Rotherham council unfit for purpose

[Justanotherlurker]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-31130750

What is going to be the outcome, I was initially against the idea that it was for fear of being racist, but after reading the report that did play a part(if you haven't read it, it is hard going). With the recent convictions in Halifax it is looking as though there is some systematic negligence, corruption and people more worried about their position of power above duty but a particular blind spot.

It is simply horrifying. I have taken a look through the report--dreadful stuff.

I live in the local area and I know somebody who was a victim.

It's absolutely horrific. Everybody knew it was happening. Even people my age (mid 30s) remember being at school and girls coming to be picked up in cars by these people even though they were frightened and didn't want to go in a lot of cases.

It was positively Kafkaesque. Fathers who tried to rescue their daughters would be arrested rather than the abusers. Sometimes the children themselves were found in bed with the abusers but the children were arrested rather than the abusers.

There were attempted prosecutions against people who claimed it was happening for making the claims but not the abusers.

A lot of people locally have much to be ashamed of. And not just people in the council, there are ordinary local people who pointed the finger of racism and stigmatised people making these claims.

I think a lot more is going to come out. In the case I am aware of the victim was from a mixed race family (no Muslim heritage) but allegations of racism were made against the family when they tried to stop the abuse. The girl concerned was also encouraged by her abusers to make criminal allegations against her family by her abusers deliberately to create a situation where she was more vulnerable to them because the people trying to protect her would be removed. They deliberately caused problems at her father's work which ended up with him having to leave his job.

Entire families have been decimated and in some cases criminalised because of this. Not half the fuss is being kicked up that should be.

I know there are stories of historical Tory involvement in abuse but this is happening now and on an industrial scale. Can you imagine if a Tory council had covered this up? Particularly if it had been white men targeting girls from ethnic minorities? But people seem happy to minimize this. I suspect because it's poor white people and they don't matter. But I honestly cannot understand how anybody local could vote for Labour again with a clear conscience.

In the days after the Alexis Jay report was published, Rotherham council promised much - they'd learn lessons, they'd support victims, they'd change. It hasn't happened.

Behind closed doors, they've poured scorn on the Jay report, still fear being called racist rather than acknowledge problems with Pakistani heritage men and most damningly of all are still failing to protect vulnerable children

It's the bit above which really stood out for me - clearly nothing's changed and it's not likely to under the present regime. I also can't help feeling the upcoming election is the only reason we're seeing this "determination to act" now

I firmly believe that the authorities in charge of Rotherham at the time were themselves involved in the abuse and that is why they were so determined to cover it up.

This is on a mass scale and I still think they are doing their best to protect certain people.

I'm hoping the press will get to the bottom of it all.

Flicking between BBC News and Sky News yesterday I caught the Commons announcement by the 'Fat Controller' Pickles on the Rotherham special measures need, and I have never felt more proud of our parliament and many of the 'prairee hats' within.

At a time when political parties are looking for points scoring beneath the belt (often without the facts), 99.9% of the discussions across the benches were both practical and non partisan, with a real spirit of co-operation on not only how best to do what is right for the victims and people of Rotherham, but lessons to take to other councils where ever they are, not following their duty of care.

Unfortunately UKIP's Mark 'interesting' Reckless piped up and became the 0.1%, if ever there was NOT a time and place, he found it.

I think it's very clear that there is fear of racism. There are Muslim gangs like this all over the country.

Here's today's news from Newcastle:

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/northumbria-police-charged-20-people-8587632

And yesterday in Bradford

www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/crime/25-men-charged-with-sexual-offences-against-two-girls-in-calderdale-1-7089705

The police are still very worried about 'community relations'

'Some people or groups may try to use Operation Sanctuary to build resentment. Our community has a history of harmonious relations and is one of tolerance. Anyone experiencing hate crime should report it to police and be reassured we will investigate thoroughly.'

I've NC for this post.

My eldest dd was targeted, groomed and raped by one of these gangs when she was 15. We're very grateful that the police did take it seriously. Her rapist was sent to prison. He was of Pakistani heritage.

I don't know if we were just "lucky" that they did take her seriously or whether in our city the police are more on the ball with it/not afraid to tackle it? The main female police officer was an absolute godsend and dd is still in touch with her now 10 years later.

It's fucking disgusting that this type of abuse not only goes on, but is overlooked, AND people of power are actually involved.

