Labour rejects calls for Oldham grooming gang inquiry

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Are Labour right to push the responsibility for carrying out a public inquiry back onto Oldham Council?

I don't understand how it is considered acceptable for local authorities to carry out their own inquiries when they are often part of the institutional failure that allowed these crimes to be carried out on such a large scale over decades. Councils, police and social services were/are all implicated in the failure to act (or to actively obstruct) in some way or another.

"Phillips’ letter to Oldham Council, seen by GB News, claims it is for the the local authority ‘alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the government to intervene.’ Reports have previously been commissioned and produced in Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford; Oldham now plans to launch its own Telford-style inquiry. Given the strength of feeling – which Phillips acknowledges in her letter – it seems inevitable that there will be questions or debate in the Commons when parliament returns next week."

"Yet for the hundreds of victims and those invested in bringing perpetrators to justice, this will seem pitifully inadequate. In each town where grooming gangs operated, similar patterns emerged: victims were ignored, law enforcement complicit and political officials more concerned about reputational damage than lives affected. Local authorities can hold their own inquiries, of course. But given the scale of these crimes, the fact they took place over decades, in many towns, suggests a level of institutional complicity requiring the attention of central government."

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-rejects-calls-for-oldham-grooming-gang-inquiry/

Archive...

https://archive.ph/3greC#selection-1667.0-1759.570

To me, it indicates how wide spread the attitude is. Theres a lack of curiosity and resistence to a full inquiry at all levels of government and all political parties.

And yet, I bet he relies on women's labour to do all the things he doesn't want to do in his life. If all the women in his life magically disappeared for a month, he'd find it a hard slog.

They think they're so enlightened but this attitude - that they are somehow superior to all the women who support key aspects of their lives, do the cleaning etc - is the top of a slippery slope down to the Taliban. Which, given his comments about travelling in Afghanistan, he's not even trying that hard to hide. It's seeing women, particularly certain types of women (probably the majority), the working class women, as less human.

And it's this attitude, alongside purity politics over recognising ethnicity of the rapists, which allowed so many children to be raped and tortured with tacit approval from state organisations paid for by the taxpayer who were supposed to stop it.

I thought I knew a lot about the grooming gangs, but I didn't, I've learned so much more this week. The fact that some of the convicted rapists have received 100s of thousands in state funding to prevent deportation. That they're out of prison and have returned to the same area and are causing panic attacks in their victims when they see them - like why the hell is there not a restraining order against these men for these women? They should have to stay away? Why are they going back to the same area? Fucks sake!

Even now, even for those rapists convicted (to paltry sentences), it seems like the rapists are being treated better than their victims by the state. It's just not ok. Maybe we need a nationwide referendum on whether we want these men locked up for life? Because I 100% guarantee everyone wants this.

I just feel the entire state apparatus is set up to enable paedophiles.

I thought I knew a lot about the grooming gangs, but I didn't, I've learned so much more this week.

Same here.

What is upsetting is that there must be people who knew that the various inquiries and recommendations were weak.

For example, in a three year period in oldham, 11000 safeguarding referrals were made to social services (not just about these gangs) so why is the government saying that mandatory reporting is the solution? Im not saying all cases were reported correctly, but those that were were not dealt with correctly somewhere further down the line.

An article in Unherd about the Pakistani 'peasants' that Kemi Badenoche talked about in a recent interview

https://unherd.com/newsroom/are-grooming-gang-perpetrators-really-from-peasant-communities/

The comments are worth a read too.

I think that article is spot on and why we need an inquiry.

But looking at cases of GLCSE involving perpetrators of Pakistani heritage through the lens of ethnicity risks overlooking migratory, educational, occupational, and religio-cultural variations. Investigating the region of origin — in Badenoch’s terms, the “sub-communities” — is crucial. To what extent are Pakistani-heritage perpetrators of GLCSE originally from relatively modern and developed cities such as Karachi in Sindh province, or Lahore in central-eastern Punjab? How many educated white-collar professionals in office-based roles are directly implicated in street-based grooming? Or is Pakistani-driven GLCSE in the UK ultimately rooted in biraderi-style Mirpuri clannishness among men who operate in segregated and low-skilled parts of the night-time economy?

As the push for a national public investigation into grooming gangs intensifies, these are the kinds of questions that should collectively act as a guiding light. It is a recognition that the portrait of modern British ethnic minorities — and modern Britain itself — is a deeply complex one.

One take away I've got from this all is (when they're a bit older) to tell my daughters not to get taxis unless they're with a male. They just need to make sure they have other methods of getting home and failing it all I'm happy to be their taxi service. Doesn't seem worth the risk.

I do know a friend who was raped by a taxi driver- CPS refused to prosecute despite her putting herself through the ordeal of going to the police about it. He used to terrorise her when she'd see him around town, she moved away. He got to stay where he was, presumably continuing to rape young women. So it's likely the statistics of taxi rape are far higher than any official figures show.

Of course when it comes to the grooming gangs there are reports of police handing over a 12 year old to the rapists so they really had no way out.

One take away I've got from this all is (when they're a bit older) to tell my daughters not to get taxis unless they're with a male.

In Afghanistan women have to travel with a male escort. This appears to be the direction of travel in the UK.

James Delingpole reminiscing, apparently this clip has found a new audience,

https://archive.is/1kfce

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-day-i-was-heckled-for-speaking-about-the-rape-gangs/

Oh look, Lisa Nandy's there too

I wonder how many of the participants are looking back and cringing.

