Rotherham council takes away foster children because parents were UKIP members

Flannel flannel flannel. Joyce Thacker head of children's services, went on TV to state clearly the issue was UKIP support by the foster carers. The birth parents may well want the children back - that doesn't affect the suitability of these foster carers v. any others. SS have clearly been unable to find other foster parents that speak the mother tongue - given we know the children have been split up. Clearly that has a huge effect on their ability to speak their mother tongue - given one of the kids is no longer with his siblings.

Haven't you read the latest updates on the UKIP/Rotherham/fostering story? Not surprisingly, it turns out that it was a rather more complicated situation than the "UKIP membership = no fostering" headlines made out.

Issues include the possibility that the birth parents might have been able to find their children at that particular foster home, and that there had been a previous court case about children from that family being fostered by people who didn't speak their mother tongue. It was also only ever intended as a short-term placement.

Exemplary carers? Encouraging children to call them mum and dad after a few months? Surely this is wrong, particularly as they have parents who want them back.
I believe there is an ongoing investigation regarding alleged abuse by the birthparents, so encouraging the children to reject them may jeopardise the lines of enquiry.

Out of all of this the people who really suffer are the 3 children who were moved from the foster parents care. It is very difficult to find a family who will foster all 3 siblings together. In any case Labour voters,Tory voters, and Liberal voters, can all be against mass immigration or more states joining the EU and more immigration, so why don't they ban all of these prospective foster parents from caring for children? They can't because of the Human Rights Act, and the article which gives the right of political expression.
IMO social workers have far too much power, and it needs to be stopped. If Im right the social work panels are normally not made up of lay people (perhaps one or two) and they make the decisions in these cases of where children should be placed. Of course personal and political judgements will all come into play.
In many familes politics are spoken about,(including mine) but it has not mentally damaged my mixed race husband, my children or my mother-in-law who is from the far East. No I tell a lie, I became so damaged I joined UKIP!

Cozy, that's a nasty swipe. Rotherham was one of the towns that lost its heavy industries - coal and steel - in the 1980s, when the then government decided to wipe out heavy industry and focus on the City of London instead. And we know how well the second half of that sentence went...

Rotherham isn't exactly left-wing, just benefit-dependent.

I really do see what you're saying, in theory.

My problem is this: as a voter who they are trying to persuade to vote for them, I have to look at what they present now that they are given the opportunity to explain it to me in their own terms. If UKIP knowingly chooses a candidate who a) holds some rather objectionable views that are utterly contrary to the party line and b) isn't particularly loyal to UKIP at all, what am I to learn from that? It's not exactly extolling their finest virtues is it, if that's the best they can offer. I can't vote for them based on their ideals. I have to vote based on the person who will be representing me and voting on these kinds of key issues in Parliament - and this guy will not be apparently towing the party line so what agenda is he following exactly? Who knows!

And both his reputation and UKIPs is being utterly trashed now. Their European agenda is utterly vanished beneath a homophobia row. And they picked him!

It makes their complaining about adoption issues sound hollow when their own man is denouncing the rights of others to adopt under a nice big picture of their logo.

I'd suggest that if they have to distance themselves from their own Parliamentary candidate, they really haven't got a bloody clue what they are doing.

I would have a lot more sympathy for UKIP's outrage if they didn't send candidates to stand in my local by-election who say things like this:

www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/Exclusive-UKIP-candidate-Croydon-North-says-gay/story-17426910-detail/story.html

I get pissed off at the assumption that libertarians are racist. They aren't, they just want their national sovereignty back.

What? Do you think all foster carers vote Labour?

Imagine if, right across the country, all foster carers who voted UKIP were prevented from fostering.

There'd be nearly three children who needed to find another placement.

Imagine if the same thing was done with foster carers who were Tory supporters.

That would be another four!

What an insult to UKIP members, UKIP party activists, UKIP councillors, UKIP candidates and what an insult to democracy.

I don't vote UKIP, but what an insult to the millions of good people who turn out to put a vote against UKIP candidates in elections up and down the country.

Tiggy, I think that's unfair. This isn't the fault of any of the three main parties, it's the fault of a small-minded bigoted social worker, who may for all we know vote Lib Dem or Green (probably not Tory, to be fair...). And a failing council which we know is failing vulnerable children very badly indeed. Next door council, Doncaster, is also shit for vulnerable children, with one of the worst social services depts in the country.

But my own council contracted out care for the elderly disabled and housebound to a private company that then failed to turn up, leaving helpless people without any care at all for a whole weekend. It's a Tory council. Councils of all stripes can be shit.

The irony of this is that the couple involved are, according to the Telegraph, disenfranchised former Labour supporters who feel ignored and betrayed by what was once a working class movement. And they, and many others, feel betrayed and disenfranchised precisely because of decisions like this. You couldn't make it up.

Oh this gets even worse. So they've split a sibling group up, even though the children were being looked after by perfectly good foster carers, all in pursuit of some stupid incoherent political aims? Idiots. This sort of thing is not only awful for the poor kids, it gives ammunition to people who suspect what they call 'political correctness' and breeds suspicion and intolerance.

Quite, tiggy. You'd think the council would have learned after being exposed for their shameful treatment of girls who were being raped and abused by Asian gangs... (not that paedophiles don't come in all colours, but Rotherham authorities were more concerned to protect a gang of Asian paedophiles than their victims).