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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that Aysha is another part of a police cover up?

118 replies

Mellowdramatically · 02/09/2014 08:15

Why is one little boy taking up so much police time and money? And why is he being talked about so much and taking up so much news coverage? Yes it's extremely sad, but every day there are thousands of sad cases around the world that we aren't that interested in.

Lots of people can't understand why the police are going in so heavy handed.

Does anyone else think it might be to stop us talking about this?

OP posts:
Original poster
Mellowdramatically · 02/09/2014 08:59

ACPO will be rubbing their hands that all we want to talk about is one little boy, and not another huge scandal and cover up.

I love mumsnet- instead of reasoned argument I am arrogant and have a limited attention span.

OP posts:
AuntieStella · 02/09/2014 09:00

You perhaps need to join the threads where the stories that interest you are being discussed?

OwlCapone · 02/09/2014 09:02

This has to be one of the dumbest conspiracy theories I've read.

Original poster
Mellowdramatically · 02/09/2014 09:03

Sorry again pag can't type fast enough. Yes I agree my whole argument is based on people being interested in dramatic ( but in the scheme of things unimportant for society) cases and not boring cases with Asian looking men and poor white girls and police and local authority incompetence. I'm not arrogant honestly I'm just single a mum and I often don't get time to keep up with the news but this just troubles me. I think the police are manipulating us.

OP posts:
Original poster
Mellowdramatically · 02/09/2014 09:06

Dumb as well!

I started this thread so I'll stick with it thanks. But not now have to take the kids out Grin

OP posts:
FrancesNiadova · 02/09/2014 09:09

The police don't write newspapers or edit news programmes.

lodgerstressohno · 02/09/2014 09:11

His name is Ashya. Not Aysha.
And no.

firesidechat · 02/09/2014 09:14

His name is Ashya. Not Aysha.

I was wondering that myself, but too lazy to check.

Bowlersarm · 02/09/2014 09:19

But it is a dumb conspiracy theory.

News is news. It is possible for the media to run more than one story, OP.

Rotherham was covered on Radio 4 several stories before Ashya on Radio 4 news bulletins this morning.

MorrisZapp · 02/09/2014 09:21

News media like juicy human interest stories, no surprise there. it has aalways been this way. Rotherham will run for years, with repercussions and fallout and almost certainly similar stories coming out in other towns.

But that wee boy is ill and alone right now.

ICanSeeTheSun · 02/09/2014 09:21

I hope this family is reunited soon.

It is stressful and worrying enough when your child has a cold or a flu. I couldn't in my wildest of dreams imagine what it is like for his parents ATM what those poor parents are going through.

PinkSquash · 02/09/2014 09:25

Mellowdramatically What do you think actually happened with it all? I'm interested to see why you think it's a cover up and how it happened.

FWIW I don't think ACPO will give a hoot, the rank and file will bear the brunt even if it didn't involve them but more senior officers, that's the way it usually works anyway.

lougle · 02/09/2014 09:25

"The police don't write newspapers or edit news programmes."

Actually there's quite a bit of academic pondering on that. I wrote an essay at university about whether the authorities control the media or the media controls the authorities. It's not clear cut and control shifts rapidly and frequently.

That said I think that the police acted on the information they were given. You have to take context into account also. This was not a family who had been caring for their child with cancer for months on end. This was a family who 8 days before had thought he was well and then had a cancer diagnosis, surgery, cerebellar syndrome and intensive care.

The hospital may well not have taught them how to give bolus feeds. They may well not have known that the family had a box of feeds (how they got them hasn't been explained). They may well not have known that the family had a power cord (they had told Ward staff they were taking him to Costa Coffee within the hospital grounds). They may well not have known that the family would know it could be charged from a car (I was a nurse and worked with these machines and didn't know that until people have said today).

Nobody would make a fuss for ego. That Ward has 10 beds (my niece was treated there last year and still goes for follow up). Treatments are often delayed because they don't have a bed available. They wouldn't want to keep a child there unnecessarily.

Oblomov · 02/09/2014 09:27

No.
I think it is just the police being very heavy handed.
And making a drama out of a crisis.

