Dickens
Maybe we should ask the victims whether they want another Inquiry?
Samantha Smith
The issue isn’t that Oldham was denied. Indeed, Telford and Rotherham had requests for a inquiry rejected by a Tory government.
Both had to commission their own inquiry, and are responsible for implementing the recommendations.
The problem is that grooming gangs aren’t isolated or rare, nor are they only active in a few small towns. Little girls have been — and still are — groomed, raped, exploited and murdered by Pakistani-Muslim men across the country.
CSE is a national epidemic.
So why are we continuing to treat it like it’s a localised issue?
Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, Banbury, Oldham: these areas aren’t a few bad apples but rather the most notable examples of the disgusting abuse that has been replicated throughout the UK.
How long will it take for a government to start treating CSE like the nationwide scourge that it is and holding those in powerful positions responsible for their failings?
And Labour — who waxed lyrical about protecting victims and punishing the predators — failed to keep their promises the first moment they were tested.
Jess Phillips and others who claim to care about victims brushed the survivors of the Oldham scandal off with empty assurances about “understanding the depth of feeling” while refusing to extend government funding and support to bring their abusers to justice.
This isn’t just about Oldham.
This is about the decades-long pattern of ignorance that has downplayed the scale of Pakistani-Muslim grooming gangs in Britain and denied the need for national oversight and accountability.
How many enquiries do we need to have? How many reports do we need to read? How many little girls do we need to see failed by the authorities that were meant to protect them?
Shame on Jess Phillips
Shame on Labour.
Shame on them all.
