Labour suspends Trevor Phillips because he identified who made up child grooming gangs

That's excellent news.

Good news.

The Petition when over 10,000 signatures at the weekend, which is fantastic. Big thanks to all that have signed and shared the link.

The government will now respond. The response may be soon or in a few months time.

The current II CSE investigation has been criticized by professionals and survivors. Maggie Oliver recently called it a white wash.

Its now time for a proper Public Inquiry that does not shy aware from asking the difficult questions about grooming gangs. Three core questions all public inquiries seek answers to: What happened, Who is to blame, What recommendations to be put in place to prevent this every happening again.

Thanks again for all your support

George

There is a petition asking for a Public Inquiry into Grooming Gangs here is the link. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/327566

The petition is Supported by a Charity helping survivors, the Maggie Oliver Foundation

Last year we learned 57 young girls were thought to have been exploited by up to 100 members of a grooming gang. There is clear public concern, and appear to be failings by Police, Social Services, Local Authorities and the CPS to protect the most vulnerable.

A public inquiry should answer: What happened? Who is to blame? What can be done to prevent this happening again? Is there a racial/religious element to this type of offending? How are survivors being supported and should more be done.

Petition is at 8,000+ it needs to get to 10,000 for a written government response. Your help is much appreciated.

All about awareness and protecting children and young adults.

Click on the link. Click on sign, provide your email, and confirm your support by clicking the link that the parliamentary website send to your email address.

I'm inclined to agree that we should be looking at some separation, but I wonder how we would accomplish that. One issue is that unlike your example, there aren't clear institutions involved. OTOH we've talked of FWR a lot about problems about lobby organisations essentially having policy turned over to them. So maybe becoming more scrupulous about that is a way forward.

It would be a process of secularisation really. What I think this shows is that it's really not "religious" bodies that are the issue. Everyone has a set of ideas about what is true and right, and in a fairly non-religious society most people will share sets of ideas that are non-religious. It's still quite possible for institutions representing these ideas to attempt to capture the state directly rather than working through the votes of individuals, as a secularised model would suggest is best. And many people don't realise that their non-religious worldview is as much a worldview as any religious one, rather than some neutral position that only includes true ideas. That misunderstanding allows them to think it is ok to impose those kinds of ideas on political and social institutions, even in a pluralistic society.

I do think though that we should attempt to destroy identity politics directly, as it is deeply corrupting to a society, and will have horrible outcomes. That will mean attacking CT, and it will mean a lot of painful disentangling within movements whose aims we support, because many of them have adopted some, or even a lot, of the language and ideas of CT.

This modern obsession with identity politics reminds me of all the religious wars that broke out in Europe for centuries. Many different denominations of Christianity were involved in bitter conflict over who got to control the levers of state power, and force their particular view on entire populations.

I think the solution now will have to be as it was then which is a separation between the various factions of identity politics, and the power of the state. Otherwise we’re likely to be at this for centuries.

Curiously, the petition asking for the release of that goes out of date shortly. Could be the government are hoping for things to blow over?

How is this new petition and proposed inquiry related to the older review which Sajid Javid instigated, and the government initially refused to publish? Latest I can find is that they agreed to publish it in May this year.

Likewise, Eww. I'm sure if george reads the thread in AIBU on the "Save our children" protests, he'll see why we're hesitant, given the timing of his post in resuscating a zombie thread.

George - can you assure us that you and the petition you link to are in no way connected with the #saveourchildren protests (which seem, as far as I can tell, to be being stirred up by a bunch of QAnon/Pizzagate/Wayfair conspiracy nuts).

I would like to sign the petition but I want to know who George MacDonald is first. It's area where there is good work but there are also some I would chose not to be associated with.

George the link isn't clicky. Hopefully someone else can post it

There is a Petition asking for an independent public inquiry into grooming gangs. feel free to click on the link sign and share the link. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/327566 The more cover up over an issue the worst it tends to become.

Trevor Phillips' suspension is being discussed on R4 Moral Maze this evening.

Her employer did start to collect evidence against him, but wanted to build a completely solid and inarguable case against him before taking any action, as they feared being accused of racism. In the time they were taking to do this, he raped a female colleague at a work event.

Fear of litigation is often deliberately created & exploited by abusers. Safeguarding has to take priority.
Its horrific when women & children are harmed due to inaction.

But sometimes it's just not. In both of the cases the social workers explicitly stated that they would have behaved differently if the adults had been of a different race/ sexuality. They were consciously aware they were behaving differently and making different choices.

Yes, I havent disagreed with the fact that this happened/happens.
Also often people become more aware of the extent to which they made different decisions (& the reasons why) on reflection & when there are consequences.

Its often far more nuanced that a fear of being judged discriminatory.
People have bias & those with Safeguarding responsibility are taught (rightly) to guard against their own possible bias. There may be an 'over-correction' which is sub-conscious

But sometimes it's just not. In both of the cases the social workers explicitly stated that they would have behaved differently if the adults had been of a different race/ sexuality. They were consciously aware they were behaving differently and making different choices. Andrew Gilligan said he was warned that he would get a whole lot of shit for being racist if he exposed the Rotherham scandal. People are well aware of the potential abuse that could come theirway, and that being called 'ist' 'phobic' is now seen as a killer argument that it is hard to fight your way back from, and where usual supporters will likely fade away from you for fear of being tainted in the same way.
This is exactly what TRA's are exploiting with might effect right now.

