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

[jadefinch]

Trevor Phillips is the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission - and he's recently been accused of 'transphobia' for saying women's same-sex spaces should be protected.

He's now been suspended by Labour for accurately saying that the majority of members of northern grooming gangs, which sexually abused tens of thousands of vulnerable girls, were Pakistani Muslim men.

One of the main reasons why the girls were put at risk was because the police and local authorities didn't want to intervene in case they were accused of Islamophobia.

Labour's war on both women and the freedom to say things that are true is not going away.

news.sky.com/story/labour-veteran-trevor-phillips-suspended-over-islamophobia-allegations-11953457

I don't want this thread to descend into a row.
I have managed over 60 years without being accused of lying.
I am leaving the thread now.
Everyone has different personal experiences.

Well, it wasn't just right wing memes that were asking for more police presence. Local community groups (mostly Muslim and Asian) also asked for more police cover. Police decided not to attend Eid al Fitr celebrations one year so as not to appear 'heavy handed' - this was an openly made decision - there were several violent incidents, utter chaos, and the police decision was widely condemned. It was a terrifying place to live. I can understand the difficulties facing the police, and to be honest I wouldn't have wanted to attend that area, either. It was a terrifying place to live.

I also don't doubt that right winger and racists have latched onto all of this and try to politicise it. The trouble was that so many left wingers from outwith the area (or the SNP) would flatly deny there were any issues, no matter how many people asked for help.

Endofthelinefinally, it's one poster.

I believe you.

Based on my own experience, I believe you utterly.

would flatly deny there were any issues, no matter how many people asked for help.

I think we have just seen a micro version of that on this thread. A pp reporting what has / is happening in some schools in some areas and being met with accusations of being a right winger. There are plenty of those of us on the left who acknowledge that there are some uncomfortable truths that must be faced if we are to properly protect women and girls.

It's just another version of NAMALT. With an accusation of being right wing and racist thrown in.

I live in a town with a large Asian population and it is established knowledge that they all vote Labour.

I recently re-joined this forum and gosh, I'm afraid you're all so much worse than I remember.

Since "not knowing" what Islamophobia is seems to be an issue, here is the APPG definition.

Or perhaps you'll consider it "group think" - or whatever bizarre theory you'll come up with to excuse the Islamophobia you want to push.

and now I need a shower.

appgbritishmuslims.org/publications

What are you talking about @ficklephyliss?

Labour's problems in this area aren't just limited to the Corbyn wing - Jacqui Smith was Home Secretary when the policy was to accept underage girls as having made a 'lifestyle choice' rather than actually do anything about it. Starmer's imminent win won't make all this go away.

Since "not knowing" what Islamophobia is seems to be an issue, here is the APPG definition.

Trevor Philips has challenged the APPG definition. Not everyone agrees with it.

I have read the full reports into cases like Rotherham. The main reason girls were put at risk was because professionals like the police thought they were just "slags" rather than victims

I have not read the Rotherham report but I have read similar analysis of systems in Rochdale which said that SS and local politicians (more than the police) actively avoided dealing with the issue for fear of seeming racist. This is a large part of why it was ignored for so long.

PP is correct that a major police failing was treating vulnerable children as if they were making a choice rather than being preyed upon.

Ann Cryer was on the radio a few years ago talking about the birth defects caused by people marrying their daughters to near relations, she got shouted down.

FWIW there's endemic treatment of girls who are victims of child sex abuse in this manner.

Newspapers still report 'underage sex', instead of 'rape', for example.

But the people who had the legal power to prosecute ignored it because they thought the girls were consenting and had chosen this "lifestyle". You have to recognise they were victims first before you can prosecute,
So yes if others had not been afraid of racist accusations, they could have put real pressure on the police to prosecute. But even without that, the police could have prosecuted if they had recognised these girls as victims.

What should have been robust age-based Safeguarding frameworks were disregarded for the girls who were being abused. This disregard was by many adults around them in public services & the community.

These girls were especially vulnerable, often in care / a child in need.

There are (as always) a number of intersecting issues which combine in a comprehensive failure to protect children.

I was reading the Guardian report about Trevor Philips and they called the Cologne mass sex assaults (that TP had referred to) "harassment". They can't help themselves.

I wrote to my female labour mp about the cologne sex assaults and she wrote back basically accusing me of being a racist bigot.

She struck me from her mailing list but still writes to my DH.

I think it's more to do with the right wing press trying to divert attention away from this:?

mcb.org.uk/press-releases/mcb-submits-new-dossier-of-conservative-islamophobia-to-ehrc-with-evidence-of-over-300-individuals/

That makes no sense at all. Labour , not the right- wing press, thought this was an opportune moment to attack TP. The diversion has been caused by Labour, not the "right-wing press" (not that I think The Times is "right- wing")

I knew they’d come for him, was only a matter of time.

FFS. Of course prejudice exists against Muslims (and people perceived as being Muslims) but actually, in my somewhat informed opinion, the real issue with the conflict between some UK Muslims and non Muslims is one that comes down to culture, not religion. Muslims are not a hive mind. There isn't one type of being Muslim. All Muslim women don't cover their heads. All Muslim men are not taxi drivers, and a group of men of Pakistani origin in deprived Northern towns do not represent Islam, they represent a particular culture.
I'm from one of the towns mentioned. The problems are in part caused by many things, including the impact of 70s/80s racism (often aided by police) and the fact that a "village" mentality has allowed some communities to become very isolated.
Trevor Phillips is a smart guy. He knows that the issues are complicated, and has said so. Understanding that doesn't make him or anyone racist or whateverphobic.

That makes no sense at all. Labour , not the right- wing press, thought this was an opportune moment to attack TP. The diversion has been caused by Labour, not the "right-wing press"

This.

I can only think of two possible explanations:

1. Jeremy Corbyn has been employed for decades as a double agent within the Labour Party by an incredibly far sighted and macheavelian Johnson family determined to put their son Boris in power for a long time.

1. Jeremy Corbyn is genuinely trying to run a political party to the best of his ability, and this is the result.

I am unsure which explanation is more far fetched.

I am unsure which explanation is more far fetched

Neither is credible. The Labour party has become so dislocated from the voters it imperiously claims to represent that its response to annihilation North of Watford is a pledge to a Stalinist purge of left wing feminists and kicking out Trevor Phillips because he dared to have an opinion about the blatant grooming which went on in full view of state authorities from 2000 onwards. There is a very serious problem going on when hundreds of vulnerable girls are raped on an industrial scale across multiple cities. For years. How did this happen? What failure of multiple state agencies enabled it? How do we know it's not still happening? Why aren't Labour remotely concerned with these questions?

That definition of islamophobia is highly disputed. It automatically accuses anyone who criticises Islam of being racist. Calling people racist is a great way of shutting them down and dismissing their views though so I suppose it's handy for shutting down criticism of Islam.

Trevor kept pointing out that Islam is a religion not a race.

The thing is, this has been going on for a very long time.
People scoff when certain people say they’re ‘not allowed’ to say anything, and then these same people sit in wonderment at how the likes of Tommy Robinson become so popular.
Labour and their ilk, and their #nodebate tactics, just push people into the opposite direction, and then when they’re there, sit back and say, stupid racist/tranaphobe/islamophobe, that’s what we’re fighting against.
It’s kind of like a self fulfilling prophecy.