Rotherham Abuse Report

Possibly watching with churning stomachs for some. It is increasingly worrying that there are more 'failing Councils' only coming to light when the situation has reached dire proportions.
Cue for more 'heartfelt apologies' etc, etc.

POGS - I believe it's the cabinet that is resigning but not the councillors per se.

Grannytwice

You are correct, my error!!

The Cabinet is resigning in it's entirety, a big difference. I apologise I did not read my OP correctly before posting. The entire council resigning would be ridiculous.

Sorry folks.

I think it would be a very good idea if all the councillors did resign. Followed by an election within three months. They could stand again if they wished and, no doubt, the good and effective councillors would be re-elected.

But a clean sweep of all those involved with the council would be the best way forward.

Having watched some of those councillors scurrying into a meeting and/ or avoiding answering questions (C4 news) I couldn't agree more but of course, they won't because if they had the insight required to do that, they would have acted differently in the first place. I was also very disappointed with the local MP who tried to shift most of the blame onto the officers

I believe that since Tony Blair became Prime MInister we have lived in the Age of Self Delusion. At every level those in charge believe because they want a thing to be a certain way then it is that way.

In Rotherham everyone had signed up to a belief in a non-racist society with community cohesion - and really believed it existed, so any evidence to the contrary, like the sexual abuse of young girls by men of Pakistani origin, was rejected as untrue because Councillors and Council Officers knew they lived in a community, where people of all ethnic origins lived in harmony and where this kind of thing didn't happen.

The report and Louise Casey's interviews mention covering up truths, silencing whistle blowers, bullying, suppressing evidence etc.

That denotes a council that absolutely knew what was going on and whilst I understand your drift Flickety I can't give them 1 inch of understanding. They were in it up to their eyeballs.

I think it will be very interesting in months to come . We all know of the Rotherham story but if the police do have to follow up on information in the report I think there might be a few more people who are feeling mighty uncomfortable at present.

I think former Labour MP Ann Cryer must be mentioned in despatches. She had 'the balls' to call it as it was and she was telling the Tony Blair government as far back as 2002 this was happening. She said ' The Politically Correct Brigade' were dismissing her warnings of sexual abuse involving Asian men'. Other MP's admit they didn't do enough such as the disgraced Labour MP Denis MacShane.

Can somebody tell me how the government of the day has escaped with this? I have heard practically zilch of the fact this was being hushed up at the highest levels, at least known of. Would the likes of MacShane spoken out if he was in parliament still?

Yes, I remember Ann Cryer being vilified when she was one of the first Labour politicians to speak out about forced marriages.

A brave thing to do considering her constituency.

Pogs, Rotherham is the tip of the iceberg. The sexual exploitation of children is a live and well and living amongst us. It doesn't matter what political party runs the council or indeed the country.

People who are brave enough to speak out are often side lined, marginalised or scapegoated as being preoccupied with sexual abuse so imagining it's happening more frequently that any one with any sense would believe.

The "rumours" those of us working with children in the 70's, 80's and 90's about politicians/well known individuals being involved in organised child abuse are now confirmed as based in truth.

I was one of many sw/police/health/probation workers raising the issue of sexual exploitation of vulnerable teenagers (and younger children) during the early 90's. The scenario was similar to that in Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford etc. We didn't just raise this once either, but the task force that was needed to begin investigations wasn't put together - "no resources" …...

Exactly, Iam64. It's interesting that the focus swiftly turned to gangs in the community when it was expedient. So much easier to shift blame away from establishment gangs of paedophiles. I hope the speed with which the Rotherham report was produced highlights that the Westminster child abusers were equally being reported for all those years, with no response. Those powerful establishment names have been known and talked about for decades. I doubt the consequences will be the same as for Rotherham.

I think it is widely accepted that the Rotherham case is 'the tip of an iceberg'.

Lord knows we all posted on the thread 'Rotherham Child Abuse'. on the 'In the News' forum back in August 2014. Anybody interested could refresh their memory it was a good thread.

I wish I had bumped it to be honest but this is about another report specifically looking into the handling of the matter by the Rotherham Council.

I make no apology for wanting any party to be brought to task if they have suppressed evidence and covered up the truth. I am of the opinion Labour Parlamentarians have to take some responsibility for their actions. Not only were they the government of the day it was the case the abuse was being reported by it's own MP's but they were ignored allowing more and more abuse to take place.

I agree there is the ongoing story of a paedophile ring and it's connections to MP's and I think they will all be held to task over that, all three parties have known paedophiles in their ranks so I have no doubt we will be starting a thread when more evidence surfaces. If there is proof of a cover up I assure you I will not be making any excuses for them either, irrespective of which party they come from as I am not political point scoring, I am stating a fact.

As I said there will be many people feeling very uncomfortable at the minute.

Well done POGS for writing that.

It all stinks.

Many many people there, and elsewhere, were, and are putting themselves first.
Whether they were involved at all in any way, turned a blind eye because it suited themselves, and were afraid of being called racist so did nothing or nowhere near what they should have done. Self protection and self interest.

And well done Iam64 for raising the issue in the early 90's.

One thing that has not been mentioned, is that the behaviour of Rotherham Council and other authorative bodies, far from being PC as they thought, is actually racist. Racism means treating an ethnic group differently by dint of their race: therefore, to avoid prosecuting criminals because they are Asian and muslim is RACIST, because you are making a discriminatory decision on the basis of race. If you are truly non-racist, you treat everyone equally, for good or bad, regardless of creed, colour or race. I just can't understand why this hasn't been pointed out by the media.

Good point.

I have just watched Labour Rotherham MP Sarah Champion on Daily Politics.

I was not surprised to see her trying to deflect any responsibility for what happened away from the Labour Party. Unbelievable!

I thought she was a little more 'contrite' on Wednesday when The Secretary of State was announcing the Rotherham councils cabinet resignation. I suggest she would do better to show the people of Rotherham Labour take responsibility for it's actions.