What protection do you think is in place for victims of rape and child sexual abuse per se, whether GLCSE or not?

Although there is are notification requirements for sex offenders there are many loopholes.
No automatic restraining orders, all allowed to live in same town as victims, online offending is hard to detect, numbers on the register continues to increase by 10% per annum without corresponding resources.

Residence is really tricky as in a town most addresses are within half a mile of a school.

The system isn't geared up to protect victim/survivors and women and children

Deportation and immigration legislation has been subverted to allow those who rape to stay in this country - this legislation definitely needs tackling

Our whole justice system is based on innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. This is where I want to concentrate my efforts and force change. The judiciary seem to be getting away with it with the current focus.

The statutory agencies will
Move in the right direction with the continued focus on implementing the recommendations of the national CSA inquiry.

Rape and sexual assault should be specialist courts with judges only who are trained in SA.
The system has become biased in predicting what juries will do, CPS base decisions by predicting what juries will convict on.
Specialist video interviewers were the first to be cut in policing cuts. Barristers hate victims being able to give evidence under S28 - they want them to be in court and sway the jury. S28 evidence is where the victim is cross examined by the defence and is recorded and played in court rather than re traumatising the victim again. As much as I hate to say it, the evidence to date shows that juries are more likely to find NG with a 28 evidence played which is horrific, but this is the justice system we have.

As a feminist I am considering how I can garner support for changes to the justice system as I feel these are the root causes of the failures to protect women and children

That Delingpole clip is interesting. And the young woman at the end who agreed with him was far harder to heckle than he was.

Plus, she was unmistakably telling the truth.

Wales Labour really are a disgrace.

Astonishing video from the Welsh Parliament. Tory MS Darren Millar simply states facts about the grooming gangs atrocity, yet Presiding Officer Elin Jones tries to shut him down. She calls his language "overly descriptive" and suggests it fuels hatred.

https://x.com/technopopulist/status/1879189522019401889?t=-XhAUPYWt9AItbiHEFDvgQ&s=19

Recently the Emir of Qatar visited the UK to meet Charles 111 with just one of his 4 wives.

We can see how in many Islamic cultures how misogyny and the commmodificarion of women is embedded deeply within society and cultures unapologeticly. Maybe we are forgetting how different views towards women are in non western liberal countries as we have been inundated with the language of invisibility and having to respect other cultures without question? Where women are mere chattals then maybe we should not be surprised when man as a group think of them as playthings?

This is why we need to examine belief and culture when investigating these crimes and be open about it as it really is at the heart of the matter. The gangs were able to operate because the men weren't repulsed by each other's behaviour as their religion/culture from an early age embedded a permisveness of such behaviour.

I wonder how many of the participants are looking back and cringing.

It would be a classy and appropriate move for some of the participants to issue an apology to him, at least privately. I wonder how many would feel that they have to stand by their behaviour because of the tone, or the underlying intent that they ascribe to JD? Or how many would apologise for their tone and the way that they addressed the matter but still feel that they were fundamentally correct about the essential objection to him?

ETA: Nandy's opening remarks were reasonable when she described the prosecutor (predatory) and the victim-blaming.

I don't understand what she's objecting to from that clip. The descriptive bit was how many times the girl was raped, how she was threatenedand that she was trafficked to other towns outside Wales.

Nothing about race or religion. Is there something missing?

He starts to get shut down when he says the girl was raped a thousand times.

Surely she's not objecting to a description of the actual crime?

Surely she's not objecting to a description of the actual crime?

She is. It's unpalatable to have to hear how badly those girls were failed.

It gives the impression that she'd be okay with a little bit of rape.

Did the woman, who started speaking at the end of the clip, tell him off as well?

Fucks sake! They're 'disappointed' in him standing up for raped children? That's the decent thing to do! What are they, monsters?

From this it seems they're completely unfit for public office!

I can't believe there's nothing missing!

They think that describing a girl being raped a thousand times is worse than actually being raped a thousand times??

For fuck's sake. Although I don't know why I'm surprised, we see it on here all the bloody time.

It's in the damn rules

10. The worst thing about male violence is that it makes men look bad.

12. Women’s ability to recognize male behavior patterns is misandry.

Although in this case, it's a man's ability to do it.

Apparently it's fucking rhetoric???

Awful, awful people.

The government are in the process of backing down over grooming gangs but the signs are that they'll go for the approach of a bit of a curate's egg of inquiries to pretend they haven't backed down:https://www.itv.com/news/2025-01-16/government-backed-local-inquiries-into-grooming-gangs-to-be-announced

It would have been better simply to have implemented the most effective inquiry arrangements rather than prioritise Labour extricating themselves from the corner they've painted themselves in to.

Labour seem to have to have painted themselves into a fair few corners in a remarkably short period of time. I suppose that's what happens when you've got no clear direction.

It would have been better simply to have implemented the most effective inquiry arrangements rather than prioritise Labour extricating themselves from the corner they've painted themselves in to.

If these end up being a whitewash because of local interests it will be the government that gets blamed.

I recall that horrendous misogyny from Wales guy when he was leader

They really have drunk the Kool aid and will stop at nothing to discredit or shout down those sticking up for women or girls

I worry that real politics has often become weirder than parody but I’m glad some people are making an effort to mock political happenings:

What better way to hide in plain sight these days than go on GB news