=Lesbian and gay fostering and adoption in the United Kingdom: Prejudice, progress and the challenges of the present|url=https://journals.whitingbirch.net/index.php/SWSSR/article/viewFile/468/504|journal=Social Work & Social Sciences Review|volume=13|issue=2|pages=35–47|doi=10.1921/19649}}</ref> and to increase the penalties for [[Cruising for sex|cruising]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Clause 25 'means prison for gay sex'|last=Fraser|first=Jean|date=22 December 1990|work=The Pink Paper}}</ref>

Although male homosexuality had been partially [[Sexual Offences Act 1967|decriminalised]] in England and Wales in 1967, the offence of [[gross indecency]] was still widely used to criminalise sexual activity between men.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Policing Gay Sex|last=Derbyshire|first=Philip|date=March 1990|work=Gay Times}}</ref> An investigation by ''[[Gay Times]]'' found that police in England and Wales recorded 2,022 such offences in 1989, the highest rate since decriminalisation.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Authorities deny sex arrests policy|last=Smith|first=David|date=June 1990|work=Gay Times}}</ref> That year, 30% of all convictions for sexual offences in England and Wales concerned consensual gay sex, with such prosecutions costing the government £12 million, and the resulting prison terms an estimated £5.5 million.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Criminal Consent|last=Tatchell|first=Peter|date=Winter 1992|work=Civil Liberty Agenda}}</ref>

=== The Obscene Publications Squad ===
The Obscene Publications Squad was a branch of the [[Metropolitan Police]] tasked with enforcing [[Obscenity|obscenity law]], most notably the [[Obscene Publications Act 1959]], which forbade the distribution of any article that "[tended] to deprave and corrupt" those who encountered it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/7-8/66/contents|title=Obscene Publications Act 1959|website=legislation.gov.uk}}</ref>

In 1976, following a three-year internal inquiry,<ref>{{Cite news|title=12 Yard men on bribe charges|date=29 February 1976|work=The Observer}}</ref> it was revealed that the squad had been running a [[protection racket]] over the [[Soho]] sex industry for at least two decades,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Something smelly in the Yard|date=13 May 1977|work=The Guardian}}</ref> with Detective Superintendent William Moody alone receiving an estimated £25,000 a year in bribes.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The end of Scotland Yard's firm within a firm|date=25 August 1977|work=The Guardian}}</ref> Prosecutors described a systemically corrupt organisation<ref>{{Cite news|title=The squad which gave obscenity a meaning of its own|date=14 May 1977|work=The Guardian}}</ref> in which new recruits were coerced into attending 'Friday night shareouts', during which officers would be taken one by one into a store room at [[Scotland Yard]] and handed cash.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Porn squad 'accepted thousands'|date=10 November 1976|work=The Guardian}}</ref> Over the next two years, 13 officers were jailed,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/best-law-firms/profile-legal/article/daphne-skillern-pgzn9t3ngvb|title=Daphne Skillern|date=27 November 2012|work=[[The Times]]}}</ref> earning the Obscene Publications Squad its nickname: The Dirty Squad.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Reshuffle at the Yard by McNee|date=20 August 1977|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

In the wake of the scandal, officers of the Obscene Publications Squad were limited to two years of service, later extended to three, in an effort to combat corruption.<ref name=":12">{{cite AV media|title=Blue Boys|date=1992|type=Television production|publisher=Channel 4}}</ref> The reformed squad allied itself with the socially conservative campaign group [[National Viewers and Listeners Association|National Viewers' and Listeners' Association]] and its controversial founder [[Mary Whitehouse]],<ref name=":1" /> with the head of the squad becoming an annual speaker at Whitehouse's fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Simone's attractions fail to win case against sex censorship|last=Linton|first=Martin|date=11 October 1990|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

The squad gained significant notoriety during this period for its role in the '[[Video nasty|video nasties]]' moral panic—during which its officers raided video rental shops and seized horror films such as ''[[Evil Dead II]]'' and ''[[The Driller Killer]]''<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/film-censorship-how-moral-panic-led-to-a-mass-ban-of-video-nasties-9600998.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/film-censorship-how-moral-panic-led-to-a-mass-ban-of-video-nasties-9600998.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Film censorship: How moral panic led to a mass ban of 'video nasties'|last=Phelan|first=Laurence|date=13 July 2014|work=The Independent}}</ref>—as well as a crackdown on gay pornography.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|title=Gay men are living in fear of video prosecutions|last=Smith|first=David|date=1988|work=Him Magazine|issue=12}}</ref> Its critics accused it of having a Christian fundamentalist agenda, while the [[Gay Police Association|Lesbian and Gay Policing Association]] said its activities "damaged relations" between the LGBT community and the police.<ref>{{Cite news|title=End of a porn era|last=Saxton|first=Andrew|date=14 October 1994|work=The Pink Paper}}</ref>