Leading article: Moral majority?

It's certainly an imaginative public private partnership. The Women's Minister, Harriet Harman, yesterday asked for the help of the Women's Institute to help root out sleazy adverts in local newspapers.

Ms Harman has called on conscientious members of the WI to pore over classified ads and make their objections clear to editors if they find anything suspect.

Some might say an organisation which has made headlines in recent years for producing a nude calendar for charity, arranging Burlesque dancing sessions and encouraging members to sign up for pole dancing classes is not necessarily best placed to act as society's moral censor.

But let's not be too hasty. Could there not be a hidden logic to this plan, and one that extends beyond cleaning up classified ads? Think about it: if any Government needed to team up with an organisation capable of producing jam tomorrow it's surely this one.