I heard the Head of Hampshire Police , or commissioner, or whatever his name is, being interviewed on Radio 2 yesterday.
He really needs to do himself a favour and not be interviewed again. He was so unconvincing. He didn't do himself or the Police ANY favours!!!!!!!

PersonOfInterest · 02/09/2014 09:49

I wonder if the police in this case have been so heavy handed as a result of the series of policing failures that are currently in the news. Desperate not to fuck up again? Based on information given to them by the hospital? (who are starting to look pretty bad here, with the untruths over power cables/feeding etc)

Totally agree about the connection with the media lougle. I think its a fine balance. Politicians/police often time the release of a story to eclipse another one. Isn't that quite well known?

Flipflops7 · 02/09/2014 10:01

The police are not above diversionary tactics, but I don't think this is one, just incredible stupidity on the part of the hospital and other public agencies.

SarcyMare · 02/09/2014 10:22

It is getting so much coverage because there is no politics, the silly season.

Icimoi · 02/09/2014 11:00

I have it on good authority that this is a completely misleading red herring. These feeding machines are mains operated with a build in rechargeable back up battery. They can even be connected to the car's electricity supply. It's a non issue

But how were the hospital and police to know that they had any means of plugging the machine into the car?

JanaOfTheJungle · 02/09/2014 11:08

I think this has generated more reaction than Rotheram because 'people' (or more people, anyway) can imagine it happening to them. Sad It is more relatable. Like the GBBO. Sad

Also, the King incident brings up somewhat newish issues about care and parenting and policies about permission. Policy makers and pundits are finding or exploring new potentially legal boundaries in this incident.

In the Rotherham case (and associated) I feel that there is less of a sense of breaking new moral ground.

IPityThePontipines · 02/09/2014 11:08

Also, feeding tubes can get blocked or dislodged. Would the parents know what to do in that situation? Particularly as they didn't a huge amount of experience with tube feeding?

JanaOfTheJungle · 02/09/2014 11:12

I'm sorry, I think some of my language was a little clinical or inappropriate. I absolutely did not mean that the King case was like the GBBO. But I was astonished that the GBBO got so much traction when the Rotheram report was just a few hours old. But people tend to comment on things that are easier to understand and relate to, and nobody wants to think that a situation like Rotheram could relate to them.

JanaOfTheJungle · 02/09/2014 11:15

I'm also not saying that there is nothing 'new' to say about the Rotheram report. I'm just seeing it from the position of commentators... With Rotheram there are obvious multiple failings and huge, huge problems with reforming existing systems.

But the legal boundaries are pretty clear. I think.

HoldenMcGroin · 02/09/2014 11:16

No no, Jana, I think you are bang-on

GimmeMySquash · 02/09/2014 11:18

The parents had to sign some documents in Spain to obtain the funds to get the private treatment.

The feeding device can be used via battery, mains or a syringe.

AbbieHoffmansAfro · 02/09/2014 11:19

Do you not think the police are capable of cynically manipulating the press?

I just think the police know how to manipulate the press - and us

Honestly? I strongly disagree. Most of the time I think the police and pretty hapless when it comes to the media (as well as lots of other things). This was a mess dumped on their laps by the hospital and the CPS (who I note are now conducting an urgent arse-covering review of the case).

The media, on the other hand, is only exceptionally principled and brave. Most of the time it is profit-driven and great swathes of it are pretty lazy. The story of this little boy landed in their laps and they binged on it, as so often happens. Lots of emotive hot-button stuff to keep the readers/viewers interested. And lots of scope for quick judging.

Not like Rotherham, which is horrific and disturbing, has no simple solution and requires all of us to do some hard thinking about some uncomfortable things, like religious attitudes, segregation, policing, sexualisation of children, the toxic legacy of race and class prejudice.

Read a newspaper any day of the week. They like shitty magazines now. After a quick Shock! Horror! about stuff like Rotherham and some gratuitous coverage of the latest vile murder it is back to wall-to-wall coverage of X Factor.

It may be bread and circuses, but I don't for one minute think the police are the ring-masters.