I had a colleague whose new manager, a black man, behaved in an extremely inappropriate way sexually at work. She felt intimidated by him and avoided being alone with him. Her employer did start to collect evidence against him, but wanted to build a completely solid and inarguable case against him before taking any action, as they feared being accused of racism. In the time they were taking to do this, he raped a female colleague at a work event.

People do fear the implications of being called 'ist' and 'phobic', and that does affect their behaviour and choices. We need to encourage people to feel safe and secure in making allegations without fear of what is now reputation, and possibly career damaging, name calling.

Context:
Next Tuesday Centre for Women's Justice & End Violence Against Women Coalition,

"will be in court trying to get permission for a judicial review against the CPS for their change in policy that has seen a 51% drop in charges of reported rapes in 5 years. Please come and show your support!"

mobile.twitter.com/centreWJ/status/1237338562745548801

threads:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3845203-The-Decriminalisation-of-Rape

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3844803-Spades-required-Judicial-review-against-CPS-Justice-for-rape-victims

The systemic Safeguarding failures put a wide number of children (of both sexes & from all communities) at risk. Levels of sexual abuse of girls by boys in schools are at record levels.

There are also parallels with the age-based Safeguarding framework failures putting boys at risk of exploitation by criminal gangs:

February 2019 Independent:
(extract)
"The failings that let grooming gangs sexually abuse girls for decades are being repeated for tens of thousands of children being exploited by criminal networks, the children’s commissioner has warned.

A new report estimated that at least 27,000 under-18s in England identified as gang members, and that 34,000 children linked to gangs had been the victims of violent crime in the past year.

But the children’s commissioner said that less than one in four child gang members and associates were being supported by authorities, with only 6,500 known to specialist services.

A further 313,000 children know a gang member and the report warned that younger children and girls are being increasingly targeted by recruiters because they are less likely to attract police attention.

Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, said “complex and ruthless” criminal organisations were grooming children and then controlling them with “chilling levels of violence”.

“At the moment it is too easy for them to succeed,” she added. “Thousands of children in towns and cities across England are at risk.”

Ms Longfield expressed concern that mistakes that caused failures to prevent sexual grooming activity across the UK are now being repeated in the context of criminal gang activity.

She compared the situation to child sexual exploitation before the Rotherham scandal brought the abuse into national consciousness.

“Many local areas are not facing up to the scale of the problem, they are not taking notice of the risk factors in front of them, and they are not listening to parents and communities who ask for help,” Ms Longfield said." (continues)
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/grooming-gangs-crime-children-drug-dealing-failures-repeat-stabbings-a8800091.html

We are letting down young people:

1. The girls who have been subject to grooming gangs
2. Young Muslim boys who may believe, for lack of alternative messages, that this acceptable behaviour.
3. Young Muslim girls who may not be protected by either their own community or by a wider society.

None of this is acceptable. I don't know everything about Trevor Phillips, but to me he seems to be a member of a brave cohort including Ann Clwyd, Nazir Afzal, and some brave whistleblowers and journalists.

Me too. I think the whole lot of them should be done for negligence or something.
Or all be done for joint enterprise

It's really common in all kinds of organisations like this, including the police, for someone to want to make a different call but they simply aren't really allowed. It becomes a sort of whistleblower situation if they take that step, which is something for most people where they have to really be sure before they take that leap.

That could just about excuse low level officers for having kept their mouths shut (although I personally wouldn't want it on my conscience) but for higher ranking officers there is no excuse whatsoever. I defy anyone to produce evidence suggesting that the police were advised to let criminals such as paedo rapists continue to offend if they're from an ethnic minority. It's very different to asking the police to give up constantly stopping and searching ethnic minorities in the streets.

The high ranking officers who permitted the criminals to offend for years are just as culpable imo. I'd send the lot of them down if I could.

sportinguista - that is awful - I have no words.

The way women are thought of is a huge part of this.

Yes, by all parties: the sexism/misogyny & contempt of women is common to abusive men in gangs, within communities & was/is (?) a systemic issue within police, CPS & policy makers.

I live in one of these areas and there was a girl on my street it happened to, they also tried to target my neighbour's daughter but she moved away to stop it. The way women are thought of is a huge part of this. Even I get spat at for wearing normal clothes and I'm a middle age woman, I was even called a 'whore' in front of my DS whose only ten. He asked me what the word meant and I had to be honest about it. My DH has also been attacked on the street too.

And it is still going on, we see it all the time, late at nights, in cars etc. God knows if it will ever stop because there will be a steady supply of men with this attitude because it is how they're being raised, we saw it at the school. There will also be a steady stream of vulnerable girls whose plight won't be recognised early enough.

For us we've noticed so many changes, streets we just don't go up, shopping areas we no longer visit. Not going out on Fridays. But we will leave and go as far as we can from it so it won't be part of our lives any more. But there are many who cannot run from it and whose lives will be ruined.

TP always seemed like a decent person, intelligent and fair. But he told the truth and I think that's become a cardinal sin these days.

It becomes a sort of whistleblower situation if they take that step, which is something for most people where they have to really be sure before they take that leap.

Systemic sexism has relevence, not least the way that female whistleblowers are treated.