It's had such a profound effect on my dd, she was a straight A student and planned on going to university. It just didn't happen, she got into drink and drugs and almost succeeded in killing herself several times. And that's after she was taken seriously and he was convicted!

This is why I wouldn't vote Labour. They are more concerned with protecting pedophiles and rapists (and being labelled racists) than with protecting vulnerable young girls.

ghostland, please don't imagine it's only Labour people who do this kind of thing.

An abuse survivor, described by Scotland Yard as a credible witness, has claimed he saw a Tory MP strangle a boy in a paedophile sex "party". Just google "sex abuse, Tory", there's plenty of information there.

And don't forget Cyril Smith, Liberal MP. . .

I agree with quitelikely: an awful lot of people in power either are implicated themselves or cover up for abusers because they go to the same dinner parties or belong to the same clubs.

At any rate, an unbelievable amount of evidence has mysteriously disappeared: there was the dossier on child abuse handed to Leon Brittan when he was Home Secretary; it kind of somehow disappeared.

Then one of the victims at Bryn Estyn children's home got hold of photographs showing abuse going on, and handed them in to the police; they kind of somehow disappeared. . . . . and so on.

tinkerbell and Dd:

Is there not a role for established and trusted volunteer organisations, for example, The Women's Institute (WI), to play a role in such situations?

They are not part of the PC brigade, are genuinely independent, and can be trusted to act properly with regard to the best interests of the women and children involved?

damibasiamille .... re your rather partisan comment; how many decades ago were those accusations, how many are yet to have PROOF attached, which seems to be a fundamental difference to proven SYSTEMIC child abuse NOW within a town, and a council with full knowledge of that abuse taking place, who were then told to sort it.

Yet through incompetence, personal agendas, or card carrying loyalties and back scratching – did sod all to a jam tart about it.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/two-rotherham-councillors-and-police-officer-accused-of-having-sex-with-abuse-scandal-victims-10022666.html

Back in the 1970’s etc you refer to, it appears child abuse was so rife, they even had a socially accepted club out in the open, the Paedophile Information Exchange.

“Harriet Harman admits paedophile group joined her civil liberties group in the 1970s”
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10659169/Harriet-Harman-admits-paedophile-group-joined-her-civil-liberties-group-in-the-1970s.html

“Harriet Harman, her husband Jack Dromey, a frontbench Labour MP, and Patricia Hewitt, a former Labour Cabinet minister, were officials at the National Council for Civil Liberties”

Maybe if MP’s spent more time looking at ‘greenhouses’ in their own back yard, rather than concentrating on events of 40-odd years ago, many of the current victims would not have been scarred for life, some since the council lack of ‘duty of care’ problem, was out in the open.

Having seen the new BBC documentary ‘Inside the Commons’, which features the new Rotherham MP Sarah Champion showing how much she cares, is proactive and appears a total breath of fresh air versus the partisan dinosaurs within parliament.

It would be such a shame if Ms Champion was punished at the General Election through cross political party muck chucking and labelling, when she has so much to offer her constituency, now and in the future. IMO.

Is there not a role for established and trusted volunteer organisations, for example, The Women's Institute (WI), to play a role in such situations?

It's not a bad idea Treebrain, but I wouldn't hold your breath. I very much doubt councils, health authorities, etc, would willingly allow involvement by an organisation they couldn't rigidly control

Some Tories commit crimes, some Liberal Democrats do as well. Indeed, all political parties have within them members that have committed crimes.

However, the difference between what happened in Rotherham and, say, a Tory MP allegedly raping a young child or, heaven forfend, killing one, is that he is a bad apple, committing appalling acts for his own immoral and selfish ends.

What Labour did in Rotherham was policy and political. Labour has elevated multiculturalism and anti-racism from what were initially admirable means of reducing tension to ends in themselves, to which all other concerns have been subordinated.

The Left have become so warped that they consider racism to be a worse crime than murder and rape.

They have shut down debate and averted their eyes and have been helped by their fellow travellers - the Guardian and the BBC. Look at how few articles the Guardian has carried on this, those few have not permitted public comments thereon. Newsnight on BBC2 covered this story this week and made no mention of the party in power in Rotherham - can we seriously imagine that they would have made no reference to Conservatives if the situation were reversed?

itsmebut . . I suppose I am a bit partisan, (though I was trying not to be), having suffered much more from Tory policies than from Labour ones; but I don't think you were being totally even-handed either.

About the Paedophile Information Exchange,I think it's easy to forget at this distance, what things were like in the 70s. We were just emerging from the dark ages!

The sexual revolution was still new and everything was being questioned; women and gay people were fighting for their rights and the paedophiles tried to ride that band-wagon, some arguing that it was a matter of children's rights to sexual expression!

So I think that was how PIE got a bit of credibility for a while, not because child abuse was necessarily more rife then than now; we have no way of knowing whether it was or not.

Wilts, please don't distract from the serious issue by trying to make this party political. Sadly there are paedophiles and paedophile enablers in every party. Maggie Thatcher's PPS (MP who was a trusted close assistant) was a convicted child abuser. She put Jimmy Saville in charge of Broadmoor, for heaven's sake. There are Liberal and Labour scandals too.

The point should be about how we prevent these crimes, how we make sure they are detected and prosecuted when they do happen, how we protect children and young girls and support those who have become victims/survivors.

The report is horrifying - particularly the groupthink complacency after the Jay report. What the hell? Even worse, some of the key people responsible for enabling child abuse have gone on to responsible positions at other authorites, including in child protection. They must be removed, immediately.

And they need to take taxi licenses away from anyone involved in these horrific crimes. Cabbies need to be of good character.

damibasiamille ..... I guess I'm a bit partisan as looking at Labours record whether looking over 13-years at ever higher taxes, derisory State pension rises to offset them, immigration policies, a mediocre State education, a lack of job opportunities especially for 16-24 year olds, raids on private pensions, a lack of home building, a financial crash, an economic crash, a fall in real earnings from 2007 etc etc etc - I think people have to be VERY lucky not to have suffered from that list, I certainly didn't, so well done to you.

But you are correct as looking back, I may have seemed as if I was excusing the blue team, and that is not the case, I remember a law and order comedy sketch back them with Mel Smith proposing "off with their goolies" - and as there is no excuse for child or any other abuse, that is my remedy, especially rich Conservative's who could pay to get their sick rocks off another way, or anyone in government.

As for the PIE, I suspect it was an information outlet that the internet made redundant, but promoting the 'rights' of an sexual act on a child, however packaged, shows how people can be so concerned with ideology, they lose their common sense.

I think the significance of party politics in this case is that the Labour council believed themselves to be unassailable. The 'safe' nature of Rotherham voting Labour year in year out meant no effective opposition, no challenges and a self-serving core of influential people determined to hang onto power at all costs and brush inconvenient problems under the carpet.

Solutions more generally might involve time limits on how long individual councillors can serve. Make the whole business of local government a lot less cosy

I wasn't at all surprised to hear this. I lived in Rotherham some 30 years ago, and found it a very misogynistic town, with some of the white Yorkshire born and bred the most bigoted people I have ever met (and I was born in Yorkshire myself). My Pakistani neighbours were fine as it happened.

It's the sort of place where Labour votes were weighed, but I do think that this could happen in any party. As Cogito says, it was the same people getting elected time after time. If you limited how long a councillor would serve I doubt whether it would make much difference - another from the same mould would be put up for election.

The Greens have a good solution for council elections - proportional representation - which would possibly prevent one party rule. UKIP also favour PR in general, so they may also be in favour of it for council elections.

I think PR is a lib dem policy!!!! Always has been. My council has actually said that child protection is not a priority. The latest report from Ofsted absolutely castigated them for this and they are failing on nearly every count to protect vulnerable young people. It is a Tory Shire county in the SE. There are many Councillors, police and social workers who do not carry out their duties. Rotherham is the tip of the iceberg!

Good point MillyMollyMama, it is a LibDem policy too and has been for decades but they have never managed to implement it. Our whole political system is now going through a revolution due to the Greens and UKIP and finally we may be granted some form of PR that the LibDems were powerless to enable.

I don't think PR would have made a difference in this case, this is large scale corruption whilst wanting to maintain community cohesion. We need some form of proper accountability.

I don't think this is the tip of the iceberg either, we have already heard of other almost identical situations, although I do believe there is possibly more to come. This is systematic.

I bet we have not heard about every town and city where this has been going on! I don't really think PR would have helped a great deal either because Labour would still have had the majority. The Council's views on racial equality meant that they would not tackle illegal abuse. Also, I am not actually surprised by this. I regularly visit South Yorkshire and find that my relatives-friends seem very reluctant to upset anyone, even when it is right that the person is held to account. There seems to be a very PC attitude in public service that is not really addresung issues in an effective way.